From the Print Edition

Up-to-the-minute coverage of store openings and fashion gossip. Plus, daily finds for deal seekers

December 2, 2011 | 12:05 pm

The Chase: A Markham couple races against time to find a house for their growing family

By Bert Archer

The Chase | The Buyers The Buyers: Dan Carmichael, a 39-year-old account executive for Dell Computers, and Dawn Carmichael, a 36-year-old medical insurance broker.

The Story: The Carmichaels liked their three- bedroom house in Markham, but they wanted something bigger—preferably with a fireplace and in the same school district as their current home, for their two kids—and had been casually surfing MLS for two years. When Dawn discovered she was pregnant with their third child, they realized they’d have to move fast if the baby was going to have his own room. The couple listed their house, and it sold in a week—with a 120-day closing. With their two due dates fast approaching, the Carmichaels set a budget of $550,000 and started out on a blitz-like two-month hunt.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

1 Comment

November 7, 2011 | 11:00 am

The Chase: two 30-something diehard downtowners find the perfect condo

Jennifer Zimmermann, a 30-year-old systems analyst, and Dustin Vaughan, a 32-year- old ad exec. By Monika Warzecha

The Buyers: Jennifer Zimmermann, a 30-year-old systems analyst, and Dustin Vaughan, a 32-year- old ad exec.

The Story: Vaughan and Zimmermann each owned a condo near Front and Spadina when they met online in May of 2009. Four months later, they decided to move in together. First they tried living in Zimmermann’s 600-square-foot one-bedroom, then Vaughan’s slightly larger place, but both units were too small for the two of them and their 85-pound greyhound, Jax. They loved living in a condo and wanted to stay within walking distance of their favourite hangs along King and Queen. With location in mind, they set a budget of $500,000 and embarked on a six-month search.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

12 Comments

November 1, 2011 | 3:00 pm

The List: 10 things Kevin O’Leary, the professional Dragon and author of Cold Hard Truth, can’t live without

The List: Kevin O’Leary 1| Fine wine
I have a cellar of wine from Burgundy and Bordeaux. Château Latour ’90 is my current favourite. I bought a couple of cases when they weren’t expensive, but now the Chinese have discovered French first growths, and they’ve gone way up in price. It’s hard to drink them because I know they’re impossible to replace.

The List: Kevin O’Leary 2| My vintage camera
I got hooked on photography when I was a TV editor and would take stills during filming. I have lots of cameras—both film and digital—but my most prized is a Leica M3 that has never left its box. I have the sales receipt from 1963. It’s worth thousands. If you know Leica, and you see this, it’s better than sex!

The List: Kevin O’Leary 3| My digital music
I have more than 129,000 songs in my collection, all of which I ripped from old CDs and vinyl. It was a labour of love that took me three years. Vinyl just sounds different—listen to an album like Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, and you’ll notice the bass you can’t get with digital recording.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

5 Comments

November 1, 2011 | 12:30 pm

Great Spaces: Four places of worship, born again (this time, as trendy condos)

There’s nothing sacrilegious about this city’s appetite for loft conversions, even when the raw space is a deconsecrated church

By Alex Bozikovic | Photography by Michael Graydon

1| A 1906 building formerly home to the Centennial Japanese United Church

2| A 1941 building, once home to a Slovenian Catholic congregation

3| A 1921 addition to the Riverdale Presbyterian Church

4| A 1911 Methodist church, used by an Italian evangelical congregation since 2003

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

7 Comments

October 28, 2011 | 10:30 am

The Thing: a stylish way to prolong backyard revelry for as long as humanly possible

By Emily Landau | Photography by Hamin Lee

The Thing: Flame On It’s every Torontonian’s birthright to kvetch about the early onslaught of winter. This year, the city has latched onto something to stave off the season’s menacing grip: the backyard fire pit, a simple (almost paleolithic) invention that makes outdoor merriment feasible—complaint-free—for a little longer. Khai Foo, the designer and pyro enthusiast behind Paloform—whose flame-filled showroom in Corktown is worth seeing for the fiery spectacle alone—turns the camp and cottage staple into a sleek, patio-friendly hearth that’s distinctly urban. The crisp, angular lines of the Bento (the popular unit above) are set off by a brilliant open flame, fuelled by clean-burning natural gas or propane and radiating up to 60,000 BTU (for the record: that’s pretty hot). It’s available in six colours, each made to order from hand-cast concrete and topped with Japanese lava rocks—the kind found in Zen gardens—or basalt river rocks. It’s as much a conversation piece as anything—a happier topic than how frickin’ cold it’s getting. $3,000. Paloform, 296 King St. E., 1-888-823-8883.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

3 Comments

October 17, 2011 | 10:30 am

The Chase: A rent-averse young professional moves out of his parents’ place and into a Danforth home

Rohan Pinto, a 28-year-old graphic designer. By Bert Archer

The Buyer: Rohan Pinto, a 28-year-old graphic designer.

The Story: Since graduating from Durham College in 2006, Pinto lived rent-free with his parents in Scarborough and commuted to his office at King and Spadina. “I’m of the school that sees paying rent as throwing your money away,” he says. Once he’d saved enough, he went looking for a place of his own. He started with condos, but soon learned that monthly fees can be as much as $800, which felt just like paying rent. He decided to buy a house, even if it meant having a slightly higher mortgage. He also liked the idea of finding a fixer-upper he could add value to over time. So he set his budget at $400,000, pinpointed a street he liked in the Woodbine Corridor (midway between work and his parents) and viewed house after house until he found The One.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

1 Comment

October 13, 2011 | 2:32 pm

The Thing: the idiot box is now bigger and badder than your average smart phone

Just because you can watch TV on your smart phone doesn’t mean you should

Television studios spend fortunes shooting in high definition, creating special effects and paying good-looking actors—and it’s not so their shows can be watched on iPads. This season, passive viewers and diehards alike should consider watching TV the old-fashioned way: on TV. The wafer-thin Samsung Plasma 8000 Series isn’t game changing, but it does exactly what a TV should do in the age of the Internet. It has built-in Wi-Fi so you can stream shows without cumbersome commercials or awkward network scheduling, and it comes loaded with social media apps like Skype and Facebook, so you can discuss The Office’s new boss with friends in real time. But the best part is that you can do all of that on a blisteringly sharp 64-inch plasma screen—the kind of screen that makes even the latest iteration of The Bachelor seem worth watching. With 26 weeks of new episodes ahead, it’s time to start clearing your social calendars. Samsung Plasma 8000 Series 64-inch TV, $4,000. Bay Bloor Radio, 55 Bloor St. W., 416-967-1122.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

4 Comments

October 11, 2011 | 3:05 pm

The List: 10 things former Governor General and author Adrienne Clarkson can’t live without

The List: Adrienne Clarkson 1| My Filofax
I’ve had it for 26 years, and I’ve never mislaid it. I’ll always keep it, even though I’ve been told I need to have an iPhone 4 or something, which I don’t think I’ll ever understand.

The List: Adrienne Clarkson 2| My earplugs
I travel a lot, and I find if I deprive myself of sound I can sleep anywhere. I like the silicon drugstore kind that children wear to go swimming.

3| My Sony digital recorder
I love taking verbal notes and writing first drafts on my recorder. I can immediately send the file to somebody who will type it up.

4| My go-to bloom
Peonies remind me of my childhood. When I was Governor General, the Canadian Peony Society cloned a peony and named it after me. I think that was one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

1 Comment

October 11, 2011 | 2:17 pm

Great Spaces: a pair of German expat Canadaphiles build the house they had been dreaming about for 30 years

By Nicole Baute | Photography by Michael Graydon

Great Spaces: Park Place

Georg and Petra Unger first came to Canada for a series of cross-country road trips in the early ’80s, eager to see the country’s expansive landscapes and modern residential architecture. As students in Germany—Petra studied interior design, Georg trained as a cabinetmaker—they had read about the Bridge House, a stone and glass box soaring over Stoney Lake in rural Ontario, by the architect Jim Strasman. “It was in all the architectural magazines at that time, and we thought Canada must be such a cool, design-forward place,” Petra says.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

Comments

September 23, 2011 | 2:00 pm

The Chase: A couple finds the street life of their native Caracas at Yonge and Eglinton (of all places)

The Buyers By Monika Warzecha

The Buyers: Venezuelan expats Adriana Rosemberg, a 29-year-old scriptwriter, and her husband Jonathan, a 32-year-old ad executive.

The Story: The Rosembergs moved to Toronto in June 2009 to escape the violence and political instability of Venezuela. They were accustomed to the noise and street life of Caracas and wanted to live in a vibrant neighbourhood downtown. They also wanted enough space to spread out, and they quickly fell for the idea of a finished attic that could serve as a studio—she writes, he deejays. So the couple set a limit of $800,000—and armed themselves with a home inspection handbook—before setting off last December on a search that would span five months and more than 40 houses.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

Comments

September 23, 2011 | 12:00 pm

The List: Ten things celebrity chef and author Laura Calder can’t live without

The List: Laura Calder My favourite read
I love the personal pieces at the back of The Spectator. Essays are my favourite form of writing because they’re so intimate.

The List: Laura Calder My paper collection
I always have some nice wrapping paper from The Paper Place on hand for last-minute presents. There’s so much junk in the world, it’s a delight when something’s beautiful just for the sake of it.

The List: Laura Calder My M0851 rain slicker
Walking is one of my greatest passions. It’s a way of clearing my head, and I don’t ever let rain stop me. I bought my raincoat for a trip to Vancouver Island and have been attached to it ever since.

My big cutlery
My flatware is from an antique dealer in Germany, and it’s huge. The soup spoons are like ladles. They feel so substantial. I can’t stand the flimsy stuff you get at restaurants.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

7 Comments

September 22, 2011 | 4:30 pm

Great Spaces: A notorious Riverdale raccoon house is transformed after standing derelict for decades

By Rachel Heinrichs | Photography by Michael Graydon

Great Spaces: Home Improvement

In close-knit Riverdale, no two houses have garnered as much gossip as the side-by-side Victorians on Langley Avenue that were owned by Walter Schimming. Schimming, for the uninitiated, was an octogenarian recluse who lived, Grey Gardens–like, in one of the houses and left the other vacant and decaying for decades until his death in 2006.

In 2008, the houses went on the market together, with an asking price of $1.15 million. When James Faw, owner of a software company, and Michael Schwarz, owner of the restaurants Hair of the Dog and Fire on the Eastside, first saw them, they looked like the set of a horror film: each was divided into a maze of rooming units, a fallen tree had crushed one roof, and raccoon carcasses littered the interiors. At the time, Faw and Schwarz had a two-year-old daughter, Hannah, and were expecting twins by surrogate. Most parents would run screaming from such a huge project, but Faw and Schwarz knew that in one of the city’s most family-friendly neighbourhoods, this was a steal. So they bought the places—one as a rental property, the other as their future home.

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

1 Comment

September 20, 2011 | 10:30 am

The Thing: the fall season’s best blazers, bags and shoes

Photography by Christopher Stevenson | Styling by Daniel Onori | Painted backdrops courtesy of Farrow and Ball

The Thing

This fall, it’s all about creative and colourful takes on time-honoured wardrobe staples. Here, our favourite blazers, bags and shoes—the essentials—of the coming season.

Click through to see the slideshow »

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

54 Comments

August 22, 2011 | 1:05 pm

The city’s definitive best-dressed list: Toronto’s 12 most stylish people

Toronto's Most Stylish

This year’s inductees, as chosen by Toronto Life’s jury of experts: Fashion editor-in-chief Bernadette Morra, The Bay’s Christopher Sherman, style blogger Anita Clarke and torontolife.com’s Kevin Naulls
Photographs by Mckenzie James | Interviews by Simone Olivero | Hair and makeup by Claudine Baltazar/Plutino Group and Tamara Gibson; makeup on Timmins by Veronica Chu

See Toronto’s 12 most stylish people »

Read the rest of this entry »

From the Print Edition

13 Comments

August 8, 2011 | 11:15 am

The Chase: One couple resists the lure of suburbia for a few more precious years downtown

The Chase By Monika Warzecha

The Buyers: Erica Smith, a 34-year-old real estate agent with Condo Chicks, and her fiancé, Marc Puddy, a 37-year-old insurance executive.

The Story: Smith and Puddy started looking for a place together after they got engaged in November. Torn between the large lots of the suburbs and their love of downtown, the couple looked at houses in Etobicoke and Port Credit as well as condos in the core. “Condos are getting smaller and smaller. It’s hard to find one that feels like a home,” Smith says. They needed room for their dog and a home office, as well as two parking spots. They set an upper limit of $1 million—preferably less if they opted for the burbs—and started their search.

Read the rest of this entry »

Contests

Links and Offers

Most shared stories today

The latest from across the St. Joseph Media network