All Blog Entries by Rachel R. Vanderveen

The absolute worst time to take kids to lessons has got to be between 4:30-5:30, and yet this seems to be when everyone offers extracurricular activities for kids in our children’s age groups. I don’t see how other moms make this fly. How can you get the kids from school, make dinner, and get them to the lessons on time? Not to mention stay at the facility and wait for them to be done? Maybe they make better use of their slow cookers than I do.

Living in Auburn Bay is such a pleasure, and our community centre, the Auburn House, is one of the most beautiful in the SE. We’ve done a few lessons there, but since we’ve started homeschool, I’ve focused more on the South Fish Creek Community Association (SFCA) for classes because they offer homeschool

This time of the year is perfect for retreating into the warmth of your home. Maybe now that the gardening season is finished, you can finally tackle painting that neglected room, or give another part of your interior some TLC. If you prefer to get out and about, you're sure to find something that appeals to you amongst the many get-togethers offered in Calgary's southeast quadrant. Have a look below to get the scoop on events coming up this October.

• A class on infant and child CPR will be held next Saturday, October 20th, to go over the basics of emergency care for children and tiny tots. This $30 talk is a great refresher for those who have already taken certification courses or who'd like to know the bare bones of CPR for wee ones. It will take

I know I harp on this a lot guys, but I just ran into this issue on another deal, and I just can’t emphasize enough how important it is to get those permits in place while you are in the process of developing, not after! If I haven’t convinced you with previous posts, here’s another one to set you on the straight and narrow.

1. In some cases, not having permits could void some or all of your home insurance.
2. Getting permits done after the fact, costs ten times the effort and money.
3. If your work is discovered and the city, for whatever reason, doesn’t want it there. They can make you demolish it.
4. If you don’t get permits on the work you did in 2012, you may go to sell the home in 2022 (and be forced to get permits at that time) at which

I know I’ve been complaining about the basement for many months now, but unfortunately I have to take to my blog once more to off load about the perils of our never-ending project.

The basement is mostly complete. We have a few touch-ups, but we’re saving those for later. We just need to move our stuff now and get our school room up and running so that we catch up on all the days of homeschool that we missed.

This move into the basement is one of epic proportions. So much moving has to happen that it feels like we are actually moving into a new house. Let me explain: Our oldest boys are moving out of their upstairs room and down to the basement. Our middle two are moving into a different room in the upstairs, and the baby is moving into the nursery.

There’s nothing more deflating than finding flaws on your home inspection, and suddenly doubting the price you paid for the home. Certain types of flaws definitely warrant a second look at the purchase price. There are times when it is entirely appropriate to do this, and there are times when it is neither helpful nor appropriate. Let’s go through a few examples.

When we go through a home with a home inspector, we are looking for all types of defects so that buyers can enter their home purchase with confidence---knowing exactly what they bought. However, we want to be especially mindful of material latent defects. These are defects which are hazardous, or potentially hazardous, and/or would involve great expense to remedy. These are usually defects

Well the summer is over and Clint and I are back from vacation in Sandpoint. Faith became really sick while we were away, and Trinity also became ill (though not as bad as Faithy) and I had my first experience in going to an American hospital. Thank goodness we had insurance!

Summer vacation can always go one of two ways, I think, and this year I’m sad to admit that I think I missed the mark. No matter how long you go away for, you have to have your head in vacation mode, and be ready to relax. I think I had it at first, but I lost it somewhere in the middle.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the circumstances surrounding you, and forget about the bigger picture. Faith had pneumonia, and going out by the lake or swimming in the pool was kind of

5: Number of videos I watched on YouTube trying to find the best version of the Spice Girls at the closing ceremonies because I didn’t get to see it live.

2: Number of cups of coffee I had without creamer because we’re out. Uggggh

1: Number of dinners out that I planned for the Vanderveen extended family and then foisted upon my parents-in-law.

300: Probable dollar-cost of the dinner out which was put upon my father in law. Thanks, dad!

2.99: Amount of money spent renting a certain Miley Cyrus movie off of iTunes. I’m not proud of myself. I don’t want to talk about it.

10: Time that we left our dear friends’ house last night with cranky kids in tow. Time spent with them was well worth the sleep-deprived bear-ish kids today.

3: Number of

There’s nothing worse than writing an offer on a property and then having your agent tell you that another offer has come in on the property you just wrote on. There is a lot of misinformation about the multiple offer process in Calgary so I would like to take a minute to dispel a common myth about Calgary real estate bidding wars: do Calgary real estate agent’s invent multiple offers?

We do not “invent” them, as in we make up something that doesn’t exist. We do, (if we’re a good listing agent) do absolutely everything we can to encourage them with every skill we have, and there are ways of legally doing that! We actually cannot make up a false bid because we are required to disclose to all agents bringing offers, all the names and brokerages of all

Today’s blog is all about builder upgrades gone right, and pulling together a colour scheme/theme in a new build without ever seeing it all first hand. With so many options available to you when you’re building a home, it’s hard to decide which upgrades will be best for value, and which ones will be worth it, even if they’re only for enjoyment. When it comes to pulling the whole house together with your own personal style it can be difficult to put your own vision into a new buld in Calgary when you can't actually walk into the house that you're decorating.

I have a friend named Erin who lives in Auburn Bay, and who has a keen natural eye for interior design. I took one look at her home a few years ago and I was in love. I think she and her hubby

This is the blog I’ve been waiting to write! I stopped by the home that had the amazing corner lot the other day and snapped some photos of her corner lot. I’ll show them to you first, and then I’ll discuss what she has done so well. I will note that the homeowner gave me permission to leave the address visible to the public, but for anyone else interested in showcasing their home here, I can always remove the indications of address.

OK, look at the majesty here! Being owners of a corner lot, Clint and I have always struggled with what to do with all that extra space we have! You can see that this homeowner made the best use of her land, and certainly added a lot of value by adding this elegant tea patio and garden. You can’t see in the above photo