HomeStars – News and Updates
It’s too nice outside – we need some rain! I thought I was in Vancouver . We are having a great show this weekend and homeowners are showing up to chat to contractors and home improvement services despite the gorgeous weather outside.
Shannon Wong and I have walked around to visit the various exhibitors to learn about their business. Back this show is Bruce Hunter and his daughter Lara Hunter from Hunter Landscape Design. I met them at the Langley show a few weeks ago. They are a talented father and daughter team that offer landscape design services as well as a full nursery called Selections Nursery & Design Centre located on 176th Street in Surrey.
Lara Hunter from Hunter Landscape Design
Rita Hunter from Selections Nursery & Design Centre
Greg Hazelwood from Energy Miser Solutions also has participated in several shows in the lower mainland. Energy Miser provides top quality windows, doors, vinyl siding, insulation and furnaces – with a focus on saving us money on our energy consumption. He has a cute bulldog as their brand mascot.
Greg Hazelwood with EnergyMiserSolutions.ca
Brent Klemke from Benchmark Painting – a top rated painter by many homeowners in Vancouver - has the most active booth. Brent holds instructional seminars throughout the show with various designers discussing how small changes like paint and decor can really enhance the look and enjoyment of your home. See my photos of their seminar from the Langley show. They are also offering a great special -3 rooms for $299. That’s a great deal!
Brent, Benchmark Painting
True Green Geothermal was our neighbour mentioned geo-thermal installations is on the rise in existing homes that have decided to invest in green energy. More than 50% of their installations are now with homeowners renovating, vs new builds and they tell me they can install these with minimal disruption to your landscaping (my concern as we recently build a deck and stone patio).
Stewart Schmidt at True Green Geothermal
It was great to see Lynn and Jennifer (a super nice mom and daughter team) from Budget Blinds again as well - having met them at the Langley Home Show. Their booth was also crowded throughout the weekend. They offer shutters, wood blinds , and draperies, servicing Surrey, Langley, White Rock and Abbotsford. So far they have two happy reviewers in Vancouver.
Jennifer Morgan: Budget Blinds
Walking by our booth were a couple of Bathroom renovation experts just moving into White Rock. With a name like Calvin Klein I was all ears. Calvin and his wife Kathy Klein have been in the design and renovation business for over 15 years and have decided to move from Victoria to White Rock. Their company is called “Bathrooms by Home Services”. I checked out their web site and they have some really nice work. They are choosy on who they take on – having built a loyal following of happy customers.
Kathy & Calvin Klein from Home-Services.ca
Posted by NancyP
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Check out the latest monthly podcasts from FOCALPOINT e-NEWS! for February. As discussed in our January post, FOCALPOINT is an online lifestyle magazine and web site created by Jeffrey Stolberg with a line up of monthly podcasts from 10 of Canada’s top show hosts, authors and lifestyle experts. Have a listen to Debbie Travis, Sharon Grech, Bryan Baeumler and more….
Posted by NancyP
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The Home Theatre category on Homestars has been exploding over the past year. With the price of big flat screen TVs coming down to what people who don’t work for an investment bank can afford and sound systems getting better, it’s easier to head off to your local retailer or someone like Brentview Electronics and get a decent TV. But even the basic connections are getting harder. How does one get universal remote to actual be universal? And how do you run the wires so they don’t look like a birds-nest from behind the TV? 
That’s when you call the experts. Companies like Toronto Home Theatre, Integrity Electronics and Audios Amigos are there to help. They can make the basic system better, easier and more efficient.
But what if you really want to go crazy and have your whole house work together on one great system. That’s when you need a serious system.
Last week I attended a product launch at Sound Designs, a Home Theatre and Home Automation specialist down in the distillery district of Toronto. It was for a product and line-up called Rosie, a home automation system built by a company called Savant AV based out of Maine.
Savant works closely with Apple and builds their hardware primarily out of Apple hardware – primarily the Mac Minis – installing it into specialized boxes, complete with touch screen functionality so it can be integrated right into a home network. The core of the system is a product called Rosie which provides the central functionality for the system, and all the other pieces fit onto the edges and integrate with this main piece. The system extends right into full home automation, attaching to your lights, security system, cameras, as well as your stereo. Because it works on Apple, it’ll tie your iTunes right across your house.
One of the cool pieces there was a coffee table with an integrated touch screen so you could do your controlling right from the coffee table in front of your screen. We were told at the demo it was okay to spill drinks on it (although no one did).
If you’re down in the distillery district doing some holiday shopping stop in and talk to the fine sales people at Sound Designs and ask them to give you a demo. You’ll need them to install this system as it doesn’t come installed ‘out of the box’, and currently they are the only integrators here in Canada, but according to the people at Savant we will see more soon. (Hopefully some of our well reviewed HomeStars companies!)
Posted by BrianS
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MADE
Julie Nicholson and Shaun Moore have been in the design business for years. Shaun studied furniture making at Sheridan, while Julie trained as a print maker and both have extensive retail experience. Being in the trade for years and knowing the “underground” furniture and design movement was alive and well in Toronto, the pair decided to start a business showcasing all the wonderful and unique Canadian design out there. Contrary to popular belief regarding Canadian design, there are few, if any, stereotypical Canadian items involving, beavers, moose, maple syrup or hockey sticks. The only thing I came across (that I absolutely loved) were a pair of ceramic bookends entitled Arctic Bookends, by Katherine Morley, that looked as if they came right out of a Lawren Harris painting (they were, in fact, modelled after Lawren Harris’ work).
Arctic Bookends
MADE is both a retail and a made-to-order custom design shop. Because the designers they work with have small shops, practically any piece you see in the store can be customized: Love a table for your dining room but need it two inches shorter? No problem. Entranced by a chandelier but want it twice the size? They’ll contact the designer. Because they act as a go-between for designer and customer, new products get developed with customers’ help. A customer once admired a vase made by ceramic artist, Jennifer Graham, and asked if it could be made into a pendant lamp. MADE now carries a line of pendant lamps by Jennifer Graham.
Cylinder Lights by Jennifer Graham
BareSofa modular furniture by the Brothers Dressler
MADE is in the unique situation of supporting local, Canadian artisans while providing high quality items at prices and quality comparable to any of the mid to high-end design stores in the city. Shaun and Julie are discerning in whose lines they carry. They have to be. From the practical side of things, whatever they carry must be sellable at reasonable retail prices. They work with the local artisans to make sure their items are priced accordingly.
Radiant Dark: Crossing the lines between gallery and retail store, each year MADE invites designers from across Canada to submit a design for their annual “Radiant Dark” exhibition. The exhibition takes place at the same time as the annual Interior Design Show, but not at the same location: it is neither at their store, nor held at the Interior Design Show, however, it is grouped in with a series of tours that are held within Toronto during design. In the two previous years, the themes have been “Darkness and Luxury” in 2008 and “Elegant Corruption” in 2009. 2010′s theme is “Assets and Values.” The point of the exhibition is to encourage designers to let their minds go and create new objects and furniture pieces. Julie and Shaun are particularly attracted to pieces that have a double meaning and/or a sense of humour.
Oh, and I might have spoken too soon about the “Canadiana” — “Shinny” is a lamp made by Barr Gilmore created from, well, hockey sticks.
MADE Design just celebrated its third birthday at the beginning of September. It’s definitely worth a visit.
867 Dundas Street West, Toronto. West of Bathurst, south side, between Euclid and Manning.
Hours: Tuesday through Friday 11-7, Saturday 11-6, Monday by appointment.
Phone: 416-607-6384
Posted by CathyR
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If you’ve been to any hardware store lately you will notice such a variety of light bulbs that the choice may seem daunting. So daunting, in fact, that you may just resort to your usual, familiar warm white incandescent, with the resolve to learn more about the different light bulbs later.One of the areas of lighting with which you may just be becoming aware is that of colour temperature. Colour temperature refers to the colour the light casts. It is measured in degrees Kelvin (absolute degrees). In an incandescent bulb, when a piece of metal is heated the metal emits different colours depending on how hot it is. A lower temperature emits a warmer light (red, orange, yellow) and as the metal gets hotter, the light it emits changes to white through blue, which is a cooler light. Although LEDs (light emitting diodes) and CFLs (compact fluorescent lightbulbs) don’t operate in the same way as incandescent bulbs, the colours they cast are equated to the same colour temperatures as incandescent bulbs for consistency.
Light bulbs are generally available in colour temperatures ranging from 2700K to 6500K, where the lower the number, the warmer the light. To give you an idea of how light colour makes a difference, daylight at noon is approximately 5600K. It is a very bright light that is excellent for task work, but generally not all that flattering for general lighting purposes. Warmer colours range in the lower K scale from 2700K to about 3500K, whereas cooler, bright white to blue lights are in the 4100K to 6500K range.
Note that colour temperature is different than a bulb’s wattage which refers to the amount of electricity a bulb uses to emit light.
If you are looking for general, area lighting, stick to colour temperatures in the lower range. The softer yellower light is easier on the eyes and makes people, clothing and furniture look better.
For specific task lighting, however, a higher colour temperature (4100K-6500K) is better because the cooler, bluer light contrasts objects better.
Interior decorating and colour temperature: The colour temperature of the light bulb can make or break your decorating scheme in a windowless room or at night. It’s important to select the right colour temperature light bulb for your room, which generally speaking means bulbs that cast light in the lower temperature range. If you’re not sure which temperature works best bring home a few different bulbs from the hardware store to try out different colour temperatures. You will be surprised by the change in your wall and furniture colour a simple light bulb can make.
Posted by CathyR
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I spent Tuesday at the National Home Show (where you can write a review and get $7 off your ticket) speaking with many of the different exhibitors about why their products stand out from others at the show. I spoke with hot tub exhibitors, patio furniture and awning suppliers, solar water heaters for domestic hot water use and solar water heaters specifically for swimming pools, siding representatives, roofing companies, interior lighting specialists, exterior lighting specialists, skylight and ceiling fan exhibitors and a snap and click ceramic flooring company. I’m sure I’ve missed a few, after all there are over 700 exhibitors. Below is a very brief list of some of the exhibitors I spoke with.
Hot tubs:
Hydro Pool hot tub
Perhaps the thing that stuck me the most were the hot tub displays. I have to admit that at past Home Shows I usually brush right past these exhibits, having little interest in buying one and thinking that all hot tubs are pretty much like the other. Our family is considering getting a hot tub for our petit backyard. But one of our kids has a chlorine sensitivity so a traditional hot tub is out. Glory be, now there are ozone and sodium bromine hot tubs which avoid chlorine altogether. A hot tub may be in our future afterall. I spoke with Holland Hills Distributing and HydroPool Industries, both of whom offer the saltwater conversion kits not to mention hot tubs in various sizes from petit right up to giant spa length. For the “greenies” out there, HydroPool manufactures their hot tubs in the east end of Toronto, and is the first carbon neutral hot tub company out there.
Roofing:
Slate metal roofing by Interlock
Metal roofing, while siginificantly more expensive than ashphalt has the added benefit of being durable. KasselWood (booth #2001) (gives a transferrable lifetime warranty on its steel roofing. Metal has the advantages that it’s wind resistant, durable, and in the winter snow slides right off preventing build up. The aesthetic quality of the metal roof is continually improving and now from the ground it is difficult to tell a slate roof from a aluminum or steel roof. Interlock manufactures a durable aluminum roof simuated to look like slate, shake or tile. They even have a solar panel integrated roofing system.
Solar Hot Water:
There are many different varieties of solar hot water heaters. One that seems to be gaining popularity is the “evacuated tube” system. Water flows across the top of the panel where it becomes heated by copper tubes which in turn have been heated by the evacuated tubing sitting exposed to the sun. The advantage of this system is that if one of the tubes breaks it is easily and cheaply replaceable. (From Globe Solar Energy, booth # 1239). Each panel costs approximately $4000 (including installation). One panel is enough for regular hotwater use for a family of four.
Globe Solar Energy Panel
There is another solar hot water system that is design specifically for swimming pools. It consists of black PVC pipes which are used to heat the water. The entire system hooks into a pool’s existing pump mechanism. The cost for a standard system (pool being approximately 18′ x 36′), is about $4000 for an area with direct southern exposure (see the Enersol Solar Products booth, #1449).
Building exterior/construction:
James Hardie siding products are a mixture of Portland Cement and sand. The siding is durable, stable, fire and wind resistant and is available in simulated wood varieties from cedar shake style to wood grained. The colour palette is also varied but sticks to the pastel shades of Eastern seaboard historic homes. Cost is about double the cost of vinyl siding.
Shouldice designer stone is a manufactured concrete stone offering a variety of products from architectural stone mouldings to shale and antique stone for exterior house finishing.
Geo-thermal heating and cooling.
There are three exhibitors of geo-thermal energy systems for your home. As awareness in this type of heating and cooling increases, the number of contractors getting into the business is also increasing. In order to install geo-thermal systems properly a contractor must have received the proper training. Check with the distributor of the system you choose to get qualified installers. Geothermal systems can provide heating, cooling and hot water heating.
Avekes Canada Ltd. booth#2041, NextEnergy Inc. booth# 1415, Polar Bear Geo-Thermal systems, booth# 1349.
Nifty products:
Snapstone tile
SnapStone is a fast and easy ceramic tile that can be laid over any level floor without applying a subfloor first. This is a DIY flooring material tat can be laid in one day. Snap the tiles together, grout and it’s done. (booth #1542).
AirScape 1.7 are used to reduce air conditioning use in a home. Installed into the attic of your home and designed to work at night, it sucks warm air out of the house and draws cooler night air in through open windows. Cost of fan plus installation is approximately $700-$1000, it pays for itself within the first year or two of use (depending on how often air conditioning is used. Great for older homes too without central air conditioners and poor circulation. Booth #2109.
LED replacements potlights. At 4Watts per light, the cost savings between an LED potlight and 50Watt potlight will be significant. While it’s best to install these lights during new construction, there is a retrofit kit available to replace existing halogen potlights. Available in a variety of colour temperatures, and unlike CFL potlights, these are dimmable, and don’t need any “warm up” time to reach full lighting power. Cost: $39 per bulb, $20 for the retrofit kit. LEDs also have a long life span (usually over 50000 hours). Booth #2109.
Velux makes window skylights, best of all, they come equipped with a rain sensor so that if you’ve left it open and it starts to rain, it will close on its own. There is also a model that comes with a solar-powered blind — great for attics with no direct power source. Approximate cost for a 24″ skylight with installaton, $4000. Booth#1639.
Posted by CathyR
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When I moved into our newly constructed house there was a naive side of me that expected everything to work perfectly for at least the first five years. In hindsight, it seems to me that the best house to move into is a four to six year old home, after all the kinks have been worked out.
In the last month we have had a burst water pipe, cracked marble countertops, halogen potlights that seem to burn out the minute you change the bulb and a stubbornly clogged toilet (okay, so this last one may not have anything to do with the actual house). Currently our hotwater heater is making a strange humming noise and I’m waiting for the repair man to come and take a look.
On the positive side, I’ve learned a lot about lighting, marble, and plumbing which I thought I’d share with you so you can avoid the problems we’ve had.
Halogen potlights:
Angelo Bossi from Brak-Glan Electrical Service paid me a visit last week to take a look at my potlights. Here’s what he told me:
- 130 volt lights are better than 120 volt lights. Power to your home is supplied at 120 volts, but sometimes you get a power surge and that can burst a bulb. The 130 volt bulbs are more expensive, but they last longer because they can absorb the surge.
- If you’re looking to lower your electricity consumption, there is a 9 Watt compact fluorescent bulb on the market that replaces your 50 Watt halogen. We have 17 potlights on our main floor alone which all tend to be on from from 7-9 in the morning and 4 to 10 at night. I did the math:
17 halogen potlights at 50 Watts each burning for 8 hours a day uses 6.8 kilowatt hours of electricity. At $0.05/kilowatt hour the total cost works out to $0.34 per day or $124 per year. If you used the 9 Watt bulbs instead, you use 1.224 kilowatt hours of electricity per day which would cost $0.06 per day. The total annual cost per year is $22.34. You’d save about $100 per year, so switching to CFL bulbs would pay for itself in about two years, less time if your lights are on longer or if electricity prices rise.
There are some things to be aware of with these bulbs:
- They are not dimmable.
- They are more expensive than halogen bulbs (approximately $9 to $13 per bulb).
- They take a few minutes to warm up and provide their full Wattage.
- They come in a variety of “colour temperatures” (a softer, yellow light to more day — blue light).
- They’re available at electrical supply stores. (also check out http://www.elightbulbs.com/ for almost any light bulb you could ever imagine!)
A final note regarding electricity use. Smart meters are being installed throughout the province and eventually Time of Use pricing will come into effect. I found a great website that lets you see which appliances use the most electricity and when the most cost effective time of day to use them will be under the new system. Go to http://www.ieso.ca/house/winter/default.htm for more information. If you want to learn more about smart meters, go to smartmetersontario.ca
Stone counter tops:
Whenever I tell a contractor our kitchen counter is marble there’s usually the strangled sound of disbelief on the other end of the phone which roughly translates into ”Marble in the kitchen? What were you thinking?”
Although we didn’t have a choice in finishes, I have to be honest and say that I liked the marble countertop when we moved in and I still like it — despite its prima dona, high maintenance ways. Of course if you look at it the wrong way it chips and it does need to be sealed on a regular basis, but it’s got a nice European look to it.
However, I noticed a few months ago that there were a few hairline cracks emanating from various edges of the counter. A few on each side of the stove, and one out from the middle edge of the counter. The original installer came and epoxyed them right away, but they kept growing. Finally, the contractor sent in Peter Potopov from The Stone Doctor.
Peter has repaired the cracks so that they will not get any larger (but they’ll always be there).
While I had always thought that the cracks had been caused by improper installation or the stove vibrating against the counter he said that the house, still being new, hasn’t finished settling yet. Apparently stone counterops shouldn’t really be installed for a few years after a house has been built. To support that theory he showed me a 1/4 cm. gap between the backsplash and the countertop.
Now, I figure that the stress fractures occur when a counter is affixed to the wall on two sides because there is less ability for it to move. Our island, which is also marble, is perfectly fine.
Final stone tip: You know it’s time to reseal your countertop when a water spill leaves a dark mark after it’s been cleaned up.
Plumbing:
I heard a hissing noise one day when I opened the front closet to get my coat. I felt the back wall of the closet and it was soaking wet. After the water was turned off, the plumber came and took the drywall apart. One of the water pipes had been punctured by a too long nail. Jim Davidson of Davidson Home Services, the contractor who’d come to see what was going on said, “If they’d done the job right, they never would have used nails this long. If you miss the stud, you can puncture the plumbing or electrical wiring” — which is exactly what happened.
While Jim was repairing the burst pipe and the drywall I asked him if he’d please figure out why the second floor toilet was so backed up. We’d tried everything and couldn’t get it unclogged. After he removed the toilet from the floor he found the culprit: Q-tips. Q-tips create a grate which is impossible to unblock with a plunger. Conclusion: don’t flush Q-tips down the toilet!
Posted by CathyR
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Sceptics aside, Cliff Arnall’s theory of the third Monday in January being the most depressing day of the year seems to me to hit the mark. What with holiday let down, credit card bills and a severe lack of daylight for those of us in northern climes, January can be a pretty depressing time of year.
When I attended the International Interior Design Expo (IIDEX) in the fall, I came across this product called a SkyCeiling by Sky Factory. A sky ceiling can give you the sensation of the great outdoors in your windowless kitchen even if you’re on the third floor of a ten story condo. It sounds to me like this idea has potential. While the systems are popular in health facilities because of their positive effects on patients, the ceilings have found their way into windowless boardrooms and other office spaces. Now, homeowners are installing them in rooms where they want natural light but it’s impossible to put either a window or skylight.
Gloomy and grumpy in January?
I contacted Mark Petrick, Director of Marketing and Communications at Sky Factory to ask him about the ceilings as “Light therapy.” He responded that there is no research to show that the SkyCeilings alleviate SAD, however,
What we hear overwhelmingly from people who spend time in spaces where our SkyCeilings are installed is that they feel better, fresher, more relaxed and comfortable.
According to the website:
Our lighting is daylight balanced: The T-5 fluorescent lights have a color temperature of 6500K, and the LED systems are 6100K, both mimic the daylight spectrum. Our photographic images are color-balanced to this range of color temperature to optimally reproduce the delicate colors of the sky. The important point here is that the senses and mind cannot distinguish between 6500K and real daylight. This is the reason why 6500K fluorescent lighting is used in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
While it’s easiest to install in a modular ceiling system (the tile system they used a lot in the 70s), if you don’t have a modular ceiling, they’ll help you set up a false ceiling for the installation.
It’s a factory direct product, so all the information is on their website.
Visit the website for more information: http://www.theskyfactory.com/index.php
If you have experience with this product, share it with other readers in our Comments Section.
Posted by CathyR
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Unless we’re professionally trained or just have that “certain knack” we all have our decorating weak spots. One of mine happens to be “lighting.” In fact I hesitate to make lamp purchases because I’m so unsure of myself; so much so that at the moment my beside lamp is a pretty little Laura Ashley base, sans lamp shade. When I read at night it feels like I’m in some sort of interrogation room. My husband’s lamp isn’t much better — he has a handpainted floral lamp that looks great in our daughter’s room but doesn’t quite stand up to the sleek look of our Restoration Hardware bedding. So it’s timely that one of our regularly contributing experts, Belinda Albo, should be writing this week about lamps. I’ll learn something and finally replace our funny lamps with something more appropriate — like, say, a lamp with a lamp shade!
Cathy.
Lighting Basics
by Belinda Albo, interior designer
When choosing the appropriate lamp for your room, you must first determine the purpose of the lamp. Does the light need to provide the main, general light for the room, or for task and ambient uses only? Is it for reading or for adding soft light in dark corners? Different lights offer various intensities of light power. Some lamps are tri-lights, which provide a choice of three different levels of light. The light can be very bright or be adjusted to give off a soft glow.
Galileo Lamp
The shade and style of the lamp should also reflect the decor. Modern interiors look best with silver or chrome finishes and white cotton unpleated shades. More traditional rooms set the stage for antique gold finishes or vase shaped bases, and pleated or bell shaped shades.
Tall Lamp
If you are looking for a lamp to place on a low side table by a sofa or chair for reading, a longer neck variety works best so that the the light can shine down onto your reading surface. For table lamps, a good rule to follow is this: the distance from the bottom of the shade to the floor should be anywhere from 36” to 42”. The total size of the lamp should also complement the room in scale. If the side table is small, use a smaller scale lamp, or use wall surface lights. Lamps that have a shorter neck or body work best, if you are placing them on a surface that is 48” off the ground or more. If the lamp stem is too long, you will be looking directly underneath the shade, which is what you want to avoid.
The taller the lamp the more space it needs.
Belinda Albo: interior designer and author is available for your lighting design consultations.
Posted by BrianS
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