Cool Homes: Making A Splash

When I came across this home, there was no doubt in my mind that it deserves the title of Cool Homes. This home located in Italy has an indoor pool, but not in the traditional sense, it`s situated in between the living room and kitchen on the main floor! There is even a rope that you can Tarzan yourself into the pool with, how cool! I know it may seem impractical, especially if you got little kids, but the idea is still pretty innovative. So without further ado, here it is.....

What do you think?

If you have a cool space or uniquely decorated place that you would like me to feature, make sure to contact me.

***Images via Home-Designing***

Barn Light Electric Contest

My morning was spent scouring the Barn Light Electric website and let me tell you, I'm in love! There is so much eye candy, I got lost in it for hours. Besides the fact that I really like looking at unique light fixtures, they are also having a contest, which unfortunately wraps up today (so get your entries in ASAP). The lucky winners receive the following:

1. First place winner receives a $1,000 gift certificate
2. Second place winner receives a $500 gift certificate
3. Third place winner receives a $250 gift certificate

How freaking amazing, I'm keeping everything crossed in the hopes I win one of the gift certificates!

Now for the rules, I promise, it's really simple:

1. Look around online at Barn Light Electric and pick lights you’d love to own
2. Feature your lighting picks on your personal blog, and link to the lights if you can!
3. Copy/Paste these rules at the bottom of your blog article so others can enter
4. Once your personal article is up, you must email your blog link to:marketing@barnlightelectric.com to be qualified to win. The contest ends Monday, July 2nd, 2012
5. Don’t have a blog? Find out how you can enter by reading the Official Rules

So here are my picks, truly I want to own almost everything on their website, but I had to edit it down, believe me, it was hard!

Above the door to my backyard:

Warehouse Barn Light-The Laramie

My bathroom, above the mirror:

Barn Light Wall Mount Double CGU Scone

My master bedroom, 2 options:

Bodega Ceiling Fan

Machine Age Galvanized Ceiling Fan

A ceiling fan in my master bedroom is a must! I live in an old house and the air circulation is decent at best upstairs, I'm not a big fan of ceiling fans, but if I had one of these puppies in my bedroom, I would be more then content with a ceiling fan.

Living room, above my century old factory cart, 3 options:

Barn Light Warrior Pendant either in the colour as shown or yellow to match my accent pillows on the couch

Benjamin 16" Gilmore 2-Light Procelain Stem Mount Pendant, either in bronze or yellow

Barn Light Grayson Pendant, either as shown or yellow

Over my kitchen island, there are so many options I love, so I went a bit overboard:

Minimalist Polished Brass Cage Pendant

The Mig- Retro Steel Industrial Pendant Yellow

The Mig- Retro Steel Industrial Pendant Grey

Ball Jar Pendant

What do you think of these? Are you drooling yet, like I am? Make sure to drop what your doing and enter their contest today, it's the last day and it's so easy! For more light fixture goodness, you can like Barn Light Electrics Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @barnlight

On a side note, Barn Light Electric doesn't just sell lights, check out this beauty I found...

Industrial Factory Stool

A girl can dream :) Anyway wish me luck and for all you fellow Canadians, I hope you're enjoying your long weekend!

The Stockyards Plaza

I have some exciting news for all you West Torontonians, there is a new Rio Can retail plaza being built on the corner of Keele and St. Clair. For those of you who live nearby have probably already seen the construction that has been happening for a few months now, but it's still exciting and noteworthy as we definitely do not have very many plazas like this in Toronto.

The new retail plaza will have 600,000 square feet of absolute retail goodness! Here are just a few of the stores on the roster:

• Target
• Michaels
• Marshalls
• Home Sense
• Best Buy
• Petsmart
• Old Navy
• Bulk Barn
• Dollarama
• The Children's Place
• Bouclair Home
• The Shoe Company

Can you say amazing? It's your one stop shop! I couldn't be more excited for the Home Sense, Bouclair and Marshalls to open. The unfortunate thing is the plaza won't be ready until Spring 2014, sigh!




By the way, did I mention that just right across the street from this new plaza is a Canadian Tire, Home Depot, Rona and Future Shop? It's totally my dream square!

For leasing information, you can call 416-255-5590, I think it will be a gold mine for businesses.

In the meantime, which store are you most excited about?

4th Project

Today's post will encompass 3 things; Cool Homes (is it wrong thinking your own home is cool?), my featured listing and a before and after of my home renovation. This renovation is my 4th one and my 2nd one in the Junction Triangle in Toronto and it was definitely challenging at times. Lot's of hard work, sweat and tears went into this project, more so then others and I couldn't be more excited that it's finally done. I would call this project my labour of love/hate. Lot's of valuable lessons were learned along the way, but I'll save those for another post. In the meantime, here are the before and afters.........

Before...Exterior


After...Exterior

Before...Entryway, Living Room and Dining Room

After...Entryway, Living Room and Dining Room

Whole main floor gutted and open!

Before...Kitchen 








After...Kitchen

Before...Extension/Mud Room

After...Extension/Mud Room

Before...Basement

After...Basement

Before...Basement Bathroom

After...Basement Bathroom

Before...Main Washroom

After...Main Washroom

Before...Upstairs Hallway

After...Upstairs Hallway

Before...3rd Bedroom

After...3rd Bedroom

Before...2nd Bedroom

After...2nd Bedroom

Before...Master Bedroom

After...Master Bedroom

I will make one comment regarding the master bedroom as you can't really tell from the pictures, I vaulted my ceiling in this bedroom, so it went from a 9 ft ceiling to a 16 ft ceiling!!!!

Before...Backyard

After...Backyard

Here is a video of my home with additional pictures:

For more information on my home, click here.

All photographs and tours done by the fabulous Joseph K Muscat for VentureHomes.ca

More details regarding all the renovations to follow in future posts. In the meantime, what do you think?