Weekly Blend: July 10, 2015

The Weekly Blend is your ‘weekly’ source covering real estate news that you just may have missed. Our hard at work Weekly Blend crew scours the web, newsgroups and forums looking for obscure, bizarre, interesting and informative real estate (or real estate related) stories. If you have one you’d like to share please feel free to share it in our comments section or tweet about it using the hashtag #WeeklyBlend. So brew yourself a fresh cup of coffee and enjoy these stories…maybe even share them with friends or colleagues. Happy reading!

Here are my weekly picks:

An Ancaster, ON pet cemetery is up for sale for $325,000. A  VHS copy of the 1989 Stephen King movie Pet Sematary is up for sale on Amazon for $7.91. Here’s The Ramones performing the title song from that movie.

How does your work space measure up to Shopify’s Elgin Street headquarters (in Ottawa).

Great marketing stunt or just plain foolish? A Calgary man soared over the city in a lawn chair attached to helium balloons.

An Ottawa developer is hoping to raise $50,000 to help create more affordable housing.

When one of their own lost his house in a fire, the community of Cartwright, Newfoundland & Labrador got together to help rebuild the burned-down home.

Victoria’s pristine James Bay neighbourhood is home to this 6,240 square foot mansion currently on the market for just over $2 million.

Oftentimes, landlords are supposed to enforce laws that police can’t. Read about this Chatham, Ontario couple who found out why that can be problematic.

Canuck’s left-winger Daniel  Sedin’s  Shaughnessy home is up for sale … does that mean twin brother Henrik will soon be listing his too?

MoneySense.ca’s “Ask a Planner” was asked: what to do if/when you inherit real estate.

Airbnb vs. hotel rooms during the Pan Am Games? Where do you stand and would you want to see a detailed map of all Airbnb listings?

You know what else you can rent for the Pan Am Games? Passengers. That way you can use the high occupancy lanes to help speed up your commute.

Left Field Brewery in Leslieville – a husband and wife-run brewery – is too noisy for some of its neighbours.

Canada AM has a look at Hollywood homes on the market. This week they feature Vince Vaughn’s Chicago penthouse, Tyler Perry’s Atlanta mansion, and Johnny Depp’s French village. (VIDEO)

Opulence … excess … luxury. Here are homes of 2015’s highest-earning celebrities.

I bet the rugs really tie the rooms together. Jeff Bridges lists his Montecito estate for $29.5 million.

Have a quick look at some interesting structures (warehouse, water tower) that have been transformed into gorgeous homes.

Pizza Farms. That’s it. No need to elaborate.

Recently, New York state prisons have been featured in the news, but none of the stories have been about a prison for sale.

One of the men responsible for creating “Tetris” traded interlocking bricks for solar panels and took his Hawaiian home completely off the grid.

Stroll around Harper Lee’s hometown of Monroeville, Alabama (or walk a mile in another person’s shoes) and you’ll see hints of her novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” almost everywhere you look.

Is New York the “city that never sleeps?” You’ll have to check here to see which American city gets the least sleep of all.

Visit the Flower House – an art installation happening the third weekend of October 2015 in Detroit. Florists from across Michigan and the U.S. will fill the walls and ceilings of a 15-room abandoned Detroit house with fresh flowers and plants for a weekend installation.

Have you heard about Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal? He’s pledged to give 10,000 home and 10,000 cars to the needy.

The Breuer Cabin is a gorgeous retreat made of castaway materials from several other projects.

The Lotus-Belle Tent – it’ll set you back a few £’s but you’ll have it for life and you’ll be the envy of the campsite.

From glorious designer tents to the Das Park Hotel, in Linz, Austria where you can spend the night in a renovated sewer pipe.

And what would go great in your Lotus-Belle Tent or outside your sewer pipe hostel?  The hydro-hammock – it’s like a hot tub in a hammock.

There’s definitely a camping theme going on here, so let’s continue it with Natura Vive Skylodge: a transparent luxury capsule that hangs from the top of a mountain in the Sacred Valley of Peru.

And if you don’t fancy sleeping in a sewer pipe, you might be more inclined to live in a repurposed grain elevator.

ZAGAT has named some of Escape Traveler’s cottages “the best in North America.” Step inside and see why they are so much more than an RV.

On your next trip to NYC, why not take a tour of the Tenement Museum and view the restored apartments of past residents from different time periods. You never know what you’ll find.

The story has been out for a month, but Curbed.com took a look at eight of television’s most iconic fictional rentals and ranked them in order of disbelief.

What’ll 100 bucks get you across America? Fortune Magazine looks at the true value of a “C-Note” in all 50 states.

You think your space needs a makeover? Here are 10 time capsule rooms left untouched for decades.

Some of these designs are pretty clever (handicapped-accessible staircases, book shelf beds) but I just wish the website’s layout was better.

In West Virginia, illegal possession of wildlife is a misdemeanor. Now that you know that, you’ll understand the fine this man received for keeping two deer captive in his home for at least a year.

Travel & Leisure magazine recently ranked the Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, built on the edge of a fairy tale lake in Western India, as the world’s best hotel for 2015.

Using Philadelphia as an example, this Newsweek Magazine report shows that building repairs may lower cities crime rates.

Can you own an asteroid? Can you lay claim to property on the moon? This video (11 minutes long) takes a look at who owns the moon.

Just as UNESCO puts out their newest list of World Heritage Sites, CNN.com looks at 25 beautiful buildings on the verge of destruction.

Here are 23 U.S. cities where millennials find it hardest to pay rent.

A Risk Theme Park – would you go? It doesn’t exist yet, but if it did, would you?

Bloomberg Business has proclaimed: “the office of the future will still have a terrible bathroom.”

According to a Bloomberg article, Seattle has become the latest West Coast hot spot for homebuyers.

Jonathan Baker, our former Speech Writer, contributed to the development of speeches, advertisements, and communications to our membership. Our staff knew him as the go-to guy at 200 Catherine for some comic relief. Prior to joining CREA, Jon worked in the radio industry in Ottawa. If you meet Jon, be sure to ask him to tell you about his encounters with many famous musicians while volunteering at a local music festival for more than 10 years.


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