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Sharon Nunes
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Mark Bauman was walking near the St. Jacobs dam when he spotted a big, "neat looking plant" that would look nice his garden.
So he dug out one and planted it near his house. Only later, when it had to trim back the spreading crop, did he realize it wasn't all that pretty.
"I actually got some burns on my hands," said the Woolwich Township councillor.
Within a day or so, the giant hogweed sap caused dime-sized, brown blisters to well up on his hands as he worked out in the sun. "It looked like a second-degree burn."
There was pain, but it wasn't overwhelming, he said. Eventually, they cleared up without leaving scars.
"I didn't know what it was. That's when I started looking at what it was and found out."
Giant hogweed was transplanted from China to England, for use in ornamental gardens. It's smothered Britain, spread across Europe and is now in the U.S. and southern Ontario.
Bauman didn't initially find widespread concern about the plant. That changed about five years ago, as people started raising alarms as more started turning up in the area. The more Bauman talked about it, the more people mentioned they've seen it around for years here and there.
Giant hogweed develops pods containing upwards of 10,000 seeds. The plant likes wet soil along waterways, where it drops pods into the water to spread seeds downstream.
"The Grand River doesn't know boundaries. It's going to follow the watercourses," Bauman said.
Bauman pressed Woolwich and Waterloo Region councils to act on the growing nuisance that spoils crops, sickens livestock and in extreme cases, disfigures and blinds humans.
Last year, regional council added giant hogweed to the local list of "noxious weeds." That means weed inspectors can order land owners to destroy it on sight. If they don't, eradication crews can be ordered in and the cost added to the landowners taxes.
Upwards of 1,500 plants were destroyed near the St. Jacobs dam three years ago, said Larry Martin, the region's weed inspector.
He's already had dozens of calls about hogweed this year, and expects many more before frost hits.
"It's just seems to be cropping up all over the place," he said.
Grand River Conservation Authority crews are fighting hogweed across the watershed, from Belwood to land near Guelph Lake to a plant found this year along a trail in Cambridge's Shade's Mills Conservation area.
Kitchener firefighters were told this month to be wary of the plant along rural watercourses in the city.
City of Waterloo crews have discovered the plant in Kaufman flats near the Grand River, Bechtel Park and Rolling Hills Park in the Lakeshore part of town.
"It's not in epidemic proportions, but it's creeping into the area," said Len Fay, Waterloo's manager of forestry and horticulture.
Since Waterloo is a "pesticide free community," city crews have to "go in and cut it out," he said.
What to watch out for:
Plant can grow up to five metres tall with an umbrella of white flowers nearly a metre across. The hollow stems can be up to 10 cm in diameter, with white hairs and red-purple colouring. The leaves can spread nearly two metres across
Avoid the clear sap, which causes skin to become sensitive to sunlight, causing nasty chemical burns
If exposed to the sap, avoid sunlight, don't touch your eyes and wash thoroughly with soap and water
Get medical help if blisters form
Contact with eyes can cause temporary or permanent blindness
Seeds can lie dormant up to seven years, so expect years of work to eradicate the plants from an area
Wear eye protection, gloves and rubberized overalls if you try to cut it or spray herbicides; calling a contractor is safer
Don't use power tools to cut it or burn the plants; sap will spread in the air
Give hogweed a wide berth and report it to your township or city hall if you find it.
Info: www ontarioweeds.com or region weed inspector 519-575-4016.
This article courtesy: The KW Record
For more photos and information on this property, go to http://www.realtor.ca/ and enter the MLS# 1031146
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Sharon
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If you're happy with your home and your neighborhood but are craving a little more space, maybe adding on is a better alternative to moving out. Room additions can be a terrific alternative for many homes, adding space for a growing family and adding resale value at the same time.
But be forewarned. A good room addition involves a whole lot more than just slapping on some additional square footage. Here are some important rules to keep in mind as your planning gets under way:
1. Know why you're adding on: This is the first rule, and it happens before you lift a hammer. Why do you need to add on? And no fair cheating and saying, "I need more space!"
Do you need another bathroom? Bedroom space? A laundry room or mud room? An improved kitchen flow? More space to entertain? Better accessibility due to health issues? More storage? A larger garage or hobby area? The only way the addition will meet your needs is to know what those needs are in the first place.
2. Good additions never look like additions: This is the other top rule of room-addition planning. When you're done, the addition -- no matter what its size or where it's located -- should never look like an addition. The architectural styles of new and existing need to blend.
The exterior materials need to blend as well, or at least complement each other. To the extent possible, use the same type of windows, roofing, doors, siding and other materials. If the original home has wood windows, using new vinyl windows in the addition screams "add-on" and lowers the appeal and the value. Don't overlook the need to blend landscaping and hardscaping as well.
3. Out, up, down, or a combination: The how and the where of a room addition is always a fun and exciting challenge for everyone involved. Some homes are situated on larger lots and lend themselves very nicely to adding out. Others seem best suited to adding up by building on a second or even a partial third floor.
Some houses are even laid out in such a way that it's possible to excavate under them and add new living space in the form of a daylight basement. Or it could be that a combination of two or even all three of these options makes the most sense for your particular home.
Keep your mind open to the possibilities. Work with a good contractor and a good designer and you'll be amazed at what you can come up with.
4. Don't let the interior become an afterthought: I've seen a surprising number of additions that look great from the outside but seem to have no thought put into them on the inside. Flooring doesn't match. Trim doesn't match. Sometimes even the interior floor heights don't match. Remember that how the interior of your addition looks and flows on the inside is just as important as how it looks and flows on the outside.
Use the same materials or the same style of materials. Match up ceiling, floor, and wall levels. Here again, no matter how you view the addition, inside or out, it should never look like an addition.
5. Create convenient access: This is another afterthought in a lot of additions. Let's say you have a three-bedroom, one-bathroom house, and you want to add a second bathroom. Typically, that's an addition that's going to have a good payback.
But then you build the addition so that the only access to the second bathroom is through the kitchen. You now have a three-bedroom, two-bath house, but since the layout is lousy, you've actually gone backwards in terms of desirability and resale value.
Are you going to create a beautiful second-floor master suite that can be accessed only by a tiny spiral staircase from the family room? Is the only way into your great new kitchen via a convoluted hallway that leads through the laundry room?
When planning your addition, never lose sight of how you're going to access the new spaces, and make sure that access is both convenient and inviting.
6. Don't overwhelm your lot: Granted, room additions are expensive. So when you're doing one, and all those workers are on site, there's a temptation to get as much square footage as you can. But don't cram your lot full of house. Remember that open space is important as well, both to you and your family, and, later on, to potential buyers.
This is a good time to go back to Rule No. 1 and reconsider the "why" part of your room addition. Don't add space just to add it -- stay focused on your overall goals.
7. Understand the legalities: There are lots of rules and regulations that come into play regarding room additions. These include property line setbacks, zoning restrictions, and restrictions imposed by homeowner associations and architectural review committees.
In some historic areas, your addition may have to comply with certain historic guidelines. In other areas, there may even be solar shading restrictions that limit the height or the orientation of your roof line. Be sure you check into all of this before you get too far along with your planning.
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Sharon xoxo
*Article from Paul Bianch: "Yahoos Real Estate Expert"
JUST LISTED!!
n in the front yard. Savvy buyers expect and look for more when purchasing a property. Thanks to the endless staging and decorating shows standards have been raised. If properties do not look their best, if the selling features and focal points are not polished and shining , if there are blatant repairs, needed, updates or cleaning left undone, you can be sure the asking price will be attacked.
ability to make the most of the sale of your house. Richard Buchanan runs a cleaning service in Ottawa and lists many Realtors, as well as the Ottawa Police Service, among his clients.
an offer, however low.
ut be careful not to overload your home with humidity. Humidity causes mould, and mould is a health hazard that will often kill a sale. Mould remediation can cost as much as $10,000. Often, insulation will have to be replaced to eradicate the problem completely.
More Canadians looking for new homes are factoring the environment into their plans. If you thought you were being frugal by making do with your old furnace or hanging on to your old washing machine, you might want to give that a second look.
When you’re buying a new home, you’ll want to scrutinize every last detail. Home inspections rarely cost more than a few hundred dollars, and can save you from unpleasant surprises. Your REALTOR® can help recommend several home inspection companies to choose from.
This is an increasingly standard condition on any resale home. If the seller doesn’t want you closely examining the home before you take possession, you have to wonder why.
Make sure your inspector is a member of the Canadian Association of Home & Property Inspectors (CAHPI). It’s your guarantee they have the training and experience for the job.
Lots of stuff. Plumbing and electrical systems, the roof, visible insulation, walls, ceilings, floors, windows and the integrity of the foundation. They also check for lead paint, asbestos, mould, outdated and dangerous wiring, and evidence of pests like mice or termites.
Their report will summarize the condition of your home. If there’s anything that needs work, the home inspector will provide an estimated cost for the repairs.
If downspouts are dumping too close to the house, you can get water the recommended five feet or more away from the foundation by adding roll-out plastic or metal gutter extenders. But they aren’t the neatest or most effective long-term solution, especially if you’re likely to trip on them or run over them with a lawnmower. Permanent underground piping is invisible and capable of moving large quantities of runoff much farther from your house. For about $10 a foot, a landscaper or waterproofing contractor will dig a trench and install piping to carry the water safely away.
If you see water dribbling into the basement through cracks or gaps around plumbing pipes, you can plug the openings yourself with hydraulic cement or polyurethane caulk for less than $20. Plugs work when the problem is simply a hole that water oozes through, either from surface runoff or from wet soil. But if the water is coming up through the floor, or at the joint where floor and walls meet, the problem is ground water, and plugs won’t do the trick. For that, see Solutions #5 though #7 below.
If the gutters are working and you’ve plugged obvious holes, but you still see water dribbling into your basement or crawl space from high on the foundation walls, then surface water isn’t draining away from the house as it should. Your house should sit on a “crown” of soil that slopes at least six inches over the first 10 feet in all directions. Over time, the soil around the foundation may have settled. All you need to do to build it back up is shovel in more dirt. One cubic yard of a water-shedding clay-loam mix from a landscape supply house costs around $30 (plus delivery) and is enough for a two-foot-wide, three-inch-deep layer along 57 feet of foundation.
If you can’t add soil without bringing it too close to the siding—six inches is the minimum safe distance to protect against rot and termites—then you may be able to redirect surface water before it reaches the house by creating a berm (a mound of dirt) or a swale (a wide, shallow ditch). In small areas, berms are easy; a landscape contractor can build one for a few hundred dollars. On bigger projects, berms make less sense because you’ll have to truck in too much soil. In that case, dig a swale (about $1,000). Once landscaping grows in, berms and swales can be attractive features in your yard.
If water is leaking into your basement low on the walls or at the seams where walls meet the floor, your issue isn’t surface water, it’s hydrostatic pressure pushing out water within the ground. The first thing to do is check whether you have footing drains, underground pipes installed when the house was built to carry water away from the foundation. (Look for a manhole or drain in the basement floor or a cleanout pipe capped a few inches above the floor.) The drains may be clogged, in which case you can try opening the cleanout and flushing the pipes with a garden hose. If that doesn’t work, a plumber with an augur can often do the job for about $600.
If you don’t have footing drains or can’t get the existing ones to function, there’s one more thing you can try before you invest in a costly interior or exterior basement waterproofing system: Install a curtain drain to divert water that’s traveling underground toward your house. A type of French drain, a curtain drain is a shallow trench filled with gravel and piping that intercepts water uphill of your house and carries it down the slope a safe distance away.
If you can’t keep subsurface water out, then you have to address it on the inside. To create an interior drain system, crews saw a channel around the perimeter of the floor, chip out the concrete, and lay perforated pipe in the hole. The pipe drains to collection tank at the basement’s low spot, where a sump pump sends it away. Starting at about $3,000, an interior system may be the least expensive and disruptive option if you have an unfinished basement with easy access, or a lot of mature landscaping that digging for an exterior system would destroy.
Installing an interior drainage system gets the water out but doesn’t actually waterproof the walls. For that, you need an exterior system: a French drain to relieve hydrostatic pressure and exterior waterproofing to protect the foundation. It’s a big job that requires excavating around the house, but it may be the best solution if you have a foundation with numerous gaps where water is getting through. It also keeps the mess and water outside, which may be your choice if you don’t want to tear up a finished basement. The downside, besides a price tag that can reach $20,000, is that your yard takes a beating, and you may need to remove decks or walkways.
Jeanne Huber is the author of 10 books about home improvement and writes a weekly column about home care for The Washington Post. She solved her first drainage mystery when her family’s frequent sneezing attacks led her to discover mildew coating the underside of their house’s roof. Turns out basement flooding (see Sign #6) was to blame.
Hope that you find this information as helpful as I did!
Chat Soon!!
Sharon
xoxoxo
Courtesy of HouseLogic.com
The fact is, most people who try to sell their own home end up using a REALTOR® in the end anyway. Before anybody decides to fly solo through this complex, time consuming and financially perilous process, they should consider these questions.
Will you really “save” the real estate commission?
When buyers see a home for sale ‘by the owner’, they see a bargain. They imagine the REALTOR'S® fee going into their pocket, not yours.
Are you familiar with real estate law?
Complicated and ever-changing real estate law governs nearly every phase of selling your home. One misstep, and an entire deal can fall through, or worse, result in a lawsuit.
How many potential buyers will you reach?
Selling a home takes more than just hanging a “For Sale” sign. How will you promote your home? Will you write your own ads? How will you use the Internet, knowing that you’ll have no access to the cooperative service available through the Multiple Listing Service®. MLS® and the corresponding web site www.REALTOR.ca have changed the way people search for homes, and it’s hard to court buyers without it.
Do you have the time?
Promoting a home is a full time job, and you may already have one. Will you be able to take calls at any time? How about screening the callers to figure out if they’re suitable candidates? Not everybody who calls is even suitable to walk through your home, but how do you tell?
Do you know the market well enough to get the most for your home?
Lacking years of experience, the average do-it-yourselfer is merely guessing at their listing price. Often they set the price too low and miss out on thousands of dollars, or they price their home too high and drive away willing buyers.
Do you have the negotiation skills to keep a deal on track?
When an offer comes in, emotions can run high with so much money on the line. This is why direct seller-to-buyer deals often end in disaster. REALTORS® keep it professional and are indispensable when it comes to bargaining with buyers.
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Sharon
xoxo
In real estate, it's all about the timing. It will strongly influence your home’s selling price. Here are some things to take into consideration:
A buyer’s versus a seller’s market?
When lots of people are looking for homes but not many are for sale, it’s a ‘seller’s market’, because the seller has something everybody wants. When there are lots of homes for sale and not many people buying them, it’s called a ‘buyer’s market’ because buyers have more power of choice.
How quickly do you need to sell your home?
In a seller’s market, top price and a fast sale can go hand-in-hand. In a buyer’s market, more sellers are competing for your potential buyer. If you have to sell right now, consider lowering your asking price a bit to speed up the sale. A REALTOR® can help you figure out the right price-to-speed ratio.
Seasonality. Do home sales get frostbite?
It’s true. Winter sales tend to be slower, and spring sales are more brisk. Regardless, there are always people looking to buy, and seasonality is only one of many factors to consider.
What if you’re also buying a home?
If you sell your existing home for a ‘low’ price, you’re probably also buying at a low price. If you are upgrading to a larger home, this actually works to your advantage. If you’re downsizing from a bigger home to a smaller home or a condo, you need to pay a bit more attention to the market.
To buy first or sell first? The eternal question
Many people are able to time their sale and purchase so they happen on the same “closing date”. As a buyer, you can make your offer “conditional” on the sale of your existing home, to make sure you’re not left paying for two homes. As a seller, you can try to extend the “closing period” to give yourself more time to find your next home. Each situation is different and it's best to discuss with a REALTOR® so that he/she can provide advice and counsel during these types of negotiations.
What if you find your new dream home before you’ve started to sell your old one?
Talk to your existing mortgage lender about “Bridge Financing”. This is when your lender (the bank) agrees to lend you the down payment for your new dream home, while you still cover the mortgage on your existing property. Again, your REALTOR® will likely have a few options on mortgage lenders or brokers that you can discuss your various financing options with.
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Sharon XOXO
Here are 8 ways you can change it up on a budget; and in a snap!
1) Paint - Tried and true, paint will make a huge difference in a room.
Sometimes it is hard to choose a color so here are a few things to take into consideration:
1) Look through your closet...what colors do you see most? Those can go on your list.
2)Try to stay in a neutral shade of any color so that you aren't overpowering the rest of the house if you are only working on one room
3)Choose your "anchor" fabric or art piece and use the lightest color from that for the wall paint.
2) Open the windows - Literally and not so literally.
Pull those dark heavy drapes back and let the light shine in. Better yet, replace those dark curtains with light breezy sheers, beautiful!!
3) Remember the 60, 30, 10 rule.
*60% of the room is background color
*30% of the room is mid tone color - for flooring and large size furniture.
*10% of the room is accent (usually the richest or brightest color) - for "pop" accent pillows, art, etc.
4) D
rab Sofa? Get a Slipcover! Check it out....
If your sofa is tired and perhaps has a stain that bothers you or is a color you can't stand anymore, just go out and get yourself a slipcover! They aren't like the so obvious slip covers of the past, you can get stretchy WASHABLE no-tell slip covers now that look amazing! The "Sure Fit Stretch Slipcover" Pic shown here, beautiful, and no fail!
5) Accent Pillows, Easy, Inexpensive and necessary!
Add "oomph" to the couch, chair, or bed with
bight bold accent pillows, easy peasy!
6) Fresh Flowers - any kind in any color
What a difference fresh flowers make to a room, not only does it breathe life into any space, it adds color! If you choose flowers that fit into the color scheme, the drama that one piece creates can be quite amazing.
7) Frame the art that your child brings home from school and collage it!
Now I know that this may not apply to everyone, but lemme tell you there is some serious guilt in discarding my son's art he brings home from school. But we can't keep it all!! - Or can we? I have been choosing and setting aside pieces and framing them. You can choose a particular corner or office or even
8) “Knick Knack, Paddy whack”, Store it in a box.....
I know that isn't how the song goes,.. but for you clutter-bugs out there, grab a box and start putting away those knick knacks. Believe me - what you got ten years ago as a w
Chat Soon!
Sharon
xoxoxo
