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:
Gatineau residents are saying no to high rises near the Canadian Museum of History.
Architect Todd Saunders has been commissioned to design six artists’ studios on various Fogo Island, Newfoundland locations. Have a look at them here.
Ottawa Community Housing will be spending $30.5 million on repairs and renovations in 2015.
The Montreal Chest Hospital says goodbye to its historic museum on St. Urbain St. to move to the Glen site of the McGill University Health Centre. (VIDEO)
An Edmonton woman is offering up her home in a 200 word essay contest called “Why I Want to Own My Own Home.”
In more Montreal news, Westmount Square is up for sale. The price? If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
As 60,000 rock and heavy metal fans descend upon Montebello, Quebec, one family is packing up over concern for their 150-year-old heritage home.
An Edmonton family is faced with a lawsuit two years after they posted a negative review about a window company they had used. (VIDEO)
For over ten years, a Toronto-area swimming pool has been transformed into a fishing hole for local children. Wouldn’t it make more sense to charter a few buses and take them to an actual fishing hole?
Did you know Toronto has its own floating village? You probably did, but in case you didn’t, here’s a story about it.
Caffeine lovers rejoice! Calgary-based Good Earth Coffeehouse is expanding eastward towards Ottawa and into the Maritimes.
Is it really a good idea to call this Vancouver building “Jenga Tower”? After all, one wrong move and the tower could collapse.
They call themselves MANMADE – art for guys, but there’s something for everyone, including some neat typography street name prints (of Canadian cities of course).
This story has zero to do with real estate and I’m only including it because it highlights pictures that ask the question, “what if NFL logos were Canadian?”
Limited by the plot of land on which it sits and by a desire to use affordable construction materials, São Paulo’s Maracana House – made of blocks and concrete – is both distinctly modern yet surprisingly warm.
Just in time for Father’s Day, Happier Camper is rethinking the traditional trailer with this ultra-light travel and utility trailer.
Still stuck on a gift for Dad? For fans of Game of Thrones, there’s the pop-up guide to Westeros and for occult Dads, there’s the haunted Philadelphia pop-up book.
Enjoy extended Father’s Day celebrations next Sunday, June 28th by embracing the outdoors on Log Cabin Day.
Dormant churches are being reborn as hotels, restaurants, breweries, and even nightclubs. Travel & Leisure magazine takes you inside 13 of them.
Here’s a story that’s too good to be true, Frankie Avalon has pledged $5,000 to help save a Philadelphia mural (with his picture on it).
Historic photos of Detroit and their modern day equivalents.
Mental Floss is always good for showing us as thing or two about a thing or two. And here they are showing us a NASA-inspired garden that grows more plants with less light.
Interested in knowing what houses will look like after humans have left? Mental Floss (again) brings us photos of Houtou Wan Village in China – abandoned for 50 years and overgrown with ivy.
Just over two minutes: that’s all it takes for The Atlantic to show us housing through the centuries. (VIDEO)
That video ended with a 3D-printed home and this story follows up with an architect-designed, 3D-printed estate.
What do you do if your house is on the flightpath to the Milwaukee airport? Paint “Welcome to Cleveland” on your roof, of course. Why? Mostly just to mess with people.
More from Milwaukee: Meet Phil Sklar and Brad Novak, avid bobblehead collectors and founders of the (soon to be opened) National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum. (VIDEO)
Elder Scrolls (which I just discovered is a game) comes to life in a Salt Lake City basement. (VIDEO)
When pop culture meets cartography: here are a few of the definitive maps of Springfield, USA.
Every home has one: a fridge. And many movies feature POV shots of what you’ll find inside. (VIDEO)
Coming in July, Twitter will be removing the 140 character limit on direct messaging.
Relax this summer in your very own geodesic dome swing. You want one. You really, really want one.
Have a look at these beautiful micro-cluster cabins in Vestfold, Norway.
I don’t even like opera but I’d sit through one if it were being staged at the Lofoten Opera Hotel in Norway (upon closer examination it has nothing to do with opera).
To promote their streaming rights to Seinfeld, Hulu is recreating Jerry’s Upper West Side apartment, but the installation will only be open from June 24 to June 28.
Bromley Caldari, an architectural firm from New York, is rethinking the A-Frame and their designs are really quite stunning.
Step inside the Tower House in Austin, Texas which was born out of several considerations: taking advantage of views, minimizing the footprint on the site, and accommodating the rising flood plain elevation.
Did you know that the modern day gift for a 30th anniversary is the Allen key? Coincidentally IKEA turns 30 this year.
There’s a whole lotta weird going on in this post-office-turned-house in the Mojave Desert.
We’ve seen stories about cat and dog cafés, so why wouldn’t the Weekly Blend feature a story about an Owl Café in Ikeburko, Japan. (VIDEO)
CNN.com asked readers to submit stories/photos of their “Happy Places” – the summertime vacation spots they like to call home. What’s your “happy place”?
From moose to Hobbits, crocodiles to art installations … Atlas Obscura takes a look at eight farms that are outside of agriculture.
