Monitor Your Home with a Wi-fi Camera

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Have you ever wanted to know what is going on inside or outside your home while you are away? New digital technology is making this possible and at a low cost.  In just a few minutes you will be able to remotely view your home or workplace from any location, simply using a Wi-Fi webcam and a broadband internet connection.

What you'll needTo set up your home monitoring webcam you will need a wireless router, Wi-Fi Webcam, and an Ethernet cable. These items are readily available from most electronic shops and cost around $300.

A broadband connection and a wireless router are the basic infrastructures you'll need to set up a webcam. We recommend an 802.11g router for maximum throughput. We used a Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster (WRT54GS) from Linksys.

For the webcam, we recommend "X10 AirSight Wireless IP Camera"  available from (http://www.x10.com) The camera includes an Ethernet cable, an AC adapter, and a setup CD. A built-in microphone, which transmits sound across the Net is also part of the package.

Installation Follow the supplier installation instructions to set up the webcam and install the monitoring software. The process is simple and can be completed in less than 30 minutes for a tech-savvy person (however it may be a bit tricky for an ordinary user). 

The Payoff Once the software is set up and the webcam installation is completed, you can see your camera from anywhere using the web. No matter where you may be in the world, get online from your laptop, work PC, hotel computer, smartphone, tablet and more. As long as you have Internet access and the password, you can view and control your webcam with ease.  Multiple users (friends, family members, etc.) can also access the camera feed(s) from other locations.

True 24-hour surveillance Most surveillance webcams are equipped with real Night Vision technology to function 24 hours a day in any lighting condition. In well-lit areas, it provides crisp, full-colour video. In darker conditions, the camera automatically enables Night Vision, adjusting so you can see in incredibly low lighting conditions.

Online video recording and snapshots The software allows you to capture what you're seeing on your computer hard drive. Simply click the snapshot tab to take still pictures or click the record tab to record actual video and save it to a designated folder. The snapshots will come up in a new browser window so it's easy to save as a JPEG in the folder of your choice. The recorded video will automatically save as a MPEG in the designated folder.

Security issuesBecause the webcam runs through your Wi-Fi network, it is protected by  WEP, WPA or WPA2 encryption. But remember to activate the Wi-Fi security encryption and protect your network with a good password.

How to Create an Edible Garden

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Many of us are lucky enough to have at least a small area of land surrounding our homes. Yet we often choose to plant grass, marigold and azalea beds, wisteria, hedges or other plants that look nice but don’t give us anything in the way of nutritional value. Edible plants are equally beautiful and good for our health by providing plenty of fresh food for our diet. However, many people avoid growing food because they can't imagine planting and maintaining a vegetable garden.

Nearly any homeowner can grow a meaningful amount of food in their yard. Making edible plants part of your overall landscaping plans can result in a beautiful outdoor space, full of interesting textures and designs that taste as good as they look.

Edible plants can be easily incorporated into your ornamental landscape design. Many edible landscapes utilize plants that look great year round, yet are low maintenance and don’t need to be replanted annually like many of those used in a kitchen garden. Make sure you select species of edible and fruit-bearing plants that are suitable for the climate in your area.

An easy approach to growing food involves starting with a simple one-on-one replacement. Switch out just one ornamental plant or tree with something similar that's edible. Then try it again with something else. Go at whatever pace suits you. For example, you could replace a magnolia tree with a Fuyu persimmon, planting peppers in place of zinnias, using hanging tomato plants in place of hanging spider plants, and switching out boxwood with blueberries.

Consider replacing a typical landscape with decorative borders of herbs, rainbow chard, and striking paprika peppers. Instead of the fleeting colour of spring azaleas, try the year-round beauty of blueberries—or pear and plum trees, which put on a spring show of flowers and colourful fruits that produce yellow fall foliage. These plants aren’t just pretty—they provide healthy food and save money and resources.

Fruiting shrubs like blueberries, currants, and elderberries are attractive shrubs in their own right, putting out pretty flowers in spring and, especially in the case of blueberries, a colourful fall show. In addition, they produce loads of delicious fruit.

Adding herbs to your landscape makes good economic sense. Reserve a small section of your vegetable garden for herbs or integrate them into your landscape. Rosemary, sage, thyme, winter savory, basil, and oregano all blend in well with flowering perennials.

Growing fruits and vegetables in your yard provide an inexpensive source of healthy produce and the chance to grow unusual varieties. It may seem overwhelming to most people, but it’s actually much simpler than it sounds. All you need is a few square feet of the great outdoors, a water source, and a little time. Your grandparents did it, and so can you.

Low Cost Kitchen Facelifts!

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If you are looking for the best bang for your renovation dollar, kitchens and bathrooms are still considered to be the projects with the highest potential to add or maintain value in a home.

If you are considering selling your home in the near future, talk to a REALTOR® for tips on how to make your home more appealing and “saleable.” You may find that a new kitchen is not in your best interests and a fresh coat of paint and some minor repairs are all that’s needed. Because renovating a kitchen can be one of the more expensive projects a homeowner will undertake, you’ll want to consider the length of time you expect to stay in your house.

According to the Appraisal Institute of Canada, if you are remodelling your kitchen as a face-lift prior to selling it, it’s recommended that you spend no more than 5-10% of the cost of your house. If you are going to remain in your house for more than five years, you can spend 15% or more – and in most cases, you will recoup the cost of the renovation when you sell.

How much will it cost?
Kitchen renovations can cost you anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 for a cosmetic facelift with no new cabinets, plumbing or electrical changes. Look to spend at least $10,000 if you choose new low-end cabinetry, counters, appliances, flooring, paint, and some minor structural changes. However, the sky’s the limit when it comes to a new kitchen and you can expect to pay $20,000 and up for high-quality cabinets, custom work and many upgrades.

Keeping costs down
There are ways to cut costs when updating your kitchen without sacrificing quality.
Regardless of your budget, do not skimp on design, appliances, or labour. These are the basis for a functional kitchen and you should get the best you can afford. To keep costs to a minimum, use stock cabinets instead of custom work, laminates instead of solids, and hang on to your current appliances, if you can. Also, try to keep your existing plumbing and electrical and don't make structural changes to the room.

Planning ahead in detail will also save you money. Any changes or corrections halfway through the process will be expensive.

Tips for low-cost kitchen makeovers
If your budget is tight and smaller projects are what you’re aiming for, here are a few ideas:

Resurface or repaint old cupboards
Paint is inexpensive and can transform wooden cupboards in a matter of hours. Try a new painting technique, or a textured look, or a zesty combination of colours. You can also resurface old cupboards with wood laminate, or one of the new, non-traditional plastic-based materials that resist chipping, denting and staining.  Formica countertops, for example, provide the look and feel of expensive solid surfacing at about half the cost.

Use more glassReplace a few cabinets with glass ones. Glass and mirrors in a room add the illusion of more space, as well as glamour -- especially if you add interior lights to your new cupboards.

Change your hardware
Simply adding new cabinet and drawer handles can change the look of a kitchen. With many choices in colour, size, and style of drawer knobs and handles, there’s no limit to what you can achieve.

Floor and wall facelifts
Paint, wallpaper, and flooring in a variety of textures, styles, colours and patterns can easily spice up a bland kitchen. Stencil a border around a window, below a ceiling, or between the cupboards and the countertops and you can change the mood overnight.

Be innovative
A good kitchen should not only look great but stand up to daily wear and tear. It should function well and enable people to move freely between it and related areas of the house.

If you plan to completely remodel the kitchen, be honest about your ability. You may want to leave this important job in the hands of an expert who can do the work quickly and professionally. A kitchen designer/contractor can suggest unique ideas and come up with creative solutions to particular problems. Finally, be sure to get at least two bids on the work you plan to do and compare these carefully.

Record High Home Prices Continue in May

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The number of home sales through the Multiple Listing System (MLS® System) of the Kitchener-Waterloo Association of REALTORS® (KWAR) in May were on par with the same month last year. There were 694 residential sales last month, an increase of 11 per cent compared to April, and an increase of 7.2 per cent compared to the previous ten-year average for May.  

Total residential sales in May included 429 detached (up 2.6 per cent), and 68 condominium apartments (down 23.6 per cent). Sales also included 137 townhouses (down 4.2 per cent) and 60 semi-detached homes (up 36.4 per cent). 

“Home sales were strong last month,” says Brian Santos, KWAR President. “May is often the most active month in a given year, but the way sales picked up in momentum after the Victoria Day holiday makes me think we could see sales activity in June surpass May.

The average sale price of all residential properties sold in May increased by 10.6 per cent to $534,348 compared to May 2018. Detached homes sold for an average price of $623,289 an increase of 9.1 per cent compared to May of last year. During this same period, the average sale price for an apartment style condominium was $332,309 for an increase of 11.3 per cent. Townhomes and semis sold for an average of $402,426 (up 9.8 per cent) and $432,207 (up 9.3 per cent) respectively.

The median price of all residential properties sold last month increased 11.2 per cent to $495,000, and the median price of a detached home during the same period increased by 10.4 per cent to $575,000

REALTORS® listed 1,123 residential properties in K-W and area last month, an increase of 5 per cent compared to May of 2018, and an increase of 12 per cent in comparison to the previous ten-year average for the month of May. The total number of homes available for sale in active status at the end of May totalled 1,012, a decrease of 0.8 per cent compared to May of last year, and well below the previous ten-year average of 1,607 listings for May. Months Supply of Homes for sale stood at 2.1 months in May, which is on par with the same period last year.  

“It was good to see more listings coming onto the market in May, but home buying demand continues to outpace the number of homes available,” says Santos. “I hope to see more listing activity in June and into the summer months. With mortgage rates as low as they are—demand from buyers is bound to stay strong, making it a good time to sell your home.”  

The average days it took to sell a home in May was 12 days, compared to 13 days in May 2018.

While the majority of residential MLS® System activity is properties for sale, REALTORS® are increasingly asked to represent landlords and tenants. Last month 65 residential leases occurred through KWAR’s MLS® System, an increase of 8.3 per cent compared to May of last year and a 164.2 increase compared to the previous ten-year average.