You won’t believe this nature-inspired, storage-MacGyver, Toronto studio renovation
My studio is nine by ten feet. Ninety square feet. That’s it. There was no closet, and I had a queen size bed to accommodate. I love interior decorating, and I especially love a good small space living/storage design challenge, so having my own little room to rent and play with was a perfect opportunity to flex that muscle while keeping costs relatively low…
Finding plus-size maternity clothes: A Canadian struggle, eh?
Once the bump started forming, and my regular clothes started tugging in weird places, it was time to take the journey into finding plus-size maternity clothes in Canada. Oh boy? Hooray? I had a gut feeling that things wouldn’t be all that easy and boy was I right.
Finding plus-size maternity clothing was a nightmare!
Moving from France to Canada: A virtuous circle of rainbows and unicorns
In 2012, as my fiance and I were about to get married, we decided to take the biggest leap of our entire existence: make our life-long dream of permanently living abroad come true, and move from France to Canada. Here’s what I love in my new country, and what I miss from home.
Bathroom renovation: From jungle to under-the-sea
Although I loved the monkey accessories that Matt had since we started dating, after five years of living with it, I wanted a change. I have difficulty with early mornings, especially in the dark Canadian winter, so I wanted the bathroom to be so incredibly fucking cheerful that I couldn’t help but wake up and be alert in the morning!
Living in a family-focused, cooperative housing townhome in Victoria, BC
We live in a co-operative housing unit. Like all co-ops, it’s a blend between ownership and rental. Unlike rentals, every household (or member) has equal voting rights on all major decisions. And everyone has to volunteer to help with running the co-op (usually about 10 hours per month). We also have the ability to make changes in our unit that might not be allowed in a rental. For example, one member put up a climbing wall in his living room! Many of our members have lived here for 15+ years.
Happy Canada Day from Offbeat Home & Life!
Happy Canada Day! Did you know we have an entire tag archive for the great white north? Grab a spot on the chesterfield, put on some Tragically Hip, hold your maple syrup sceptre high, and take a look:
Comics, cats, and childhood bedroom corners in the cozy Canadian apartment tour
Our home is full of comic art commissions and prints that we’ve collected at various comic cons over the years. We’re also fond of physical media, so have a ton of books, CDs, vinyl, and movies. I love colour and mixing patterns. We’re both giant kids, collecting toys and figurines, Legos, and more.
Offbeat Home Hunters: The “Yukon, ho!” edition
We are a single-income family of two (plus our pet rats), and while I’m the only breadwinner, I am fortunate to make a comfortable salary. We’re pretty handy and not afraid to tackle home projects (as evidenced by the sort of places we were looking at in Ottawa). We’re environmentally-conscious city-center dwellers and wouldn’t be comfortable in the suburbs. We didn’t have much time to house hunt, so we decided to see every place that met our requirements, which was a total of 9 houses. Two were about to fall down on top of us, and four were almost an hour walk from my office, which left three potential homes…