Handy homeowners can now turn off the power tools, turn on the TV and get tips on home renovation from Canada's first 'round-the-clock home-improvement specialty channel.
DIY Network Canada offers viewers tips, expert advice and step-by-step guidance to tackle everything from simple do-it-yourself projects to major renovations.
It replaces the Fine Living channel and will run all day, seven days a week.
"The launch of DIY Network Canada comes at a particularly relevant time as it will provide our viewers with entertaining programming that educates and offers practical ways to cut costs and increase the value of their homes," Karen Gelbart, senior vice-president of lifestyle content for Canwest Broadcasting, said in a statement.
Intended to complement HGTV, DIY Network Canada features a number of shows already popular in the U.S., including:
* Sweat Equity: Host Amy Matthews determines which home improvement projects will return the most bang for your buck.
* Yard Crashers: Professional landscaper Ahmad Hassan waits at stores for weekend warriors who could use his help and follows them home for ambush landscaping at its best.
* Desperate Landscapes: Licensed contractor Jason Cameron takes on a neighbourhood's ugliest yard and gives it a brand-new look.
* Kitchen Impossible: Contractor Marc Bartolomeo helps discouraged homeowners transform their terrible kitchens into sparkling new spaces.
Impress your gardening friends
Green thumbs looking to add to their gardening vernacular need look no farther than wordspy.com, a website dedicated to tapping in to the English language's latest words.
Impress your garden-loving friends by working these zingers into your next over-the-fence conversation:
* Extreme gardening: Gardening that takes place in hostile or difficult conditions (think springtime in Calgary).
* Potscaping: Artfully arranging shrubs and flowers planted in pots and other containers.
* Guerrilla gardening: The surreptitious or unauthorized planting of flowers, shrubs, vegetables, and other flora in a public space.
* Heirloom seed: A type of seed that has been passed down through a number of generations; a type of seed that is traded between individual gardeners rather than through a seed catalogue (you can actually bid for these online).
-- Canwest News Service
