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:
Not sure about where to eat this weekend? Canada’s 100 Best has put together a list of the country’s 100 best restaurants. Have you been to any of them?
Have you heard about “location efficiency”? It may be the secret sauce to saving money and getting the house you want in the neighbourhood you never thought you could afford.
There will be no Graceland-type homage to the King of Pop. Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch is on the market for a cool $100 million.
Fans of the (now departed) Late Show with David Letterman wasted no time in dumpster-diving for memorabilia.
Junco’s Pub in St. John’s is strictly for the birds (pardon the pun).
A Vancouver-based business will give you (or your client) a property’s true square footage for about nine cents per square foot … and business couldn’t be better.
Local advertisers take a page out of this Chilliwack used book store that parodied Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” (“All About Them Books”) to the tune of over 100,000 views in just four days.
Why buy a Vancouver condo when you can get a B.C. island for the same price.
Speaking of buying islands, here’s a story of a couple who spent $15,000 to purchase an island and they say it changed their lives.
By the time you’ve read this it will be too late, but someone in Vancouver was handing out cash-stuffed piggy banks.
Spruce up your outdoor living space with these seven ideas to make your outside space an oasis you may never want to leave.
And, if you happened to have any cinder blocks left over, here are 14 creative uses for these somewhat cumbersome building blocks.
Speaking of building blocks, a modeling system for architects called “Arckit” is being called the “posh Lego” system.
Where do you stand on open-offices? One advertising executive believes that workplaces need more walls, not fewer.
CNN.com (Money) has a look at a few house hunting horror stories.
Look up … way up … to the roof of Ryerson University’s George Vari Engineering and Computer Centre and you’ll find one of a number of downtown Toronto’s rooftop gardens.
I had lunch there back in ’87. Do you have any memories of Toronto’s Captain John’s Seafood Harbour Boat restaurant, which is now heading for the scrap heap?
Still in Toronto: do you know what Density Creeps are? Well if you don’t, they’re coming to a city near you and this Treehugger contributor is in favour of them. Where do you stand on the issue?
Same story, but from the CBC’s website.
Maybe they’re finally bowing to public pressure but it seems that IKEA is getting ready to release an official Hack kit.
The Long Island home that inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald to write “The Great Gatsby” can be yours for a mere $3.9 million.
The LCBO plans to open up craft beer specialty stores in locations across Ontario.
If you thought Mr. Frederickson from the movie “UP” was stubborn about not moving, have a look at China’s “nail houses”: homeowners who refuse to budge despite a highway being built around them.
While in China, go from the hectic life of highways to a quiet place to get some summer reading done. The Sanlian Public Library can be found on a secluded beach near the port city of Qinhuangdao, China.
The son of China’s richest man bought two (yes, TWO!) gold Apple Watches for his canine best friend. I wonder if they’re using the REALTOR.ca app to look for a new dog house.
Kijiji has produced a series of graphics that show just how much it costs to rent a place while attending Canada’s colleges or universities.
A possible expansion of London’s Heathrow Airport could destroy a millennia-old village.
Another flight-related story from London involves Regent Canal in central London and the recent addition of duck lanes. But how do the ducks know to use them?
In London: from the air to the ground to below ground, if you’re looking for a place to hold your next after-work soirée or dinner party, you may be able to rent out an abandoned London subway station.
A Sudbury-based company is trying to help seniors and their families with the transition of moving into smaller homes or long-term care.
An anonymous whistleblower (if that’s what they really think they are) is posting Instagram photos of Melbourne’s ugliest homes. Could something like this happen in your neighbourhood?
This creative Kawartha getaway uses least-likely cottage material in a surprising — and award-winning — way.
Thinking of building an 1,100-room palace? Don’t do what the Turkish President did and make sure it’s not on protected land.
It’s been calculated how much certain TV show homes would cost – like the Dunphy’s of West Los Angeles or the Brady’s of North Hollywood.
Here are five stats that show that Airbnb is becoming big in Cuba.
