HomeStars News and Updates

Two Home Shows, One Weekend – International Home Show and North Vancouver

This weekend is a busy one for HomeStars. We are participating in two home shows on opposite sides of the country – The International Home and Garden Show, and the North Vancouver Home and Garden Expo.

In Toronto the International Home Show is already going strong after starting Thursday night. HomeStars has a unique feature of this show where Mag Ruffman (aka ToolGirl) is presenting HomeStars 911, a question and answer with top HomeStars contractors. (check out Beverley Hills Home Improvement in Hamilton) Come by at Saturday at 3:30 and check out the show. Ask questions of your favourite HomeStars companies. We also have a booth with our infamous Dave from the National Show and will be giving out $5 Starbucks and Tim Horton cards for reviews on great home improvement customers. For up to the minute action on the show follow the show in on Twitter.

On the other side of the country, in North Vancouver, Shannon and I will be at the North Vancouver Home And Garden Show at the Karen Magnusson Arena in Lyn Valley. It’s a small show but not without some top rated Vancouver contractors, including Best of 09 Vancouver winner Mr. Sandless, who has a booth across from us, and Beneath Your Feet Landscaping, who has earned some great kudos from their customers also. Also at the shore are Pacific Shores Roofing, with one perfect review,  and Delco Renovations, who also has a single 10 star review. We’ll also be giving out Starbucks and Tim Horton cards too! Stop by.

We’ll be posting pictures of the shows in the next couple of days as they come in and as we take them.

Posted by BrianS

It’s packed at the Hamilton Ideal Home Show this weekend!

The Ideal Home & Garden show had a fantastic first day  the aisles were buzzing with homeowners across the Hamilton area – they came from Oakville, Stoney Creek, Dundas, Flamborough, Ancaster, Brantford, Burlington and even people some from London and Stratford and Grimsby.

It’s now Saturday morning and the aisles are already full at the huge Careport Centre. I went around the aisles last night and met some really friendly exhibitors that have some great ideas to help us homeowners with various projects we have this year.

Mag Ruffman will be up on stage interviewing 4 top rated contractors (and exhibitors) today to share their tips and ideas:

Beverley Hills Home Improvement – Ben

CoreTemp Heating & Air Conditioning – Richard

Stonecote – Jerret

Lighting Innovation & Design – Brendan

Come check us out at 2pm on the main stage! Don’t forget to print your 50% off ticket coupon before  you arrive.

Posted by NancyP

The Ideal Home & Garden Show -Ontario’s Newest Home Show – Save 50% off tickets

This weekend in Hamilton, HomeStars is proud to be a partner with the Ideal Home and Garden show, southern Ontario’s newest and now second largest Home Show. At the newly redesigned Careport Centre, just off of the 403 in Hamilton, Homeowners will be able to see hundreds of exhibitors who can help them with their home improvement projects. HomeStars, of course will be there allowing consumers to share their best and worst home improvement stories so that other homeowners can find the best contractors in the area.

We are also running a promotion offering 50% off your entry price if you write a review on your favourite (or least favourite) contractors. There are a whole host of celebrities who will be on hand including the ever entertaining Mag Ruffman, aka ToolGirl, who will be doing a Q&A session with local homeowners using some of HomeStars top rated local contractors.

Our booth is right in front of the main stage decorated by the ever stylish Myka, from the Home Staging Studio.

Come by and write a review and we have prizes to give away. And don’t forget to say hi to our Home Show celebrity, Dave. By the time you come by, he’ll have scoped out the best booths in the show to check out.

Here’s what our booth looked like yesterday before the show started. Come and say hi!

Posted by BrianS

Thank you to Oborne Contracting, Roomy Interiors and CanWood Flooring

We just packed up from a fantastic 10 days at the National Home Show. This year we had a custom booth designed by 3 top rated companies on our site. A big thank you to John Oborne and his team at Oborne Contracting (particularly Colin who spent a couple of days in my garage building very sleek moveable 20 foot wide wall panels -see photos below). There’s no doubt this team earned the Best of 2008 and 2009 award from their happy clients. They are all wonderful professionals.

John recommended Ali at CanWood flooring, and while a new company on HomeStars John assured me they were a top flooring company he knew would do a great job. Ali installed an oak coloured laminate floor that looked (almost) as good as the real deal. Perfectly finished and it withstood a couple thousand homeowners walking through our booth over the 10 day show. Thank you Ali!

And last but not least, Joanna Kakkavas, the owner of Roomy Home Interiors furnished our booth with a chic look that made me think back to when I was 25, single with no kids (just last year . She brought in a cool console with unique white and black wood on the side (I’ll let the photo paint the picture), a very comfy black couch that also could hide any party mishaps, and a gorgeous glass expandable dining room table with red chairs that were really comfortable, light with an classy Euro (not Ikea) look and feel. We had a ton of fun enjoying hanging out in the booth with our Perrier, Green & Black Chocolate and Starbucks coffee cards. And so did the 3,000 plus people we met who came by to write a review or hang out.

Thank you for creating a GREAT Home Show room everyone!

This Friday March 4 to Sunday March 6 we will be at the new Hamilton Ideal Home & Garden Show. Please come by  - FREE parking and another fantastic list of top rated companies. Write a review and get a 50% discount coupon to bring to the Ideal Home & Garden Show ticket booth.

Posted by NancyP

The Calgary Home and Garden Show rolls fantastic

This weekend Calgarians came out for the Calgary Home and Garden Show. They wrote reviews to get their $7 discount to get into the show on their favourite Calgary home improvement companies. (and some wrote on their not so favourite ones).

We were there with our booth near this giant house which we hear got some media attenion in the old school media (although we didn’t hear about it through the blogs and twitter).

On the first day we set out our booth to get some reviews.

The weekend was extremely busy despite competition from the Olympics. While the Calgary companies were exhibiting Canada won golds in long track speed skating, curling, short track speedskating and more. Good thing that Avenue Magazine had their lounge with some good TVs and couches so that attendees could relax and watch some good sports on TV.

There were some good booths to check out including such exhibitors as The Granite Guys, the winners of our Best of 09 Awards in the Tile and Stone Contractors category.

We’ve posted a bunch of pictures of the event up on our Facebook page here. Check them out and become a fan, of course.

But on a bigger, more exiting note. We here that famous twitter personality @homeshowterry will be around the Calgary Home Show tomorrow. Keep and eye out for him/her. (ya we’re still not sure…)

Posted by BrianS

I took a tour with Dave at the National Home Show

A few months ago I had an email from a homeowner Dave who had written some reviews and we had to verify some information on one of the companies. A few emails back and forth and he asked if we were looking for help at the home show. Long story short, Dave started working with us last Saturday as our official ambassador at the National Home Show. He is doing an incredible job telling homeowners about HomeStars and why they should read reviews before they hire. Dave knows how to get a review out of show visitors as well – his sense of humour and charm are infectious. Because Dave gets to the show early (says hello to the ticket collectors he knows so well) and takes the time to meet fellow colleagues at the other booths – he knows where to go for some fun at the show.

I did a walk about with Dave and got some great photos to share.

Thanks to Rom at Nuvo Home Products, Anthony at Canaroma Bath & Tile, and the fellow at Human Touch massage chairs for letting us be a little silly.

Posted by NancyP

Calgary home show starts today: save $7 on your ticket

While everyone is still glued to the Olympics, the Calgary home show kicks off today. Get a huge discount  - 50% off all your tickets – just spend 2 minutes and write a review on your favourite painter or the window contractor that you wish you hadn’t met. You’ll get a link to  buy all your tickets at half price online, which is $7 each (at the door tickets are $14).

Meet Brian and Shannon at our booth 1708. See all the top rated exhibitors at the show here.

Posted by NancyP

National Home Show – Weekend 1

HomeStars was out in full force at our booth at the National Home Show at the Direct Energy Centre this weekend collecting reviews, giving away gifts and chatting up the people walking around the exhibition. We continued to  make homeowners aware that it’s not the celebrities you should listen to to decide who to hire, but other homeowners who write reviews. The feedback from both companies and homeowners was inspiring with one homeowner telling me that “HomeStars is my Home Improvement Bible”, and one company telling me “the leads that come from HomeStars are the best of any I get”.

We’re continuing to offer our $7 off entry to the show promotion, and we have more things to give away in the booth.

We were impressed at seeing our logo around at some of the other booths displaying their social media savvy and proud to display that they were part of the HomeStars community.

We noticed that Casa Bella Windows was proudly displaying our logo in amongst a number of logos.

New Steel Roofing, Hamilton’s first Best of ‘09 Roofing Company, was proudly displaying their award sticker on their booth:

And our award plaque was proudly on display at the booth for North Shore Eavestoughing who was a Best of Toronto award winner:

We’re going to be there the rest of the week at Booth 3708. Stop by and say hi.

Posted by BrianS

The National Home Show – Spring 2010 – Coming Friday!

It’s coming on Friday. The National Home Show, which is a 10 day long extravaganza, with celebrities such as the highly tanned Ty Pennington, the handy fix-it guy from Disaster DIY, Bryan Baeumler, as well as one of my favourite online twitter personalities, Dee Brun, also known as Cocktail Diva.

At HomeStars it’s all about getting the job done. Celebs do it with style and price, but real contractors get it done for real customers. People like you!

If you want to get a good sense at the Home Show of who’s good and who’s bad as you want the booths, check our site and our site page here. Here you’ll find all the companies at the show listed by their reviews. You can even use the search and filter button and find companies in the particular category you are looking for.

As an example, I’ve filtered here by only showing companies who do Windows and Doors. If you’re looking for Roofing, check out this filter for only the Roofers at the show.

Of course, HomeStars will be there with our biggest booth yet. This week John Oborne, our Best of Toronto award winner in Home Additions, and his crew have been working hard setting it up and getting ready.  We’re also working with Roomy Interiors who is furnishing the booth some great home design additions. You’ll find some photos of the booth set up at our National Home Show page gallery here.

We’ll be blogging and tweeting as the show goes on as well as posting pictures on our FaceBook page.

So what are we doing for the show? First we’re giving you a great discount to get in the door! Click on the tile beside, write a review for your favourite (or not so favourite) contractor, and we’ll give you $7 off your ticket.

Stop by our booth at the show, and share another reno experience and we’ll give you a $5 Starbucks card.

Not only are you helping other homeowners find the best contractors and avoid the worst, you’ll be getting admission and coffee while you’re at it.

Stop by our booth at 3710 and say hi.

Posted by BrianS

Fraser Valley Home & Garden Show – Second Show of the Season

This weekend our west coast Home Show rodeo continues with Shannon hitting up Abbotsford for the Fraser Valley Home and Garden show. Want discounted tickets to the show? Click here and write a review for $5 off your ticket price.

You know you don’t want to be in downtown Vancouver!  The crowds are going to be crazy with the Olympics, so take a trip a few miles out of town before the tourists start roaming and hit up the Fraser Valley Home & Garden Expo.

The event will be at the the Tradex Trade and Exhibition Centre which is at 1190 Cornell St, in Abbotford.

Stop by our booth and say hi to Shannon and the crew and pick yourself up a $5 Starbucks or Tim Hortons card for writing some nice things (or not nice things, if that’s the case) about your local contractor or home improvement specialists.

If you’re walking around the show and need some thoughts on who is good don’t forget to look through our online show guide here. You can even filter by category so if you’re only looking for roofers, you’ll only pull those up. (with 21st Century Roofing right now leading the pack in the roofers)

Posted by BrianS