Toronto’s The Ex started on Friday August 20 and goes for the next 18 days until Sept 6. I went down to visit the Direct Energy Centre where they have hundreds of exhibitors selling a wide range of goods: from clothing to the latest kitchen gadgets. It’s a fun destination you don’t think about for home improvement but there are deals to be had there over the 18 day show.
If your shopping for windows, spa’s, HVAC, restoration, or want to find some interesting contractors there are some great people to meet. Shawn Monteith, Canada’s Handyman is on the main stage every day for a one hour show at 1p, 4pm and 7pm to help you on various projects. I met him after his show and he’s really personable and genuinely wants to help you with any challenges you may have. Worth a trip down as he’s on site all day to offer help.
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.
We had a great time at the Oakville Home Show Friday April 9 through Sunday April 11th. It’s run by a husband and wife team David and Sharon Jenkins. Sharon was there the entire three days talking to homeowners and companies alike – I’ve been to dozens of shows and have never seen such great commitment from the show owners being close to their constituents. A nice touch was offering exhibitors Tim Horton’s coffee and donuts each morning – recognizing the hard work we go through of standing and talking all day long to hundreds of people.
Oresta Orlick standing on the right in this photo just joined our team. She’s lived in Oakville and currently resides in Burlington and will be a real asset to the many companies we support in south western Ontario. My cousin Jessica Devine offered to help me out as well – she’s a third year student at York University taking Marketing Communications. It was a different experience for her watching us meet hundreds of passing homeowners at the show. In my previous Marketing career I spent time building campaigns with ad agencies and then everything was executed on TV or a print campaign. Home Shows are one of the best ways for getting close to your target audience and really understanding their needs. While there were about 120 companies at the show – relatively small compared to the big shows we’ve been to in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, - the nice thing is that it’s not so daunting for homeowners to navigate through a smaller venue and have an unhurried opportunity to talk to professions. Here are twelve companies I met at the show that are worth considering if you live in the area.
Jessica Devine and Oresta Orlick
Next door to us was a lovely lady, Julie Lemieux, who recently started Terrassa Outdoor Living, where she designs both a beautiful garden and an outdoor living room. It’s a great way to take your outdoor space and make it more enjoyable to entertain your friends and family – or just relax and enjoy a book. The long range weather is predicting a long hot summer so I’m sure Julie will be busy.
Julie Lemieux at Terrassa Outdoor Living
Across from our booth, Sandi Hall was one of a smiling faces at Granite Transformations with a booth that drew an ongoing stream of people. They have great products that can take your existing hum drum kitchen and do an amzing make-over to your cabinets, floor and countertops at a fraction of the cost of a new kitchen. Kitchen cabinet refacing is much less costly than cabinet replacement, which can cost from $15,000 to $40,000, as it typically involved ripping out and re-building the entire kitchen. Just click and read the many glowing reviews Granite Transformations has on HomeStars from homeowners they’ve served in the Oakville and Mississauga area.
Sandi Hall at Granite Transformations
Nearby I met Ken and Joan, a lovely husband and wife team at Active Overhead Doors who have been at many home shows over the years. Ken really enjoys his work and is passionate about providing the best product and service for his clients. I could hear it in the many stories he told me of people he’s helped over the years. While he has no reviews yet on HomeStars - I can see this company will have lots by next year as he’s the kind of person that a homeowner would rave about.
Joan at Active Overhead Doors
Ken at Active Overhead Doors
My good friend John Noseworthy at Beverley Hills Home Improvement was there - he manages all their shows across Ontario and it really shows the kind of quality company they are when they have someone like John passionately talking to hundreds of homeowners every weekend. He always has a smile on his face – BH has over 75 reviews from happy homeonwers becuase of their great people! In fact two of their clients came over to my booth to rave and write a review. John mentioned they have a big sale on right now – offering 25% off and no tax this month. They also offer energy audits at no extra charge. Beverley Hills has showrooms all over Ontario serving Niagara, London, Kitchener Waterloo, Guelph. Halton and of course Toronto so if you are looking for windows they are the place to start.
John Noseworthy at Beverley HillsHome Improvement
Oresta introduced me to brothers Oleg and Yevgeniy at Art Metal Workshop who have just added their listing with us here. My photography isn’t that great but you can see they do very detailed and elaborate metal work.
Oleg Gorlov & Yevgeniy Gorlov at Art Metal Workshop
I arrived to set up for our first Langley Home Show (for those outside BC it’s a suburb of Vancouver) and was really impressed with the beautiful Events Centre both inside and out. There are about 80 home improvement exhibitors and all very diverse from windows to landscapers. I was fortunate to have my Uncle help me assemble the table (okay you can tell I’m not a DIY if IKEA is hard) and the doors swung open to their first night at 5pm. It was crowded !
I’ll give you a run down on the great people I met that either own or represent home improvement companies here. And while you should still do your homework and read reviews, and get more references – the fact that these companies invest time and money to reach out and help homeowners sets them apart and they would be a great resource to initiate research on your project.
Brent Klemke from Benchmark Painting (click to see his reviews) had the most innovative booth: it’s the first time I’ve seen an exhibitor conduct seminars daily. He had two designers give discussions about choosing paint and decorating ideas. His booth was packed every day.
Benchmark Painting: Brent Klemke
Benchmark painting seminar
Dustin and Erwin at the Mr Rooter Fraser Valley had some give-aways at the show like nice re-usable carry bags with pockets. It was nice to see a customer of theirs come by and thank Dustin right at his booth for the great work they did. And then the gentleman came over to our HomeStars booth and wrote his review on Mr Rooter happily as well – read it here!
Last weekend the HomeStars team headed to Edmonton for the first time to launch the site at the Edmonton Home and Garden Show.
It was a great show and very well attended. Hundreds of Edmontonians took advantage of our 50% off coupon for the show by writing on their favourite contractors. Many homeowners came by to say hi and write some great reviews.
With great help from Edmonton home stager Rhonda Wilson from Revealling Assets, we had a booth that looked fantastic. We were incredibly impressed with both her enthusiasm and professionalism in making our space look fantastic.
There were some great booths and great people there including David Cree from All Weather Windows:
We also had a great chat with the guys from Alta Level Landscaping who are first time exhibitors and won the “Happiest Booth Award” (we’re wondering how they missed us!). From our candid shot taken while he was chatting to a lead, it definitely looks like there was some happiness going on in the booth.
We are very excited to continue our growth in Edmonton, and look forward to coming back and reconnecting with all the great companies we met.
This weekend HomeStars was at the Karen Magnussen Arena for the North Vancouver Home and Garden Expo. It was a small show but well attended, with folks from around North Vancouver, Lyn Valley, and surrounding Vancouver locales.
Our booth was right across from Best of 09 Vancouver Winner in the Floor Laying and Refinishing category Mr. Sandless – an expert in fixing your hardwood in a dustless clean method.
We were also soothed by the gentle sounds of the fountain put in by the well designed booth of Beneath Your Feet Landscaping. Rob and Sherilyn, the proprietors entertained us all and the other show attendees with good stories of landscape jobs and other interesting trivia.
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.
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:
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!
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.
Our Dining Room – great floor the chairs!
We enjoyed a glass of Perrier here as we heard everyone’s reno stories.
Thank you for the comfy couch
It’s show time: Dave & Cathy are ready to meet you :)
About HomeStars
In Toronto the 
On the other side of the country, in North Vancouver, Shannon and I will be at the 
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 
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.
. 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.
