Feast your eyes while feasting on food

Dear Debbie: My mother always set the most beautiful table. It was a special treat to sit down to big family dinners, to feast your eyes on the gleaming serving dishes and inspired centrepiece. My sister and I have inherited . . .

Posted: 2014-03-01

CONNIE OLIVER: Treat your decor to a splash of colour

Orange can be refreshing, adds zing

Just as a sweet summer orange revitalizes the body, touches of orange in the decor adds zing to a room. Orange is the new red and is fast becoming a popular accent colour with homeowners and designers. Orange is not the . . .

Posted: 2014-03-01

RENOVATIONS: Winter warriors

Headingley contractor rebuffs frigid weather

This may be the winter of our discontent, but it hasn't prevented Larry Larwyn and his crew from continuing a major renovation to a home near Headingley that began in the fall. When I visited the site in late November, concrete . . .

Posted: 2014-03-01

GARDENING: Miss your garden?

Window boxes perfect for apartment living

Perhaps one of the best advantages to having a window box is the opportunity to be creative. Wish your mature landscape had room for some of the tempting new annuals at the garden centre this spring? Recently retired to an . . .

Posted: 2014-03-01

SOLUTIONS: Shorten a dress without sewing

QUESTION: I am borrowing my cousin's dress for a dinner that I am going to in three weeks. The dress is knee-length and I am wondering how I can temporarily shorten it so that it is a short dress without . . .

Posted: 2014-03-01

Fire up your imagination

Spring Parade of Homes promises function and form

If you needed a reminder that spring is on the horizon, it's here, and none too soon: the Spring Parade of Homes, which will run from March 1 to 23. And this edition of the annual spring rite will feature not . . .

Posted: 2014-03-01

Fit for all

Flexible design makes two-storey home suitable for many needs

So you have a young family, and have been living in a 1, 200-square-foot, 11/2-storey home a number of years. As serviceable as it's been, now the kids are getting older -- and want their privacy -- it's time to move . . .

Posted: 2014-03-01

A townhome of your very own

Waterford Landing units offer high-end features at an affordable price

If you're a prospective new homebuyer, it's no secret home ownership isn't a cheap proposition. Whether you buy a resale home, new home or a condominium, prices can be steep, with dollar value only fair to middling. Having to perform upgrades . . .

Posted: 2014-03-01

Great place to raise a family

Updated '90s house looks like new, with space to spare, loads of quality

When you're 22 years old, it's very rare that you'd need a facelift -- or, let's say, upgrades -- of any sort. However, if a home is slightly more than two decades old and you want to maintain a contemporary look, . . .

Posted: 2014-03-01

GARDENING: The buzz on bees

It can be a sweet hobby for backyard enthusiasts

This time of year, even a swath of dandelions stretching the entire length of a median strip might be a welcome sight to winter-weary gardeners. Then again, maybe not. But to a bee, biding its time in a winter shelter with . . .

Posted: 2014-02-22