Cleaning the Property – No Chemicals Please!

After all the partying of the holiday season, your home is probably feeling neglected and needs a complete clean. You could take the effortless way and pay for professionals or spend lots of money on expensive cleaning items. Or you could have a look at our guide and do the chore yourself. To keep costs down use a homemade cleaner which has the added benefits of being eco-friendly and less risky to your health. The greatest anxieties are germ control and cleansing effectiveness, which can be accomplished without toxic chemicals. With minimal or even no chemicals, our article will help you achieve that clean and germ free home. Julie Kinnear, GTA MLS expert known for her environmental approach, will share few tips with you!

The Right way to Wash the Microwave

Don’t just focus on the outside of your appliances, food waste gets left inside the microwave causing disgusting smells and a hard to clean surface. Place a bowl of water with pieces of lemon and orange inside is advised by British hygiene specialists. Cook on full power for about 5 minutes before wiping clean with a soft cloth or sponge and you will notice how easy the debris wipes away due to the steam made. (The oranges absorb the grease while the lemon eliminates odours) Use a wet cloth (a dry one will catch fire) if citrus fruits are not obtainable, as the water from the cloth will create steam. The outcome of the wet cloth is similar to the citrus fruit procedure if left in the microwave for a few minutes.

The Right Way to Clean the Fridge

To get rid of food spillage and other marks in your fridge, simply use soapy water including very little soap). A toothbrush with a little bit of toothpaste is great for those hard to reach places. Turn off your freezer if that needs cleaning and place a dish of hot water inside, this creates heat which helps the ice melt. Clean the inside with lemon water to get rid of the food odours-it will leave your fridge and freezer smelling nice.

Cleaning the Top of your Kitchen Cooker Efficiently

Some cooker tops are very prone to gouges so you need to take meticulous care, such as glass-ceramic electric or induction cookers. It’s best to wipe off the cook top right after cooking to avoid any tough stains or burned food sticking. Baking soda mixed with water, utilized with a plastic brush, can be used to gently scrub to top of your cooker clean if grease and burnt on food becomes a problem

How to Scrub your Oven

Cleaning the oven is a task most individuals hate to do. If you aren’t fortunate enough to possess a self-cleaning one, the job is not fun. Certainly there are a few ways to succeed in doing the job that are not difficult to do. Mix 5 tbsp of baking soda, 3 drops of liquid soap, and 4 tbsp of white vinegar into a dense paste; this is one of the most uncomplicated products you can make to scrub out your oven. Using a sponge to scrub, apply the mixture to the inside of your oven. Once you have completed that step, wipe the mixture away and rinse thoroughly before letting the oven dry out. Half a cup of ammonia left in a closed oven overnight is another common cleaning technique. Throw away of the ammonia in the morning and clean the surfaces down with a wet cloth to see the outcome of your work.

Utilizing White Vinegar to Get Rid of Black Mold

Mold by xdjio

Toronto home owners are detecting those nasty black or green mold stains now the air moisture is higher due to Autumn weather. Just because you have mold doesn’t mean your home is grimy. In every property, miscellaneous parts get damaged over time and sometimes it takes a while to notice it. These cracks are a home for those molds and until they happen to smell or the stain becomes evident then the mold continues its unrelenting breeding. Mold can also be a problem in some houses all year round in places that there is high moisture such as the bathroom and kitchen. With the same answer it doesn’t matter if you have dampness due to higher air moisture in the fall or a steamy bathroom year round.

You have a choice now, whether to engage professionals or do it yourself

Of course there are plenty of companies out there that would gladly solve this issue for you, but since many people think twice before paying out money on work they can do themselves, here’s some DIY, eco-friendly solutions. Having said that, should you determine that the area affected by mold is rather large (ie over 10 sq ft or so), calling a specialist would be a good idea.

Be aware of safety before you start to solve the issue

A couple of molds such as black mold can be dangerous to humans and quite toxic, though most are perfectly innocent. Make sure before commencing to clean that you acquire a sturdy pair of rubber gloves and a particle mask such as the N95. Most hardware stores stock tests kits, whereby you can send off a sample for analysis, which should put your mind at rest about which breed of mold you are dealing with. If a member of your household has an allergy or respiratory issues then this kit would help you decide which option you choose.

Eco-Friendly Cleaning Products

For cost effectiveness, environmentally friendly and availability, white vinegar stands the highest for dealing with mold. Just like it will drive away ants (as we recently wrote about in the first issue of Toronto homeowner’s guide), it will not only eradicate the fungi, but also bacteria; it will even dissolve lime scale. Distilled white vinegar is a 100% degradable detergent that can go up against with all those high-priced anti-fungal sprays on the market, without emptying your purse.

Extermination and Prevention

If you want to get rid of mold long-term or as long as possible, you have to appreciate that it will require a few treatments. Thoroughly cleaning the problem areas is a must as mold will just turn up again. Then it is necessary to make the rooms in your property less mold-friendly. When you are cleaning the area you want to avoid making the mold spores airbourne otherwise they will settle in another place, therefore wet the area before cleaning it with your chosen product. Once you have finished cleaning, totally dry the surface.

Porous surfaces, on the other hand, such as fabric, drywall, wall paper, or wood, are very problematic or impossible to clear of mold. You are better off changing such items. Stopping mold in the first place is pretty straightforward. Try to rid your property of the situations where mold appears, such as leaky water pipes; also control the humidity in your home with a hygrometer so you can take preventative action if it gets too high. Simple precautionary steps such as constant airing is important. Maintaining the humidity to less than 60% helps prevent mold returning. In summery weather humidity rises, so invest in a good air conditioner, if it has filters, as these are a breeding ground for mold, make sure they are regularly cleaned. On the opposite vein, buy a dehumidifier for those chilly and wet days. Best of luck, and here’s to a mold free property.

What Is in Store for the United Nations Climate Change Conference to Be Hosted in Denmark in December 2009?

Image by ToastyKen

With the climate change conference scheduled to run in just a few weeks, I thought I would write about my feelings on the discussions about to take place. Even though I make a living as a realtor in Toronto, I do find some spare time to deliberate about something else than homes. Climate change is one special area that attracts me.

From the 7th – 18th December this year Denmark is accommodating the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Climate Change mitigation is an pressing issue to be brought up by people attending the conference. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t see this conference as a meeting ground of climate change enthusiasts. The operation is anything but united.

When Barack Obama became president, many activists hoped for a new era in climate change mitigation. What should this new time of climate change look like is the inquiry on people’s lips? The Kyoto protocol, believed to be a springboard for meetings of this kind, is less and less praised, even by environmentalists themselves.

It has been over 10 years since the emission rates were approved in this protocol and they now need to be re-evaluated. By the year 2020 its is hoped that GHG emissions will be minimized by 20% based on the 2005 levels. The Kyoto protocol called for a 5% decrease on the 1990 levels so the new figures are drastically higher. Many activists are up in arms about the lackadaisical attitude towards the minimization schedule and the loosening of conditions imposed by Kyoto.

This is not the only area of discord and there are other issues to consider. The North thinks Kyoto and expected environmental actions will have the greatest impact on its economy, while the big polluters of the South (like China, India, Brazil and South Africa) will remain untouched. The South as a whole believes it’s in the right, because the North owes them a lot – southern countries are much more altered by climate issues than those in the North. With China coming out as a world power and the economic problems around the world, developing countries such as India and Brazil are not happy about making sacrifices; though the North acknowledge the need for higher fuel emissions in developing countries.

The movement for anti-climate change has another sensitive problem in relation to the emissions trade. While followers (largely government officials) claim that bringing in market rules can offset the negative economic repercussions of emission restrictions, opponents see it as another chance for black market trade, cheating and scams. They request deep changes to economic and social structures (larger power and control in hands of local communities), in order to stop climatic disaster.

If your looking for forward thinking decisions, then you likely to be disappointed with any decisions made in Denmark. But maybe more important is the amassing of activists across the whole society, which can be seen nowadays. This can only be great news as more voices shout maybe those at the conference in Copenhagen will pay attention.

How to Chuck out Yard Waste

Photo source: Nico Cavallotto

Every year, as the summer ends and children return to school, you might just suddenly realize that deep in your heart, you really are an autumn person – however much you like summer sun and holidays. Whenever you travel to work or just walk down the street in this season, you just cannot ignore all that colourful beauty that covers everything in sight, silencing your footsteps. You might secretly want to go back in time and be 10 again, running up and down the streets and kicking your way through the thick carpet of leaves. In this fantastic autumn mood you arrive home and the dream ends when you look at your own lawn. Since leaves usually are great fun, but your own leaves are not, as they are your problem and you have to get rid of them somehow. But there’s no need to be depressed, because our 2nd Toronto Homeowner Tip deals with the most suitable ways of yard waste disposal.

In the past, people didn’t make a big fuss about it: they just burned it or used it for mulching. Burning is out of question today, unless you want to apply for an open burning permit, and quite honestly, this could take you until Spring time. If you go for the most obvious solution and sweep all your leaves to your neighbour’s yard, alright, but you may get them all back and double next year.

Community services

First, you should choose if you are willing to do most of the work yourself, or if you would prefer the community services collect your organic waste. In the first case you will have to get an adequate number of kraft bags, because yard waste in Toronto is no more accepted if packed in any kind of plastic bags. Next, you will have to gather all the leaves into these bags. You may do this by using a traditional rake, or employ a more sophisticated leaf blowing machine. This work can also be done by your own children or some from the neighbourhood, if you cannot do it yourself. The kids will most likely welcome the chance to earn some pocket money. In any case, you will have to consult the collection calendar to see when to put the bags out for collection.

(Please go to my original article How to get rid of leaves to see the rest of the story.)

Real Estate Benefaction and Tax Administration

Photo source: Sacca

In Canada since 1996, the situation for charitable contributions in relation to capital has been reforming. Improving Federal Tax Policies for Canadian Charities and relating this to capital gains dispensation for donation of real estate is conveyed by Malcolm Burrows of C D Howe Institute.

There have been over 20 tax inducements of various kinds introduced during the last 13 years in Canada on capital gifts. The general effect on the charity environment evaluated in the volume of gifts was affirmative; charitable giving grew by 140%.

Just because there is an increase in gifts doesn’t mean there is no scope for improvement. Despite the number of gifts are rising, the amount of people donating is smaller. Charitable awards have become one-time generous donations, instead of (more desirable) regular contributions of smaller sums. With having limited regular donations, charities are vulnerable to the economic climate.

The ramification of these policies also resulted in noticeable market imbalance, as real estate and private company shares are not in the running for capital gains exemption. This leaves both owners and charities with a drawback. Housing is not often donated as it is passed down in families.

There are many challenges to be faced when real estate is donated. Working out a reasonable market cost of the property donated is a problem that faces policy makers, especially when some donors may not give authentic values. The charities then face further anxieties. Real Estate donations bring more issues than capital donations to a charity. After bequeathing the property is subject to taxes and upkeep which present their own set of problems for a charity.

Even though there are difficulties, there are choices accessible. Malcolm Burrows introduces two probable ways of making real estate bequeaths.

The first option is a capital gift after the real estate is sold. Receiving cash from the property sale bypasses any problems with valuations, tax and upkeep. Since the year 2000 it has been legitimate to sell a certain property and use the revenue for charitable reasons, thanks to the Income Tax Act. This legal base should be added to to include real estate properties, enabling the seller to bequeath the whole sum or just part of it to the charities.

Gifts of real estate. Property value altering is one of the main challenges with real estate donations. Issue like this can be resolved in a variety of ways. This can be done by not sanctioning the property to be sold by the charity for up to 10 years and the services of independent real estate appraisers.

It would be at great disadvantage to charities if these type of donations were discouraged as real estate is a large amount of companies’ and individuals’ assets. The market is still unstable even though there has been a lot of work achieved with tax exemption legislation. To reform the inequality there needs to be a way of dealing with the tax exemption of this area of real estate bequeathing.

GTA real estate market definitely back to normal

After the turbulent times on our housing market in June and July, things have calmed down a little. This is the brief summary of the August Toronto real estate board report. All the numbers confirm that the situation has stabilized and is much better than in the comparable period of last year.

Of course, there have been more positive economic news lately, and according to Jason Mercer, TREB’s Senior Manager of Market Analysis, the healthy development on the real estate market has played a key role, as home buyers spent their money also in other sectors, such as financial and legal services, moving, renovations or furniture. More details and statistics are to be found on our main website (article GTA real estate lessens the pace (a little!)).

Are you welcoming ants into your home?

Annually, with the arrival of warm weather, many people living in houses and condos in Toronto have to fight against thousands of uninvited guests. There are two sorts of ants that most usually move into people’s homes – sugar ants and carpenter ants. While real Sugar Ants live in Australia, the little black Pharaoh and Pavement ants that you keep stepping on in your kitchen are usually called ‘sugar ants’ in the US and Canada because of their huge appetite for sweet foods. This type of ants is rarely found living indoors.

Sugar ants are tinier than Carpenter ants, the other common ant species, who are sometimes even half an inch long. A common mistake is confusing the Carpenter ants and termites. However, termites eat wood and they are white, whereas Carpenter ants are black and they just use the wood for making homes for their colonies, they don’t really eat it, just burrow into it. They usually live in old tree stumps or fence posts, but sometimes they try to find a cosy place inside of a human house. If you want to make them move away, the best way is to get rid of the things they love in your home.

Shutting down the cafeteria

First try to find out if the ants just come into your house for food. If so, try to do these easy cleaning steps for at least two weeks, and if it doesn’t help, think about some more radical action. Keep your kitchen sink area neat and dry: ants love sinks as it offers food and water for them. If you try to wash the dishes and wipe all the water drops in the sink and around, the ants won’t have anything available to eat or drink. Every night, wipe down all the kitchen tops with bleach or white vinegar. You can also use one of these agents for washing the floor. By the way, vinegar is a very eco-friendly but also effective choice. Also apply vinegar or bleach for cleaning the sink – pour a few drops down the drain every night. This is also a really practical solution. Store all food in air tight boxes. Take the rubbish bin out at least once a day, but if you manage to do it more often, it’s better. Find out where your visitors are coming into your home and seal up all the cracks. Expanding Foam is probably the easiest and fastest choice to achieve this (your local Hardware shop will stock this). If you have tried all this and you still keep encountering some ants around, try tossing some bay leaves or cloves around, that should help.

Finding the nest

In order to get rid of Carpenter ants and their nest near or inside your home, it’s crucial that you destroy any rotten wood in your garden and remove any damp places in the house. However, if you cannot locate any nest outside but still keep seeing some ants inside, they have already probably moved into the house. So you will have to apply your detective skills to discover where the nest is hidden. Carpenter ants like to nest in damp wood, so you should go through any old trees or firewood around your house. Check around sweaty pipes, washing machines, dishwashers and any other damp places. As one colony can have even 3 to 10 thousand ants, they can quite extensively and potentially dangerously damage the wooden structures of your house. Because Carpenter love feeding on wood, sawdust can be a dead giveaway of their location. Or in moments when it’s silent around, try to listen for a dry rustling sound, which is also detectable with a stethoscope. There are also professional companies that can clean your home from the ants, but if you don’t deal with the ant favorite places around, they will come back again next year. Of course, you can set bait to wipe them out, time after time, but if you don’t keep your kitchen completely spotless, then the insects will keep coming back.

Photo source: Maggie Osterberg

The preferable alternative for real estate investors, Canada or the USA?

Real estate properties have alluring discounts available now the boom period prices have been regulated. This is the time real estate investors celebrate. A alluring transaction can be had now. How do Canada and the USA compare.

Canadian prices are already on the increase again and their MLS are crammed, whilst in the USA the prices are still bottom. So do lesser prices mean a top investment? However, professional investors and analysts still see Canada as a top place to lay out some spare investment dollars.

The most practical option for real estate investment is still Canada over the the USA as stated by property experts everywhere in the world. It is anticipated that the USA prices could still drop again. The complex tax system, poor returns make the US a less than enticing option. The long term investment ranking chart only bestows the USA 2 stars out of 5.

Canada has been given 3 out of 5 stars in the same chart. This is because it has an better taxation system, a good rental market and a more reliable economy. (For clarification the city represented in Canada is Toronto and the USA is New York)

Transactions costs are less expensive making Canada an even more agreeable investment chance. Transaction costs total registration, real estate agent, legal costs and sales, transfer taxes. These costs are much lower in Canada than in the USA, 6.96% compared with 9.07% Real estate investors will welcome the 2% lower charges.

Asbestos Around Us : Are You Endangered?

Photo source: Matthew Niemi

Still quite a short time ago, asbestos used to be admired for its great qualities such as resistance to heat, fire, chemicals or wear. All this made it a very desirable substance.

For a long time, people used to make a lot of things out of asbestos, such as building material, clothes or toys. But then, some 50 years ago, it was found out that it was poisonous. Asbestos poisoning – what is it actually? The advantage and curse of asbestos at the same time is its durability, which has been exploited in various industries. On the other hand, when present in human bodies, the body has no means of disposing of it.

As long as asbestos stays compound in the substance it is part of, then it is harmless. What is dangerous for humans is breathing in the tiny needle-like asbestos fibers, when they become airborne. The trouble with asbestos poisoning is that its primary symptoms such as dry cough, tightness in the chest or shortness of breath match the symptoms of numerous less serious diseases. Regarding also the long latency period, it often happens that the real cause of the problem is found out only when it is too late.

The most often diseases that have been linked to asbestos poisoning are asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer. The lungs of an asbestosis patient are attempting to dissolve the asbestos fibers and they create an acid that scars the tissue which then hardens. Eventually, the person can breath only with problems. Mesothelioma is a kind of cancer that affects the outer lung lining. There is currently no known cure for this disease. Mesothelioma can be caused also by only a brief, even accidental exposure to asbestos poisoning (unlike asbestosis). Asbestos-induced lung cancer has been responsible for more than half of all deaths triggered by asbestos poisoning. On the other hand, when treated in its early stage, patients can enjoy an active lifestyle for many years after the diagnosis.

Asbestos in Canada: Canada used to be one of the main producers of asbestos in the world. The asbestos mines in Quebec are still functioning and Canada still supports asbestos use in less harmful forms. Nearly all office and public buildings or schools finished before the 1980s used asbestos for thermal, fire and sound insulation. The most ‘at risk’ people tend to be the workers who have installed asbestos materials, mainly if they ignored the health and safety guidelines and allowed dust from the installation process to escape into the atmosphere and then breathed in this poisonous toxin. The use of asbestos still hasn’t been banned in Canada. However, things have improved a little – using asbestos as insulation material has been banned in Ontario in 1973. Local governments have made an effort to get rid of asbestos from public buildings, and any job involving asbestos installation or removal is under very strict regulations.

Asbestos in Toronto: Ontario has severe rules concerning asbestos in buildings, especially since 2007. If a landlord finds any strange substance deteriorating in the building he owns, he has to submit it for examination. If the presence of asbestos is confirmed, elimination by certified professionals has to take place without delay. If there is any danger of continuous deterioration, the whole affected area has to be removed, again following strict safety regulations.

The most common use of asbestos in non-domestic buildings: – insulation on pipes – ceiling tiles – panels boards – cement panels – sprayed coatings on walls – asbestos ropes and cloth – textures coating The most common use of asbestos in residential homes in Toronto: – exterior surfaces: deck undersheeting, roof felt and shingles, window putty – all kinds of insulation – flooring: vinyl asbestos sheets, tiles and undersheeting – interior surface: sprayed-on acoustic ceilings, acoustic tiles – appliances: water heaters, range hoods, clothes dryers and dishwashers A sufficient solution for the whole issue of asbestos hasn’t been discovered yet. A year ago, there was the Sunrise Propane blast, as most of us can still recall. Asbestos debris hit 5 streets and around 3000 residents had to leave their homes, until the whole region was carefully cleaned up. The danger posed by asbestos is still here and local governments have to keep struggling with it. But it is really difficult to say how dangerous asbestos actually is. It has been found out that only 0.5% of asbestos in material is really poisonous, so that’s also why it is so difficult to trace back all the possible dangers.

There are professional companies that you can call and they will inspect your home in case you have even the smallest suspicion it might have been affected (there is a list of such companies available in the GTA region). Anyway, people should never try to manipulate with the suspect material on their own!

Can we save the Earth by algae oil?

BMW by TheAlieness GiselaGiardino

In this “green” section, we usually publish texts focused on how to live more environmentally friendly. However, this time it will be about some intriguing research, which can help us to get rid of the feelings of guilt associated with driving our gas guzzling cars. One of the important parts of our daily routine is oil. Almost everyone in the developed countries has a car, which is a necessary part of everyday life, and so do I, as most of the realtors who have to drive around their neighbourhoods on a daily basis. Without our dear cars, the life would be so much more difficult. Unfortunately, we all know the two crucial problems connected to driving: unsound oil supplies driving prices up and down and the environmental harm caused by fuel burning and the related carbon dioxide emissions.

The Institute for Genomic Research was founded by Craig Venter, an American biologist and a successful businessman. He mainly deals with genetic engineering and his latest project has caused a great deal of heated debate.

A number of experiments have already been working with biofuels, some of them also with natural oil produced by algae. But Venter has more ambitions than that. His goal is to change the genomic make-up of algae so that they would produce oil nearly identical as traditional crude oil. If that works out, we would be able to use the available refineries and other oil industry infrastructure already available. Also plastics could be produced the same way as from crude oil refining, using the same production plants. As Exxon Mobile, being one of the most successful oil producers in the world, heard of all this, they gave Venter a $600 million grant to go on with his research.

Now your question might be, where is the environmental benefit? Well, right here. Oil production based on algae may quite likely be the solution to one of the most serious threats facing the world today. During the photosynthesis process, plants utilize the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use it to create the oil, which is later burned and turned into oxalates. It will of course take more time to work all this out, this promising solution won’t be available this or next year. But for sure it is a hopeful way to try, and Craig Venter with his team have made the first steps towards a success on a field where others have already tried and failed. There are many people out there that want to protect the environment, but due to their occupation, it is very difficult for them to stop using cars, just like so many of my Toronto real estate colleagues can’t.