The kitchen is the heart of the home and where you spend most of your time cooking or eating meals with your loved ones. Ensuring your kitchen has the proper layout and configuration is crucial to creating a space you will love to use every day. There are many details to think about when redesigning your kitchen. To help you ease the stress, we have put together a few tips to help you through your kitchen remodelling journey.

1. Determine the island’s function. If you’re thinking of including an island in your kitchen design, think about how you would like to use the island within the space first. If you plan on having your cooktop on one side and bar stools on the other, you need to make sure that the cooktop is a safe distance from the dining area. Other items that are typically considered in the design of a kitchen island include sinks, dishwashers, and microwaves. 

2. Consider your countertops. When choosing countertops, there are a few things to consider, one being the counter space overall. If you are an avid cook or baker, try planning for as much counter space as possible. Additionally, the material used for your countertops is crucial. Marble might be gorgeous, but it can also stain very easily. Similarly, wood is a popular choice, however, remember that it must be sealed properly to prevent damage. 

3. Double up on kitchen appliances. If you have a large family or cook often, it might be beneficial to double up on some staple kitchen appliances. Having two microwaves and two ovens is a great way to help reduce overall cooking time, especially for holiday meals such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Another great appliance to double up on is the dishwasher. When hosting large dinner parties, the dishes can start to pile up and having more than one dishwasher can help alleviate the workload. 

When redesigning a kitchen, there are many details and it can be easy to lose track of the end goal. Starting with a detailed plan ahead of time can help in creating your ideal space. We hope these tips can help you in your kitchen remodel and we would love to hear if you try any of these yourself. 

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, and this year’s guidelines are a little different. Everyone is looking for creative ways to host a safe and distanced dinner while still enjoying time with their friends and family. For this reason, we have a few ways you can host Thanksgiving this year while following guidelines:

Have an outdoor celebration. If you aren’t yet comfortable with hosting indoors, an outdoor dinner party could be your best alternative. Plan to set up a table in your rear garden and decorate it with beautiful flowers, candles and cornucopias. To make this gathering completely outdoors, cook your meal entirely outside using the grill for your turkey, potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

Get creative with your menu. Whether you have decided to host your thanksgiving dinner inside or outside, planning the menu can be tricky when thinking of COVID safety. Typically, you would prepare large dishes of everyone’s favourite Thanksgiving foods; however, you could consider preparing individual portions that do not require your guests to reach into shared platters throughout the evening.

Host a virtual dinner. If planning an in-person dinner inside or outside is something that you aren’t comfortable with, there are many great ways you can host a Thanksgiving dinner virtually. Plan to coordinate your menus with your family and friends and it will feel as though you are in the same room. If you’re typically the family Thanksgiving cook and your kids can never pass up your stuffing, consider preparing Thanksgiving baskets to bring to your guests containing some of the Thanksgiving dishes you would typically serve in person.

The start of a new season brings many changes along with it and one of those changes is our home interior. Whether it be seasonal decor or a complete redecoration, knowing where to begin—and where to stop—can be tricky. We have put together three ways you can elegantly refresh your home this season.

1. Add seasonal touches in moderation. Having just a few elements of seasonal decor sprinkled around your home makes for an elegant atmosphere. A great way to elevate your space for the fall season is to incorporate seasonal plants. Our favourites are mums, which look great out on your front porch accompanied by some pumpkins. The warm fall colour right at your door will set the tone for the whole house.
2. Layer with pillows and throws. One of the simplest ways to refresh your home for the fall is by accenting with pillows and throws. Incorporating warm-toned accessories into your neutral-toned furniture can help transform a space for the season without too much commitment. Consider incorporating pillows with textured fabrics such as velvet or mohair and classic patterns such as plaid or stripes for that extra touch.
3. Create your signature home scent. Fall brings many lovely scents: pumpkin, cinnamon, apple cider, and crisp fall air. If you want to get creative, a great way to create your home’s very own signature scent is by using fresh ingredients, including vanilla, cinnamon sticks, cloves, pine needles, oranges and anise. Combine any of these together and add them to a pot of water to let simmer on the stove, and there you have your homemade potpourri.

Refreshing your home for the fall season can be accomplished in many different ways. Overall, even the simplest adjustment can completely change a space. We hope this can give you some home decor inspiration and we would love to hear some of your fall tips and tricks!

Buying your first home might seem like an intimidating and overwhelming process. Many big decisions that can determine whether or not you close on the house you’re interested in. We have listed a few tips and tricks you can share with your friends and family to help them in their first home buying experience.

Talk to the neighbours. It can be easy to forget to look into the neighbourhood in addition to the house. Having a conversation with the neighbours when considering a home might be a good idea if you don’t know much about the area. They can provide insight on the lifestyle, the community, schools in the area, and what their overall opinion is on living there. Getting a sense of the neighbourhood can help you determine if it would be the right fit for you.

Write a buyer’s letter. In today’s competitive market, including a buyer’s letter with your offer certainly helps you stand out. A personal letter can help the seller view you as more of a person than just an offer. However, there are some topics you may want to avoid bringing up in this letter, for example, mentioning any remodelling plans. Chances are that the seller has an affinity towards the home and wouldn’t want to know that you would like to make changes to it. The wording and context of your letter is important to help make your offer even more appealing to the seller.

Try to remain neutral towards a home. Finding a home that ticks all of the boxes can be a dream come true. While that might be the case it is important to avoid getting too emotionally attached to a home early on. There are many steps and processes to purchasing a home and sometimes not everything goes as planned. Try to remind yourself to take it one step at a time and refrain from making emotionally driven decisions throughout the process.

As your friends and family head into their home buying journey, your support can make all the difference. This is an exciting time in anyone’s life and one that they will always remember. If anyone you know is looking to purchase their first home we would be more than happy to assist them. Please feel free to give us a call anytime!

As summer winds down and we approach a new season, this is a great time to get your home organized. Sorting and decluttering can be overwhelming, so to help you achieve your organization goals we have gathered a few tips so you can head into the fall season with a clear vision for reorganizing your home.

1. Use Hooks to Maximize Wall Space. The coming of fall brings an abundance of coats and jackets, all of which tend to pile up in a front hall closet with very little space for much else. To avoid this mess, consider adding beautiful hooks to your desired wall. These are easily customizable with many different styles to choose from and can organize all of your accessories, including coats, umbrellas, and masks.

2. Colour Code Holiday Decor Bins. We all know that fall is a busy season for holidays, including Thanksgiving and Halloween, with Christmas not too far ahead in the future. Holiday decoration storage can get messy, and you may find yourself year after year wondering where your cornucopia centrepiece went. Try incorporating colour-coded bins to help organize your holiday pieces, using something like orange for Halloween and red for Christmas. Decorating your home will have never been easier.

3. Invest in a Closet Organization System. Occasionally, bedroom closets will only have a shelf and a hanging rod. Organizing your clothes can be overwhelming and seemingly impossible with this little to work within. Consider investing in a closet organization system. The choice is yours when it comes to how many shelves, drawers or compartments you want. When thinking about what you might want to include, envision your daily routine and what you tend to reach for the most. If you create a cohesive sorting system for your wardrobe, dressing for the day will be a breeze.

Organizing your home can seem like a daunting task at first; however, if you are taking it all one step at a time you can achieve the organized home of your dreams. We would love to hear your best home organizing tips and ideas!

Engel & Völkers has released their Canadian mid-year real estate market report, a residential property analysis highlighting notable trends, changing buyer and seller preferences, economic factors, and more. We have put together our top three takeaways from the report that we believe are indicative as to what we can expect from the second half of the year.

1. Metros see a wave of market normalization. Since about mid-April, the real estate market has begun to cool down, with fewer offers being submitted on properties. This has indicated a return to normal within the real estate market after an unusual 2020. As housing inventory rises, buyers are seeing less competition and a lot more opportunities.

2. Luxury condominium sales bounce back in urban areas. Over the last year, more and more Canadians have been looking for an increase in space, which caused the demand for condos to diminish. However, since the promising vaccine rollout and the end of lockdowns, condo sales have returned at a steady climb. It is predicted that condo sales will only continue to increase over time and as restrictions ease throughout the country.

3. Buyers are investing in multiple properties. In March of 2020, the Bank of Canada announced a 0.25 percent interest rate to ease the impact of the pandemic. Since then, this has allowed many to purchase multiple properties while simultaneously increasing the price of homes. There has been a significant increase in people moving from metropolitan areas to more rural areas, which has also increased the number of people who own more than one property: one in the city and one in the suburbs or more rural areas.