Onni’s latest project in Port Coquitlam, The Shaughnessy on Lions Park, offers brand-new tower homes with never-before-seen views in a central Metro Vancouver location. ›› p.4
June 17, 2010
Healthy increase in Metro Vancouver starts TRICIA LESLIE
The Creative Design Works interior designer Doris Wutzke shows a Twilightthemed room at Morningstar Homes’ South Pointe in Delta. Rob Newell photo
Create a room kids will love Personalizing children’s rooms can be simple and easy to re-do MAGGIE CALLOWAY A bedroom is important to any child. It’s a refuge: a retreat from the sometimescruel world outside; a place that is safe, familiar and comforting. Designing a child’s room with a theme can be tricky in any instance, especially given the fact that interests can change from month to month. Finding a balance between the
changing interests of the child, and the speed with which they change from child to tween to teenager, can be addressed. Redesigning the room every few years can be avoided by following a few simple rules that will save both sanity and the budget. Instead of including all things sports into the son’s room, or fairy princesses into the daughter’s space, introducing wall graphics is a great solution. Readily available at paint and wallpaper shops and at home improvement stores, these graphics are easy to apply and, most important, easy to remove without damage to the wall.
Kids love colour. Colour can easily be introduced into a child’s room tastefully – without feeling like you have fallen into a pink cupcake. Pink walls, carpet, bedspread and furniture are more than a little limiting as the little girl becomes older. Pink and white wallpaper on a couple of walls with an easily replaced pink bedspread and pillows gives a nod to your child’s girly side, but allows you to move the room along with the years. Mae Saffron, co-owner of The Creative CONTINUED ON P.2
Housing starts in Metro Vancouver showed significant increases last month, to the tune of a year-over-year jump of 150 per cent, reports the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. In the Vancouver Census Metropolitan Area in May, 1,173 starts were recorded, and CMHC notes the single-family housing market, especially, is performing well and “overall new housing construction is in line with key economic indicators.” In the Abbotsford CMA, starts climbed 159 per cent compared to the same time last year. CMHC senior market analyst Robyn Adamache says construction of Peter Simpson single-detached homes during the first five month of the year has improved and is currently above the 10year historic average. While the multiple-unit sector is showing improvement, the current level of starts is below the 10-year average, Adamache notes. “Most housing market indicators suggest that the new home construction market is in balanced conditions this year,” she says. Nationally, housing starts decreased in both the single and the multiple sectors, CMHC reports. But in Metro Vancouver, local builders remain busy with new home construction. Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association president and CEO Peter Simpson notes that starts are up significantly locally, for both the month and the year. “A lot of builders are optimistic about the future. They’re launching many new projects,” Simpson says. He conducted an e-mail survey last week that polled GVHBA builders to see what CONTINUED ON P.2