The Weekly Blend is your ‘weekly’ source covering real estate news that you just may have missed. Our hard at work Weekly Blend crew scours the web, newsgroups and forums looking for obscure, bizarre, interesting and informative real estate (or real estate related) stories. If you have one you’d like to share please feel free to share it in our comments section or tweet about it using the hashtag #WeeklyBlend. So brew yourself a fresh cup of coffee and enjoy these stories…maybe even share them with friends or colleagues. Happy reading!
Here are my weekly picks:
The Pan-Am Games may be over but the Athletes’ Village continues to be a healthy, active community.
I promise that I have no vested interest in Airbnb … the stories just find me! Like this one about Canadian Airbnb rentals you can still have this summer.
The Quebec government is hoping to give a shot in the arm to the province’s forestry sector by allowing lumber to be used in the construction of buildings up to 12 stories tall. And in Minneapolis, a seven story, 210,000 square foot timber building will be finished in late 2016.
In Saskatoon, a city filled with diverse neighbourhoods, you’ll find the Riverside Art Gallery as you walk along Spadina Crescent.
Rainbow Community Garden in the south end of Winnipeg grows more than just vegetables, it’s where friendship and opportunity also take root.
In this year of elections I encourage you to vote … to vote in Canada’s Best Restroom Contest.
A Calgary couple took their renovations to a level that would embiggen the noblest of spirits by recreating Homer and Marge’s delightfully retro kitchen. (VIDEO)
Living in a van is one way to beat the high cost of rent/homes in Vancouver.
Every time one of these “most liveable cities” list comes out, it seems like Canada always scores well.
The former Newfoundland Telephone building was slated to become a condominium building. However, developers have decided to create rental apartments instead.
In the Netherlands, there’s an entire town built for dementia patients. (With 23 minute VIDEO). A similar facility has also been established in Ontario.
Inspired by her late grandmother who suffered from Alzheimer’s, designer Sha Yao created Eatwell – unique tableware designed to meet the needs of those with physical, motor, and cognitive impairments.
If you forgot to pick up Band-Aids, and you head back in to get them, you may end up spending an entire day in Wall Drugs, in Wall, South Dakota.
If you’re thinking of packing it all in and starting fresh somewhere new then CNN Money’s article about the 10 best cities for small businesses might interest you.
Back to school means back to campus and here are some of the world’s most beautiful universities.
Before heading back to school, there’s still time for a vacation, and what better way to spend it then at one of these 10 unique hotels that can be found across America.
Wallpaper + Jaw-Dropping Graphic design + Warhol = Flavour Paper. Haven’t heard of it? You soon will.
There’s a battle going on in New York City and its goal is to save the businesses that make New York unique.
The Government body that manages Versailles has put out a tender to build a hotel alongside the fabled grounds.
I’ve been to one. How many of the Lonely Planet’s top 10 tourist attractions have you seen?
Saving money and reducing his carbon footprint are the reasons this Vermont student built his own 96-square-foot house for just $3,000.
Maybe the headline from Fortune.com says it all: “Young people can afford homes, they just don’t want to be homeowners.”
If you’re still searching for that last minute summer getaway, you can always rent a lighthouse in Iceland.
In this age of glasnost we can now take a visual tour of La Sultana, the Soviet Spy Superyacht.
Last week, the Weekly Blend featured a story about a Museum of Bad Art and this week we’re featuring a Museum of Art Fakes.
Smells like a bargain … as Kurt Cobain’s childhood home drops in price. Now it can be yours for just $329K.
If owning a celebrity home is something you desire then maybe a home that once belonged to Jim Henson is something that would interest you.
I don’t know if this qualifies as a sports story or a real estate purchase story as it’s reported that Cristiano Ronaldo has bought a loft in Trump Towers. And here’s a look at the interior (which is pretty sweet I might add).
Want to live like a King … the King of Rock and Roll that is? The hideaway where Elvis and Pricilla spent a short honeymoon is on the real estate market and it’s expected to fetch close to $7 million.
Pop culture houses don’t get much creepier than this: the house from “The Silence of the Lambs” is up for sale … dungeon not included?
And while the place where Buffalo Bill lived (from above story) is holding open houses, the owners of the famed house from The Goonies are hoping to keep people away.
10 years after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the Daily Mail takes a look at the 109 homes Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie helped (re)build.
Istanbul has a Breaking Bad-themed coffee shop and Kuala Lumpur and Johor, Malaysia have DC Comics-themed cafes.
Communal living comes to Brooklyn in the form of Pure House. Sign up and see for yourself.
Here are a few bad real estate listings for you courtesy of the Huffington Post.
Would you take a dip 35 meters up in London (and the world’s) first “sky pool?” And, while you’re waiting for it to be built, you can check out one of these 10 spectacular pools from around the world.
One of the most interesting things about this Melbourne property is that it’s unforgettable luxury in a renovated post office.
