Halloween is behind you. You stored the scary decorations and are planning your happy holiday selection.

Now it’s time to choose the decorating style that you’d like to install outside your home—whether you live in a house, a rental, an apartment, a condo or a cottage. All homes look good illuminated with Christmas lights.

Most people like to use strands of lights because they’re easy to put up. It’s useful to know that according to Statistics Canada, LED bulbs are 90% more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs. What’s more, light emitting diode lights reduce the risk of fire, are more resistant and last up to ten times longer.

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For three years now journalists and economists have been warning us: “Watch out, interest rates are going to go up!” And then the rates stay down. Because they keep crying wolf, we don’t listen anymore—and that’s where the danger lies. One fine day, the rates are going to start rising and for some of us, it’ll be too late.

That’s the message from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC).

“While interest rates are now at all-time lows in Canada, it is likely that they will rise sometime in the future. Canadians need to look at how much debt they are carrying, particularly in the amount of their mortgages, home equity lines of credit, personal lines of credit and variable-rate personal loans,” says FCAC Commissioner Ursula Menke. “By doing a debt check-up, consumers can take a close look at their present debt burden and think about whether they would be able to handle it if their payments increase.”[……]

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Will it open or not? And if it opens, will we see a ray of light rising to the sky? Unless of course it takes the opposite route, from the heavens to the interior of the building.

Light or not, you feel like something’s about to happen, that the building’s alive, that you’re going to make contact. No, it’s not a spaceship; it’s infinitely more poetic.

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We are at the Lotus Temple in New Delhi, the capital of India. The temple belongs to the Baha’i community and its real name is the Baha’i House of Worship.[……]

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Planning the steps to renovate a kitchen is an excellent strategy to prevent your experience from turning into a nightmare.

Deciding on the amount to invest is the very first step. It enables you to determine the scale of the project.

From the very beginning, one question must be asked: Do you start from scratch or not? Do you get rid of absolutely everything or not?

The right professional help is always advised. Do you know what kitchen designers can do for you?

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On my way to work, I observe the houses I pass by. I try to guess the owner’s personality from the outside appearance of the home. It’s a game I play. Most houses don’t give off anything in particular. Some of them though, arouse my curiosity.

One rundown house suggests great sadness. It’s lived in because there are always cars in the driveway. Then there’s a house that’s absolutely impeccable, but cold as ice; it doesn’t exactly invite you to ring the bell.

At one time or another all of us have entered a house that we wanted to leave as fast as our feet could carry us, for all kinds of reasons: the decor, the atmosphere, the owner or maybe something in the very air. Human beings project themselves and are reflected in the decor, the arrangement of furniture, the division of rooms, etc.[……]

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This essay explores a common household element with a high iron content: cutlery. Moreover, the real name is flatware or a canteen. History and anecdote lovers, this one’s for you.

First and foremost, let’s specify that cutlery means knives, cutting instruments and utensils. It’s a broad term encompassing flatware and canteen. A place setting is a set of handheld eating utensils. And a canteen consists of 12 place settings in a storage case.

Today, setting a beautiful table involves a careful choice of flatware. A multitude of materials such as stainless steel, plastic, glass and more give these items unique character and enhance decor. Some utensils are real treasures with sculpted handles or blown-glass parts. So where does this fashion originate?

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My girlfriend was visiting a church in Linz, in northern Austria. I was waiting for her outside. An Austrian friend strongly recommended that we visit the building. “You have to see it,” she said.

“You’ll never guess what I saw,” my girlfriend said as she came out of the church. “I was amazed to see such beautiful sculptures. It looked like lace. When I got closer to the pieces, I noticed that human bones were the base for the detailed sculpture work!”

She was quite shaken up.

Last year she visited a chapel in the Mauricie region. As she got closer to the relics, she jumped when she saw bones, hair, nails and teeth mounted like works of art: jewels, sculptures, objects in doll houses, etc. She thought that the relics were just objects touched by an illustrious person, not human body parts!

So far, neither of these discoveries have much to do with real estate, but we’re slowly getting there.

In the same year, a young owner told us that he called the police because he found bones in the walls of the ancestral home that he and his girlfriend were renovating. The neighbours were quite curious about the police presence in this quiet corner of Nicolet.

The young woman and her boyfriend learned that the bones were animal. They were often used at the time for insulation. Horse manes and tails were also used. People used whatever was handy at the time.[……]

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