[caption id="attachment_10160" align="alignright" width="300"]iStockphoto LP iStockphoto LP[/caption]

The summer season brings a panoply of ideas to improve our outdoor environment. The patio is often at the top of the list, because it’s so practical for meals and for taking a minute to relax.

If you want a patio that will pass the test of time, while maintaining an elegant look, the most important thing is to install a foundation that will support the selected material.

First, outline the perimeter of the patio that you want to build and determine the height.

Then dig to a minimum depth of 18 inches.

Line the bottom and sides of the excavation site with a landscaping cloth that will prevent the crushed stone foundation from mixing with the ground while allowing water to flow through to ensure proper drainage.

Spread about four inches of 0-3/4 crushed stone (which means that the size of the stone varies between zero and three quarters of an inch in diameter), and use a plate compactor to compact it. Repeat both steps until the patio is level, less the thickness of stones used, plus one inch.[……]

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Reduce your mortgage debt faster with these money-saving strategies:

Shorten your mortgage

Many homeowners aim to pay off their mortgages in 25 to 30 years. Reducing your amortization period by five or more years can make a huge difference in the amount of interest you pay.

Increase your payment frequency

With more frequent and accelerated payments, you may pay a little more each month, but you’ll pay your mortgage down faster, saving you interest costs over the long term.

Horloge_Toit_Pret_Hypothecaire_ISTOCKPHOTO_financeTake advantage of your mortgage prepayment options

Pay down your mortgage faster and save thousands of dollars. Here’s how:[……]

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At 10:00 a.m., the engines start running, the cables tense up and the wings open. The solar light slowly penetrates the building. Then, from above, the motors stop, the wings open to their full span, comparable to the wings of a Boeing 747. It’s as if the bird is going to take off at any time.

Under the bird, where the wings open, visitors lose themselves in the immensity of Lake Michigan, a genuine interior sea that flows by the eyes. Only large bay windows separate visitors from the waves that crash against the stone parapet. The building’s floor is almost at the same level as the surface of the lake.

Behind the visitors, at the other end of the interior space and beyond the door, a long walkway leads to Wisconsin Avenue, the city’s main artery. And the city is at about the same level as the lake. In other words, the lake is connected to the city through the building.

Inside the building, visitors file past works of art in intense light and whiteness. Everything is white: ceiling, walls, and floor.

At 5:00 p.m. the engines start up, cables move and the wings close. The solar light slowly leaves the inside of the building. After a minute, the engines fall silent, the wings are closed. The bird sleeps, folded over itself.

The wings adjust to weather conditions. Naturally they have sensors.

Milwaukee-Art-Museum_ISTOCKPHOTO_inusite

The bird is the Burke Brise Soleil. The building is the Quadracci pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum, in Milwaukee.[……]

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Beton-Marque-Imprime_ISTOCKPHOTO_renovationWith the advent of spring comes several tradeshows where exhibitors offer to have us discover the latest home renovation trends and materials. It was during one of these shows that we discovered printed or imprinted concrete.

This technique results in a decorative concrete by imitating brick, stone, wood, rock and other materials on any new concrete surface (access path, around a pool, patio, walkway or parking lot).

This technique can also be sued to restore a concrete slab by adding a certain thickness of new concrete (cover).

Google image shows results worthy of great artists. My favourites: the imitation of wide rustic wood planks or irregular stones of old roads. We could call it “concrete that fools the eyes.”

Here is a brief overview of the product’s placement.

[……]

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Reduce your mortgage debt faster with these money-saving strategies:

Shorten your mortgage

Many homeowners aim to pay off their mortgages in 25 to 30 years. Reducing your amortization period by five or more years can make a huge difference in the amount of interest you pay.

Increase your payment frequency

With more frequent and accelerated payments, you may pay a little more each month, but you’ll pay your mortgage down faster, saving you interest costs over the long term.

[caption id="attachment_922" align="aligncenter" width="580"]Horloge_Toit_Pret_Hypothecaire_ISTOCKPHOTO_finance iStockphoto LP[/caption]

Take advantage of your mortgage prepayment options

Pay down your mortgage faster and save thousands of dollars. Here’s how:[……]

Read more

Everything is white. The ceilings, the walls, the floors, the furniture, the cupboards, even the decorative cushions on the sofa. Not a trace of colour anywhere. An infinite white, an omnipresent white, an organic white washed of its entire colour.

If the residence is big, you have the impression of setting foot in a snow cathedral. Just like those winter forest scenes where the trees are bending under the snow. Everything is pure, serene, and peaceful. A long, never-ending silence.

Devotees of colour will say that it doesn’t make sense; you don’t have a completely white interior. It shows a lack of imagination and a total lack of taste. Laziness even. Living in it would be unthinkable. Colour is life. To kill the colour is to kill life.

Yet some people dare to do it. If you’ve ever visited properties along the American coasts, you may have noticed that the interior of houses along the edge of the ocean are totally white.

Are you tempted?

Salon_Blanc_Lumiere_ISTOCKPHOTO_decoration[……]

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[caption id="attachment_771" align="alignright" width="360"]maisons_hypotheque_fleche-bleu_finance iStockphoto LP[/caption]

Amid the current housing environment and in light of the wide range of mortgage solutions available on the market, how can you select the product that is best suited to your particular situation?

 

Fixed or variable rate?

When faced with having to choose a mortgage solution, many wonder which is more financially advantageous: a fixed or a variable rate mortgage?[……]

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