It is probably three to four layers beneath the current paint.The issue is when you change out windows or door frames and/or sand to wood- then you disturbed it and need to jump thru hoops with he EPA lead-paint white overall crews!

Its long but it pretty much covers all the "important" stuff discussed:Here are the cliff notes.He notes a pattern of judgments at seven-year intervals stemmed from the shemetah which basically stands for "washing away of things" he went back on historical records on other shemitah years since 1900, here is what he found:1917 - the year US entered into WW1 - austrian, russan and german empires collapsed (a washing away if you will)1931 - another shemitah year - market dropped over 50%1938 - another market crash over 50%, another war started and ended 7 years later on the other shemitah year (a washing away)shemitah in 1973 - bretton woods worldwide monetary system collapsed1980 shemitah - the end of the massive inflationary 1970s (a washing away)1987 shemitah - black monday occured, biggest 1 day percentage drop in the dow.

Although he summer months bring in a premium, the winter months result in higher vacancies and less $ per night.

Is the interest rate consistent with standard conventional loans of 80% or did you pay a premium to secure the 100% financing? 

While we have bought properties in El Paso, we have bought nothing in your neck of the woods.

Here's our story:When walking through the house when we were deciding to buy, we noticed a large wood-burner in the living room. 

:)Ran some rough numbers that I hope may help you out - I'm not very familiar with Northern Ontario (I'm a west coast guy myself) but hopefully this gives you some ideas of where to drill into more and see how it fits into your budget...5% downpayment = 15K, 285K mortgage.At 3% on a 25 year term, that's $1,352 a month on the mortgage (but I'm not including CMHC premiums and closing costs here...you should be able to secure a slightly better interest rate (say 2.8-ish on a 5 year term?) 

Both units have been updated with new kitchen cabinets, counters, and wood floors.

There's elbow room and you can be in the woods in seconds.

Distance yourself emotionally from the houses - they are just wood, steel, OSB, concrete blocks, wiring, plumbing, and asphalt shingles.From my point of view, I prefer to buy a vacant house.