Everyone has a preference when it comes to interior design and paint colours. As home owners, paint colour is something that reflects our individual personalities and truly makes our home unique. But did you know that your choice of wall colour impacts the way your home can retain or reflect heat?

We always recommend investing in your home to keep it functioning optimally and kept as safe as possible. Proper insulation, venting and HVAC are a necessity in our climate and should be given priority in our living budget. However, there are some fashionable interior design tricks that will help warm up cold spots in your home short-term until you are able to address the root source of your heating issues.

As we get deeper into the fall season and wait for winter to approach, it's inevitable. Snow is coming soon! Winter often roars in with a huge dump of wet snow and we retreat to the comfort of our homes. However, have you ever given consideration to your heating system and what it needs to work optimally during these snowy conditions?

As a homeowner, one of our biggest monthly expenses is home energy - over half our energy budget is used to heat and cool our home's air and water. It is an expense that is necessary in our climate for obvious reasons. But did you know that it is often an expense that can be reduced through some wise investments back into your home?

Have you ever noticed our ACs and furnaces seem to malfunction in during the hottest and coldest days of the year? Why is this? Bad luck, Murphy's Law? Pure coincidence? It could simply just be bad timing. However, there could also be a few reasons causing these problems to show up in the worst times possible.

Given the choice, most homeowners would choose a central air conditioning system. However, there is one factor that weighs heavily on that decision - cost! A central air system is way more costly than a window unit, but before you let cost alone be the deciding factor, it is important to study all the pros and cons of each.

As our cooling unit ages, it takes on a lot of wear and tear. Aging symptoms can develop slowly as parts begin to fail, or suddenly on the hottest day of the year. On average, cooling units usually last for around 15 years - which is the age we usually recommend replacement if repair issues start happening.

Few things in life are as exciting and consuming as house hunting. Many factors go into your decision such as basic needs, add-ons and budget - along with the condition of your new investment. It is important to place the quality and condition of the home's HVAC system at the top of your list.

In our climate, the outdoor season can seem short - which is why we should enjoy it! By adding natural gas to your favourite outdoor living space, you can turn your patio into an amazing summer getaway or even extend the outdoor season for just a little bit longer.

Congratulations to Kathryn Penner for winning the BBQ draw from the 2018 Home and Garden Show. Thank you to everyone that entered.

Windows are a beautiful component of our home, however they are also the largest openings to the outdoor elements. Windows allow sunlight to enter our living space during the day and can raise temps within minutes. A proper window strategy can make a big difference in your monthly energy costs - costing you money, or saving you money if you know what to do.

If you are lucky enough to have a sunroom attached to your home, you know how enjoyable it can be during a sunny winter day or on a warm summer evening. Sunrooms can be a perfect middle ground between the indoors and outdoors - providing you with a nice little getaway. However, in our climate owners also have to deal with extreme temperature changes in winter and summer months. If the room isn’t set up with some sort of climate control, it could go unused for a good half of the year. For that reason, we thought we’d share a few heating and cooling tips that might get some more use from one of your favourite places.

Space heaters can be a 'quick-fix' in regards to your winter comfort. When the long, cold winter months set in, we typically raise the temperature on our central heating units. This is when people often turn to the use of space heaters. There is a certain role portable space heaters can play if you don't intend on warming your entire house - a quick, short-term solution.