Betsy Carstairs

To stimulate the real estate & buiding market the government has offered a incentive for 1st time buyers http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/nwsrm/rlss/2009/m02/nr090202-eng.pdf In a nut shell it gives 1st time buyers $750. for closing costs. Even with the softening in prices this "gift" is not enough to not get new buyers racing off to purchase their 1st piece of real estate As Shakespeare would say "m ...

  This past weekend I attended a Writing & Nia workshop called "Writing from the Body". It was held at Jan Jensen's beautiful home in Secret Cove just a half hour drive up from Sechelt.         Jan led the group in Nia inspired gentle movements, then Claire Robson guided us in writing exercises. I was surprised at how easy it was for me to write after the Nia moves. It was as if the mov ...

  I have just returned from vacationing in Australia and New Zealand. I certainly picked a good January to head South with all the snow we've had this year! As well, the exchange rate in New Zealand was a 25% bonus!! I spent lots of time sailing, kayaking and swimming. Miles and miles of gorgeous sandy beaches.                                Temperatures were in the mid to high 20's ... ...

This month I celebrated with 30 days of new beginnings!             Yes, each day in November, my birth month, I invited friends to come join in the celebration! With so many cherished friends it would have been a disappointing visit to try to cram them all into just 1 day. The storytelling evening  was a wonderful night where few friends and my 2 daughters ...

I recently had a crash course in searching for a new water tank to be installed. It took just about all day to locate a reasonably priced tank & install … here’s what our research turned up: 40-gal GAS HOT WATER TANK SURVEY   MILANI                KEITH                HOME DEPOT             KC Plumbing 604-456-8888       604-988-5241   604-913-2630 WVan        604-873-3753 E ...

Monday was my 60th birthday and 20 of us were driven up to North Arm Farms in Pemberton to drink more wine and eat yet more delicious food.       Was it possible for food and drink to have gotten any better than the previous 2 days?!?! YES!!! OUTSTANDING!!   The mayor of Pemberton and owner of North Arm Farms talked to us about the importance of embracing or ...

Day 2 was a rare vintage celebration!   This was an extra special tasting of 12 varieties of rare wines ending with David Scholefield sharing a bottle of port – one of the vary few precious bottles that survived the fire that razed his home and wine cellar to the ground in March 2008. A very special moment indeed that brought tears to the eyes of some of the participants.   ...

Cornucopia 2008 – Part 1   Another successful Cornucopia celebration at Whistler this year! Last Sunday’s palate experience was the Chef’s Table Luncheon at the Cinnamon Bear Bar & Grille with Executive Chef Mario Fernadez & wines exquisitely paired & poured by Christa-Lee McWatters Bond from Sumac Ridge Estate Winery.   One of the highlights was the Sumac Ridge 2006 B ...

Today's informative blog comes to us with compliments from Heather Woods a mortgage broker with Dominion Lending Centres:  Winterizing Your Home Preparing Your Home for Winter Now is a good time to prepare your home for winter, with the temperatures beginning to dip, your home will require maintenance to keep it in tip-top shape througho ...

With technology advancing at such a fast pace, why is it that the life expectancy of a hot water tank has shrunk from 35 years to 10 years???   The house I bought in 1980 had the original hot water tank and at 35 years old it was still running flawlessly. I don’t understand why they now make tanks with 1/3 the life span especially when this adds huge debris to landfill sites. ...