Archive for November, 2009
Expect excellence, not perfection
Friday, November 27th, 2009Comfort food can also be sustainable
Thursday, November 26th, 2009Combination of delicious food and warm service makes for a perfect outing
Michelle Hopkins
Sun
At Steveston’s Tapenade Bistro (from left) Bill Laboucan, Tina Merces, Justin Cheungand Chef Alex Tung with organic beet risotto. Ian Lindsay/Vancouver Sun
When the blustery weather comes, there’s nothing I crave more than good down-home comfort food. At Steveston’s Tapenade Bistro they not only know how to do it well, they take it up a notch. The portions are generous and the menu contains some rare gems that you don’t tend to see at your local Mediterranean eatery. The service is personal and warm: If owner Vince Morlet is in the house, he personally greets each guest at the door.
So on a recent cool fall night, my dining companion and I headed over to Tapenade. I knew we were in for a treat, as I have dined here often. On this occasion, however, there was a surprise. Alex Tung, the restaurant’s longtime executive chef, had recently returned from a six-month hiatus, bringing with him some fabulous new dishes.
The chef, who recently unveiled the bistro’s new fall menu, has always been big on sustainable food practices. “My team is definitely cooking with more of a conscience and, wherever possible, we source the local, the free-range, the organic and sustainable products,” says Tung. “We’re committed to sustainable seafood and recently got on board with the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program.”
However laudable their ethical standards might be, the real reason to come to Tapenade is the food. While you are deciding on what to have, warm bread is brought to your table. I have to stop myself from indulging too much because I know what’s coming. I started with the beet risotto appetizer ($11) because I knew it would be simply delicious — and it was. If you like risotto, I highly recommend it. Is the secret in the aged Carnaroli rice, the red beets, the goat cheese, Rice Crispies or the sherry vinegar reserve? Whatever, I was tempted to order it for my entrée as well.
My dining companion was equally impressed with his harvest salad ($9). It is a refreshing palate cleanser, with Barnston Island organic greens as a counterpoint to the tangy, sherry maple vinaigrette sprinkled with dried cranberries, poached pear, crisped ham, candied pecans and blue cheese.
For a main course, my companion opted for the sablefish ($28). It was textbook: moist, ovenroasted and maple-glazed, served with couscous, cherry tomato, saffron and confit garlic. I went for the Prawns Provençal ($24) — sautéed tiger prawns, crispy gnocchi, buttered peas, pearl onions in a wonderfully flavourful Provençal pan sauce.
As always, the plating is a delight, done with a little flair and drama.
Tung’s food philosophy is simple: “We use as much seasonal and organic product as possible and love supporting the local farmers and local suppliers,” he says. “Most of the vegetables and herbs were supplied by Barnston Island Herbs, the mushrooms were foraged on Vancouver Island and the squash in the soup came from a local farm on No. 3 Road.”
Adds Tung: “We’re having lots of fun here, not taking ourselves too seriously. We’re not fine-dining, we’re a neighbourhood bistro with good food, great service and fantastic wine.”
When choosing a wine, the first thing you notice is that owner Morlet has really thought out the wine list. You aren’t going to find pages and pages to choose from; rather, there are more than 100 really good wines, with a strong focus on the finest from B.C., California and France. We went with B.C.’s Old Main red by Kettle Valley on the Naramata Bench. It was smooth and full-bodied, just the way I like it. Although it is said you should have white wine with fish, I still believe this red paired well with our meal.
Many restaurants talk about consistency, and that’s something that Morlet and his staff have worked on. Tung crafts fantastic meals and you will receive superior service from Morlet’s longtime staff in great surroundings. What’s not to like?
Tapenade seats 72 inside and, during the summer the heated patio can hold 70.
Home bargains on way out
Thursday, November 26th, 2009Mortgage rates and prices rising, fewer homes to buy
Province
Home affordability deteriorated in all provinces and major markets in Canada due to a slight rise in key mortgage rates and appreciation in property values, according to RBC senior economist Robert Hogue. RBC said an average detached bungalow works out to 66.8 per cent of pre-tax household income in Vancouver compared with 48.6 per cent in Toronto and 36.7 per cent in Calgary — NATIONAL POST
The days of bargain home ownership may soon be over in Canada.
Mortgage rates are edging higher, there are fewer homes to choose from, and prices are rebounding from their recession lows.
At the same time, the cost of maintaining a home once you’ve purchased it is also creeping up.
Resale home prices rose 1.3 per cent in September, the fifth month in a row that prices increased from the previous month, according to the Teranet-National Bank house price index released Wednesday.
The September rise “was the smallest in four months but still vigorous,” said Marc Pinsonneault, senior economist at the National Bank Financial Group.
“The vigour is consistent with an improvement in market conditions over 2009 to date — more homes have been selling and fewer have been coming on the market.” Prices were up from August’s figures in all but one of the six metropolitan markets surveyed. Montreal’s prices fell by 0.2 per cent, even though home sales in that city are on the rise.
Pinsonneault said Toronto, where prices slid one per cent year-over-year, is on the verge of a full recovery from the economic downturn. If prices there rise as much in October as they did in September — 1.5 per cent –they will be back to their peak of August 2008.
“On balance, there was broad-based strength in this report, which is consistent with other measures of the Canadian housing market,” said TD economics strategist Ian Pollick.
Meanwhile, the proportion of pre-tax household income needed to maintain a home rose in the third quarter of this year for the first time since the spring of 2008, and across all housing types, according to a report by RBC Economics Research.
The costs of owning a typical detached bungalow increased one per cent to 40.2 per cent from the previous quarter, the report said. A standard townhouse rose 0.7 per cent to 32.3 per cent, while a regular condo edged up 0.5 per cent to 27.6 per cent and a standard two-storey home increased 1.2 per cent to 45.8 per cent.
“Home affordability deteriorated in all provinces and major markets in Canada due to a slight rise in key mortgage rates and appreciation in property values,” Robert Hogue, RBC’s senior economist, said Wednesday.
“Despite this increase in home ownership costs, affordability measures have still shown improvement from a year ago.” RBC said an average detached bungalow — the benchmark measurement — works out to 66.8 per cent of pre-tax household income in Vancouver, 48.6 per cent in Toronto, 39.2 per cent in Ottawa, 37.5 per cent in Montreal and 36.7 per cent in Calgary.
“With such strong momentum in the housing market and the cyclical low in mortgage rates behind us, it seems unlikely that affordability will improve in the near future,” Hogue said.
© Copyright (c) The Province
City rescinds bylaw limiting alcohol at dinner
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009Council hoped to target restaurants receiving many complaints by limiting alcohol to 50 per cent of bill
Richard J. Dalton Jr.
Sun
Vancouver restaurant owners will no longer face a strict limit on how much alcohol they can sell, city Coun. Heather Deal said Monday.
Council last week revised a recently enacted bylaw that limited alcohol to 50 per cent of a restaurant’s sales.
“It’s really refreshing to see a government change course, and then change course in a common-sense way,” said Ian Tostenson, president and CEO of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association.
The new bylaw requires the ratio of food to liquor sales to be “consistent with a restaurant use.”
It also says the restaurant must offer its full menu while alcohol is being served.
The previous bylaw, passed last month, limited alcohol to 50 per cent of a restaurant’s sales.
That bylaw was put in place so the city could target restaurants receiving many complaints, Deal said, adding the city never intended to go around checking receipts.
But the bylaw raised concerns that restaurants serving expensive alcohol would exceed the limit.
Tostenson said four people buying a plate of nachos and a glass of wine each would easily exceed the 50-per-cent limit.
Meanwhile, changes to liquor hours approved last month remain in effect. Restaurant owners can apply to extend their hours to serve alcohol until 1 a.m. on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends.
Previously, there had been a hodgepodge of liquor hours, the result of a city decision in 2003 to limit closing hours to midnight for new applicants but to allow existing licensees to retain their longer hours.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Home sales jump in October, beating expectations
Monday, November 23rd, 2009Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer
USA Today
A “sold” sign hangs outside a home in Los Angeles. October home sales rose 10.1 percent as a first-time buyer tax credit spurs sales.
William Bares and wife Sarah Bares inspect the fire place in this Fondren District home near downtown Jackson, Miss. By Rogelio V. Solis, AP
WASHINGTON — Home sales surged for the second month in a row in October, climbing to the highest level in 2½ years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of an expiring tax credit.
Home sales nationwide are now up nearly 37% from their bottom in January, data Monday showed, though they are still 16% below the peak in autumn 2005. At the current sales pace, there is only a 7-month supply of homes on the market and in some areas there are bidding wars.
Joey Wilson, 53, and her husband made unsuccessful offers on 20 Las Vegas homes since midsummer before closing on a four-bedroom, $136,000 home this month.
“It’s insane,” said Wilson, who relocated from Kentucky. “I’ve never seen a market like this before.”
The National Association of Realtors said home resales rose 10.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.1 million in October, from a downwardly revised pace of 5.54 million in September. It was the biggest monthly increase in a decade, and far above the 5.65 million pace expected by economists, according to Thomson Reuters.
The recovery is being driven by lower prices combined with federal programs to lower mortgage rates and bring more buyers into the market. The median sales price was $173,100, down 7% from a year earlier and off roughly 2% from September.
Many experts predict prices will hit a new low next spring, perhaps falling another 5% to 10%, as more foreclosures get pushed onto the market.
The government has tried to counter that trend by offering a tax incentive for first-time buyers and by keeping mortgage rates around 5% since the spring.
The tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time owners was originally set to run out on Nov. 30, but Congress renewed it earlier this month and broadened its reach. People who have owned their current homes for at least five years can now claim a tax credit of up to $6,500 for a home purchase. To qualify, buyers must sign a purchase agreement by April 30.
The Realtors’ report on October home sales reflects offers made before buyers knew the tax credit would be extended.
“The incentives really did get people to go out and buy,” said Wells Fargo economist Adam York. “The question is: What does the trend look like when the credit is over with?”
Home sales are likely to drop over the winter as buyers hibernate for a few months without the looming tax credit deadline.
The new deadline means “we’re going to see some good activity coming out of the spring,” said Pat Lashinsky, chief executive of online real estate brokerage ZipRealty.
But the government support can’t last forever. For example, the Federal Reserve is likely to curtail its effort to push down mortgage rates next year. If rates then rise too high, it would make home purchases less affordable and dampen housing demand.
“When we do kick those crutches out from under the housing market, will it be able to stand on its own?” said Mark Fleming, chief economist with real estate information company First American CoreLogic. “It’s really hard to tell.”
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
B.C. estate law stops the dead from stiffing ungrateful kids
Monday, November 23rd, 2009Ian Mulgrew
Sun
People might still believe it’s their estate and they’ll leave it to whom they please, but the law in B.C. says otherwise if you try to stiff your wife or kid.
There was talk of changing the unique way the province handles estate litigation as part of the latest omnibus amendments to our archaic death laws, but it went nowhere.
There was stiff opposition to bringing us into line with other provinces, the United Kingdom and the U.S. by eliminating the thrust of the Wills Variation Act.
One of the fears about changing the handling of estates was that in cultures where the son is revered as a veritable god, women would be routinely disinherited.
That can’t happen in B.C. right now.
Unlike those other jurisdictions, the century-old law we use for estate litigation comes from New Zealand rather than England.
Oddly, the debate is also occurring right now in the United Kingdom, where the issue (known as testamentary freedom) is a key concern as the country prepares for full integration with the continental community.
New Zealand was the first common law jurisdiction to seriously question and rein in the right to leave your estate to whom you pleased on the basis that the family had a right to be protected.
It passed the Testator’s Family Maintenance Act in 1900.
In the wake of the social reform movements that followed the First World War, B.C. adopted a similar statute with the same name and near identical provisions in 1920.
In England and the common-law jurisdictions such as America, that hasn’t happened to the same extent.
The liberty to dispose of your assets any way you like, as they are yours, remains a pretty fundamental bedrock idea.
In Europe, by comparison, most of a person’s estate is legally reserved for and divided equally among the surviving children.
Though some countries prohibit those who murder their parents from profiting, European nations make it illegal to disinherit children who disappoint.
Forget about leaving it all to Fido to make a point to the ungrateful progeny — the Europeans ensure they still receive their pound of your flesh.
But the rules also prevent parents from rewarding the worthy — say, the selfless daughter who forgoes her own pleasure for years to nurse an ailing mom or dad.
That’s what truly rankles the personal freedom crowd — merit gets a raw deal.
Some countries even allow what are called “clawbacks” — the ability of the heirs to retrieve assets sold by the deceased before their passing to frustrate the bureaucrats and feckless.
Last month the EU unveiled guidelines for those who have assets in more than one country — and talk about your Byzantine bureaucracy!
In Europe, the right of a child to inherit an equal share of a parent’s estate is seen as a basic human right, the English system an anachronism guaranteeing the outdated and fusty privilege of the first-born son.
The British can’t comprehend such concepts and are howling over the feared chaos of officials from Brussels trying to recover money from some U.K. charity.
The tradition of strong property rights and a free market economy drove the development of the common law, which itself is grounded in personal freedoms.
Both sides see the other system as unfair and perverse: An apparent dilemma between trampling personal freedom or accepting the worst of human caprice.
In the rest of common law Canada, which follows England, adult independent children have no claim on their parent’s estate unless they are in fact “dependent,” which usually means they cannot support themselves.
B.C. by comparison travels a kind of middle road that allows the courts to rectify wrongs. The rest of Canada should be following us, agrees Trevor Todd, the lawyer behind disinherited.com.
In the face of demands from a municipal building inspector, no one avoids the normal standards by proclaiming, “my home is my castle.”
Similarly in this day and age, no one should be allowed to treat their family unfairly by claiming that in death personal freedom gives them the right to act meanly.
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Top grades for a smart house
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009TECHNOLOGY: Program lights, heating, air to reduce energy use
MIKE HOLMES
Province
A smart meter allows homeowners to save money on their electricity bill by avoiding usage peak rate.
Is your house smarter than you? In some ways, it probably already is, and building technology is developing all the time to improve on that intelligence. Your house is a system, and all the parts work together. In fact, many or most of its parts already work without your even knowing how they do it.
Like your HVAC system, there’s a thermostat that reads the temperature in the room and sends a message to the furnace or the AC unit to heat or cool the house, depending on your requirements. Programmable thermostats can be set to come on so your home is warm when you arrive home from work.
You put lights on timers when you go on vacation, you might have a coffee maker that has a fresh pot ready when your alarm goes off in the morning.
What if your house was so smart that you could set all that up — and more — remotely, through an Internet connection or with your cellphone? A smart house allows you to control your home’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning remotely. It allows you to turn lights on and off, or dim them, and manage your energy use, saving money and reducing energy consumption.
What if your house had a smart meter that showed you the actual time-of-day price of the electricity you were currently using, so you can make an informed choice about your energy use?
Energy costs more during peak times, but consumers aren’t aware of how much they use during the expensive times since their usage is typically calculated on a monthly basis. A smart meter shows actual current usage — real time information — about the price of electricity so you can “talk to” and program your house based on what you know.
A smart meter will tell you how much energy you are using, in what rooms and on what appliances you are using it, how much it’s costing you, and how much you could save if you made different choices.
It’s long overdue that we have a meter that helps consumers manage their energy consumption. But for a house to be really smart, I think we need to do more. We need to make more intelligent choices about where we are getting that energy in the first place. A smart meter is (so far) all about tracking energy consumption from the grid.
The technology is available — it has become more and more affordable, with a shorter payback time. There is geothermal, wind and solar power with battery back up. There are even electric cars. Get off the grid as much as possible.
What if you incorporated solar or wind technology to help offset what you use from the grid? What if your house was smart enough to know when electricity was costing you more, and could choose instead to use backup power stored in batteries? What if it could take advantage of the higher peak prices of power to sell it back to the grid — in effect making you money? Now that’s a smart house. Catch Mike in his brand new series, Holmes Inspection airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV. For more information visit www.hgtv.ca
70-unit townhome tract is latest addition to Langley’s Milner Heights
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009Where life just comes naturally
Province
Milner Heights in Langley, home to the new Radius development, incorporates green streets and landscaping with an environmental reserve and nature paths. –HANDOUT ILLUSTRATION
A 1,525-square-foot Radius townhome has 21⁄ finished bathrooms, an open-concept living and dining room, a family room, a patio, backyard and double garage.
The Radius townhomes feature open-concept kitchens with granite countertops and an island and family room.
The 1,525-square-foot Radius townhomes have three bedrooms and there are several floor plans to choose from in the development.
THE FACTS
What: Radius Townhomes at Milner Heights.
Where: 20843 69B Ave., Langley.
developer/builder: Vesta Properties.
Sizes: Three-bedroom townhomes ranging from 1,650 to 2,000 square feet.
Prices: Starting at $329,000.
Open: The presentation centre and show homes are on display Monday to Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m.
Contact: 604-539-9484; [email protected]
More info: www.milnerheights.ca; www.radius.milnerheights.ca
In Langley, it’s easy being green. Just take a walk in the new Milner Heights neighbourhood, a master-planned “green community” that incorporates “green streets” into its landscape design and eco-friendly technologies into some homes.
The development is already in tune with nature, set as it is on a ridge near an environmental reserve and greenway networks, and incorporating nature paths and a pond on the property.
But it’s really making waves with its green streets innovations — roads are designed to control storm-water volumes and discharge into local streams, and plants and trees have been selected for water conservation and filter run-off.
“We’re on the forefront of enviro-friendly development. People like the idea of being part of a sustainable community,” says Judy Rohatyn, Vesta sales and marketing manager.
“The green street features are quite unique. When people drive in they see that right away. There are lovely streetscapes with indigenous plantings and landscaped boulevards.”
Radius townhomes are the latest offering in the 400-family community. The townhomes — 70 units in all — began presales this month. About a third of the first 16 units have sold. Occupancy begins as early as June 2010. The townhomes range in price from $329,000 to $389,000, plus GST, for three-bedroom units ranging in size from 1,650 to 2,000 square feet.
Rohatyn adds the builder is currently offering a promotional package worth an estimated $4,500 of extras like granite kitchen countertops, upgraded appliances, tile floors and washer and dryer.
A 1,525-square-foot Radius townhome has three bedrooms, 21/2 finished bathrooms, an open-concept living and dining room, and open-concept kitchen with an island and family room, a patio, fenced backyard, foyer and double garage. In the basement, an unfinished room, storage room and roughed-in bathroom provide an additional 427 square feet.
There are several floor plans to choose from: Others offer finished basements with a standard garage and additional outdoor carpark. Three colour schemes are available.
Other homes in the development include the Seasons three- and four-bedroom single-family homes, starting at $489,900, the Prelude rowhomes starting at $409,900, and four-plexes starting at $339,000.
The Seasons and Prelude homes on the 18-hectare property are built with green technologies including low-flow toilets, faucets and showers, Energy Star appliances, halogen and compact fluorescent lighting, and paints and carpet low in volatile organic compounds.
The first of these Milner Heights homes went on sale in July 2008, and 65 families will have moved in by the end of the year.
Rohatyn says Milner Heights, with its mix of single-family homes and town and rowhomes, is attracting a diverse crowd. “We get a range of buyers: empty nesters looking at downsizing, first-time buyers and a lot of young families. It’s a very friendly community close to all the amenities, like good schools and the new Langley Event Centre.”
Buyers aren’t the only ones paying attention to Vesta’s Green Built new developments.
The developer and builder was nominated this year as a finalist for three Georgies, the Canadian Home Builders’ Association of B.C.’s residential real-estate awards. It’s up for Built Green B.C. Builder of the Year, Best Multi-Family Landscape Design and for a Sustainable and Innovative Community Award.
Langley-based Vesta Properties, established in 1989, has built a number of projects in B.C. and Alberta, recently the Provinceton community in Surrey’s Cloverdale neighbourhood and the Augusta and Augusta Walk, also in Cloverdale.
© Copyright (c) The Province
