Weekly Blend: September 11, 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:

Perhaps this can be a “leave behind” for your next client to help them turn their house into a home.

Or maybe you could say “thank you for being a friend” with a blueprint of the Golden Girls house or any of these sitcom locales.

In response to Californians moving to Portland, some Portlanders are slapping “no Californians” stickers on for sale signs.

This Solar Village is the first community in the world to produce 4 times more energy than it uses.

It is now widely recognised that ecosystems – including urban ecosystems such as parks, protected areas, and waterways – provide essential services for people. How Should We Design Cities to Make the Most of Urban Ecosystems?

We’ve seen pop-up shops and pop-up restaurants and now one group is crowdsourcing funds for a pop-up forest in New York’s Times Square.

Crossing the bridge into Brooklyn, Wired Magazine takes a look at how Hipsters have changed the face of one of NYC’s most popular boroughs.

A new bar just opened in Toronto and, apparently it’s Harry Potter themed. I thought that I knew the series well but apparently not well enough.

Before they’re closed down for the season, Calgary’s city pools welcome their four-legged friends to enjoy the final day of pool season.

Take a drone’s-eye view of Dartmouth’s “Shannon Park.” Once home to a community of military families, this complex is set for demolition later this fall.  (VIDEO)

Take a video tour of Tokyo’s Hotel Okura before it closes its doors for good.

Moving day is still a few months away for those who bought condos in Toronto’s Pan Am Athletes village.

A shed-like studio apartment in Bristol, England is being auctioned off with a starting price of around $61,000 Canadian.

Taking a page out of CREA’s advertising, see how IKEA is using nudists to sell tables.

This second ad from IKEA gives a whimsical look at designing a new kitchen (very clever too).

Looking for a fall or winter getaway? Why not book a room at one of 18 of the world’s strangest hotels.

From floating neighbourhoods to Las Vegas golf courses, photographer Alexander Heilner takes us around the globe with these fascinating aerial photographs of otherworldly destinations.

While you’re on your next trip, Marriott wants you on another one (kind of an “Inception” thing, a trip-within-a-trip).

And if a virtual reality trip is your thing (I’m assuming you read the above story), then you might also enjoy virtual reality real estate shopping.

This look into the death of small music clubs across Britain is more about the vital role they play in an urban ecosystem than a declining music industry.

Declining sales are triggering Macy’s to close up to 40 stores.

The oldest house in Cape Code, in historic Sandwich Village, is up for sale for $575K.

Take an Instagram tour of Burning Man’s best installations.

Your pet could be the reason that your home isn’t selling.

Communes, collective living, co-living … whatever you want to call it, it’s happening and succeeding in San Francisco. (VIDEO)

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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