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Old windows collage

An Easy Way To Insulate Single-Pane Windows

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Replacing single-glazed windows with new double-panes used to be the energy-wise solution. Now there’s a less expensive alternative.

Old windows collage

 

WASTE NOT | When it comes to improving the energy efficiency of older buildings, one of the major things we tend to think of is replacing single-glazed windows with double-glazed models. A CMHC report on energy savings proves otherwise. In 2004, their case-study research found that replacing doors and windows averaged just 12 percent energy savings compared to 34 percent from insulating the foundation and ceiling plus draftproofing the rest of the house, 14 percent from insulating exterior walls and 39 percent from upgrading the furnace. Read more

Sunlight on two sides of a room

The Must-Have Book For Home Renovators

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Thinking about renovating? Then this “bible” of home improvement ideas belongs on your bookshelf.

Sunlight on two sides of a room

 

WHAT THE PROS KNOW | A lot of what I know about how a house should work on the inside and mesh with the outside I learned from the bible. Not the authorized King James version but a book called A Pattern Language, a renovator’s bible that I return to repeatedly for inspiration and guidance.

First published decades ago, this tome consists of 1,170 tissue-thin pages of poetically written advice on how to make considered meaning-filled homes and communities. At its core are 253 simple patterns, each one an answer to a design problem, that can be used in any number of combinations to make a family home or a small commercial building—even layout an entire neighbourhood. Read more

Undecorate Interior - Melanie Acevedo

It’s Time To Give Undecorating A Shot

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Today’s most fashionable interiors reflect the quirks and passions of the people who live in them. Welcome to the world of undecorating.

Undecorate InteriorDÉCOR TREND ALERT | In the world of interior design, undecorating is enjoying a moment. Undecorating, for the uninitiated, is what happens when stylish people forgo convention in favour of fearlessness, expressing their own eclectic, eccentric, creative, adventurous sides in the way they beautify their homes. The bible for the movement, published this past March, is Undecorate: The No-Rules Approach to Interior Design by Christiane Lemieux, a Canadian expat living in Manhattan. She is also the creative force behind DwellStudio, an immensely successful online emporium for modern décor that includes Lemieux’s own covetable textiles and bedding. Read more

Why Reupholster When A Nip And Tuck Will Do

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Why flat out reupholster your old, classic sofa when a nip and a tuck may be all it takes to give it a lift.

SERVICE ALERT | Although home décor and design are all about modernism right now, I’m still in love with the George Smith-inspired scroll arm sofa and chair I bought on sale at Conran’s in England when my now-teenaged son was small. One thing I appreciate about my pieces is the way their fabric has faded ever so softly over the years in that endearing English country house way. It made me sad to think about completely recovering them when two of the arms frayed, one each on the sofa and chair, but what else can you do when your living room starts to look more shabby than chic? I had pretty much resigned myself to an expensive upholstery redo when Susan Poling walked into my life. Read more

Win Two Heritage House Tour Tickets

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Subscribe or Invite a friend to receive Frugalbits FREE daily email by MAY 27, and be entered to win 2 tickets to Vancouver’s 2011 Heritage House Tour (value $80).

(23.05.11) Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s 2011 Heritage House Tour is a one-day, self guided tour of a selection of historic buildings in Vancouver. Now in its 9th year, this event has brought over 15,000 people into over 100 privately owned, unique heritage buildings in our city. Each year, a different selection of homes is opened, showcasing a wide variety of traditional house styles and interesting historic neighbourhoods.

Your ticket is a 28 page guidebook with a map in the centre showing you where the homes are located, a full page write-up about each house, lunch suggestions and guest essays by local authors such as Michael Kluckner, Bruce Macdonald and James Johnstone.

Visit any or all of the participating homes on June 5th between 10 am to 5 pm in any order you prefer. Your guidebook is a numbered passport that will gain you access into the homes.

SUBSCRIBE or INVITE a friend to receive Frugalbits’ FREE daily email by May 27, 2011, and you will be automatically entered for a chance to win two tickets to Vancouver’s  2011 Heritage house Tour, and so will your friend, if they subscribe.

CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE; CLICK HERE TO INVITE

Photo: courtesy Vancouver Heritage Foundation

Paint & Install This Glass Guard Yourself

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Annoyed by the high cost of back-painting and installing the glass behind her gas range, this adventurous renovator took on the task herself.

 

DIY | When Terri Brandmueller renovated her Vancouver kitchen awhile ago, she thought a lot about how the surface materials and finishes would look when viewed together. She had dark wood and white laminate cabinets; butcher-block countertops and a solid beech island; and stainless steel appliances—everything set against a backdrop of white beadboard wallpaper. What was missing, she figured, was a serious splash of colour, and the surface behind the range seemed like the perfect place to put it. This is how she hit upon the idea of installing the light-reflecting sheet of glass pictured here, back-painted ocean blue. Read more

Chris Greenawalt Trespa Countertop - Kate McElwee

3 Stylish, Less Expensive Kitchen Countertops

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An expensive countertop can make a kitchen look predictable. We have the solution.

Chris Greenawalt's Trespa Countertop - Kate McElweeCHEAP + CHIC | If you were looking for a countertop material your design-loving friends would swoon over, would you pick granite, Caesarstone, another composite quartz, or marble from Carrara in Italy? These are luxurious and high-priced, but an expensive countertop doesn’t make a kitchen more interesting and could even make it look predictable. On the other hand, using an inexpensive countertop material in a creative way never looks cheap—only clever.

Right now our three favourite reasonably priced countertop materials ripe for inventive applications are Trespa, IKEA butcher block and glacier white Corian. Read more

Hack Jobs

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The real beauty of IKEA products is that they aren’t precious, which makes them ripe for reinvention.

Ikea Hacking 017

 

MAKEOVER  MATERIAL I used to think there would come a time when I would live an IKEA-free lifestyle, when every room in my house would contain only  “Grownup Furniture” —you know, just antique or artisan made pieces mixed in with factory efforts from glamorous Italian manufacturers. And I do have a few of these items in my life. But I also continue to have some IKEA because, let’s face it, the pieces are well enough made and their design is considered, sometimes even by the boldface names (in downmarket mode) whose work I see in fancy furniture shops. Read more

The Mother Of All Heritage House Tours

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Old houses cost less than new ones even if you renovate—and the heritage house tour can show you how.

MONEY WELL SPENT | What’s the first thing that comes to mind when making an old house more energy efficient? Changing all the windows maybe? Well, relax. A CMHC case study on renovating for energy savings reveals that replacing the windows and doors of a pre-Second World War house reduces just 11 percent of energy loss compared to 34 percent for insulating and draftproofing of walls, ceiling and foundation; 34 percent for upgrading the furnace; and 18 percent for adding exterior insulation beneath the siding.

This is just one of the helpful tips to be gleaned from the 30-page guidebook for this year’s Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s heritage self-guided house tour on Sunday, June 6. Another is that retrofitting an old structure can be less expensive than demolishing and rebuilding—like the $89 million to be saved by the UBC Renews rehabilitation of 10 buildings on the university’s campus. Read more