I've lived in Toronto for over 20 years now. Every year goes by and I notice a line up in front of the Flatiron Building at the corners of Church, Wellington and Front Streets. And I think to myself - what's going on? Only to find out - too late - that the annual event known as Open Doors Toronto was taking place and I missed it again.
This year was different - a couple of weeks before the event there was an article in the Toronto Star outlining the different venues and finally - I took advantage and went to a couple of the buildings on tour.
This year my focus is on building a second storey onto my 1939 bungalow in East York. And we are looking for some "green" solutions to heating and electricity use. I discovered that there were several buildings in the Open Doors list that were "green" buildings - so we went to see 2 of them.
One of them was on Queen East where they were using a Geo Thermal system for heating.
For me the most interesting location was called the Ravina Project - 2 people have taken their home and made it into a science experiment to study how efficient some of the newest heating and hydro systems are.
Click on this link and go to page 12 of this the Green Guide to Open Doors
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
What makes Toronto a great place to live?
A few weeks ago, we went to a concert put on by a young Canadian artist who won the Canadian Idol Contest last year. I know - you're thinking - really???? But this young lady - Eva Avila is an amazing artist. Vocally she has great pipes and really knows how to interpret a song.
Reminds of Celine Dion before she went off the deep end!
Getting back to the point.
The concert took place at the Music Hall on the Danforth. This concert hall has gone through a revival recently when an entrepreneur bought the theatre and starting improving it. We had gone a number of years ago to see a show at the Music Hall and we were amazed at how run down it had become. It has improved a lot but still needs work.
So in the heart of Toronto, is this great old theatre in the middle of a very residential neighbourhood - Riverdale. And I think what keeps Toronto vibrant is that it is not a city where people work downtown and live in the suburbs. Downtown Toronto, especially with the development of so many condominiums has become more and more the place to be.
Queen West - with the advent of the Drake Hotel and the Gladstone Hotel - keeps developing further and further west - and soon enough this will have an impact on Parkdale.
Queen East - Leslieville - has really developed into a great area to live. When we lived there about 15 years ago - we kept hoping that it would become what it has become today. Lots of cool shopping and wonderful restaurants. Starbucks even decided to open shop here - and you know they don't open locations lightly!
This is what makes Toronto a great place to live - people out on the street - walking safely - sitting in cafes - going about their lives - an amazing place to live!
Reminds of Celine Dion before she went off the deep end!
Getting back to the point.
The concert took place at the Music Hall on the Danforth. This concert hall has gone through a revival recently when an entrepreneur bought the theatre and starting improving it. We had gone a number of years ago to see a show at the Music Hall and we were amazed at how run down it had become. It has improved a lot but still needs work.
So in the heart of Toronto, is this great old theatre in the middle of a very residential neighbourhood - Riverdale. And I think what keeps Toronto vibrant is that it is not a city where people work downtown and live in the suburbs. Downtown Toronto, especially with the development of so many condominiums has become more and more the place to be.
Queen West - with the advent of the Drake Hotel and the Gladstone Hotel - keeps developing further and further west - and soon enough this will have an impact on Parkdale.
Queen East - Leslieville - has really developed into a great area to live. When we lived there about 15 years ago - we kept hoping that it would become what it has become today. Lots of cool shopping and wonderful restaurants. Starbucks even decided to open shop here - and you know they don't open locations lightly!
This is what makes Toronto a great place to live - people out on the street - walking safely - sitting in cafes - going about their lives - an amazing place to live!
Thursday, May 3, 2007
the Living Green Show
A few weeks ago, I had gone to the REMAX sponsored National Home Show to see if there would be anything new and exciting that was being offered.
And as mundane as it sounds, the best demonstration had to do with spray foam insulation. A demonstration was setup in clear plactic boxes. Each box was being heated from below like a gas furnace heats a home. At the top of the box, insulation was placed to demonstrate 3 types insulation; fiberglass, cellulose and the latest spray foam.
What the demonstration was trying to illustrate is how well each type of insulation works. As you may or may not know, if you measure the temperature of the heat coming out of vent, it is much hotter than the temperature you are trying to heat the room to. Often 20-25 degrees hotter thant the temperature set at the thermostat. It takes a lot of heat to make your home feel like 80F (20C).
What was stunning in fact was how much heat was escaping out of the roofs of the "demo homes" with fibre glass and cellulose with R factors of 30. The temperature the fibre glass chimney and cellulose chimney ranged from 98F to 103F while the spray foam insulation with an R factor of only 13 was consistantly 15 degrees cooler! This was a very powerful demo and in fact, we plan to use this material to insulate our home when we add are second floor addition.
Now getting back to the Living Green Show! I wondered how they could fill that huge space with vendors - but they did.
Every automaker who sold Hybrid Cars had a model on display.
There was a food section with suppliers of all sorts of organic foods.
Clothing made from hemp.
And of course many vendors who were selling greener ways to heat and build your home.
Since we are in the early stages of planning for a renovation, we were looking for different ideas on how the make our home as green as possible.
Our most exciting discovery was a roofing product with a 50 year guarantee transferable to subsequent owners!!!!! The shingles were made of recycled rubber tires. They came in different colours and design and in fact, we were told that the shingles would proably last in upwards of 100 years! WOW! Plus - these "shingles" were great insulators as well!
Hope you made it there this past weekend......it was worth going to.
Sam
And as mundane as it sounds, the best demonstration had to do with spray foam insulation. A demonstration was setup in clear plactic boxes. Each box was being heated from below like a gas furnace heats a home. At the top of the box, insulation was placed to demonstrate 3 types insulation; fiberglass, cellulose and the latest spray foam.
What the demonstration was trying to illustrate is how well each type of insulation works. As you may or may not know, if you measure the temperature of the heat coming out of vent, it is much hotter than the temperature you are trying to heat the room to. Often 20-25 degrees hotter thant the temperature set at the thermostat. It takes a lot of heat to make your home feel like 80F (20C).
What was stunning in fact was how much heat was escaping out of the roofs of the "demo homes" with fibre glass and cellulose with R factors of 30. The temperature the fibre glass chimney and cellulose chimney ranged from 98F to 103F while the spray foam insulation with an R factor of only 13 was consistantly 15 degrees cooler! This was a very powerful demo and in fact, we plan to use this material to insulate our home when we add are second floor addition.
Now getting back to the Living Green Show! I wondered how they could fill that huge space with vendors - but they did.
Every automaker who sold Hybrid Cars had a model on display.
There was a food section with suppliers of all sorts of organic foods.
Clothing made from hemp.
And of course many vendors who were selling greener ways to heat and build your home.
Since we are in the early stages of planning for a renovation, we were looking for different ideas on how the make our home as green as possible.
Our most exciting discovery was a roofing product with a 50 year guarantee transferable to subsequent owners!!!!! The shingles were made of recycled rubber tires. They came in different colours and design and in fact, we were told that the shingles would proably last in upwards of 100 years! WOW! Plus - these "shingles" were great insulators as well!
Hope you made it there this past weekend......it was worth going to.
Sam
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