Kitchen facelift proves less can be more

Engaging in a kitchen renovation can easily become a very pricey adventure. As such, maintaining focus on only those aspects that absolutely must be updated while retaining others can help soften the financial blow.

By keeping the existing cabinetry throughout, the homeowners at my first project of 2026 slid into the new year with a reasonable kitchen-facelift price tag. And the results speak for themselves.

This kitchen had been renovated in the past, including the removal of a wall to open up the space. By doing so, the sink area remains on the inner wall, and includes an L-wing which creates a peninsula island. Along the back exterior wall, the stove is placed between two legs of another countertop area.

While this revised layout has remained functional for the subsequent years, the overall esthetic required an update. As such, a decision to replace the old Arborite countertops with quartz became the priority, along with updating the backsplash’s outdated style. To round out the reno, a new sink and faucet would also be introduced.

Drought-resistant plants provide perfect accents for distinctive décor

Gwen Beam finds the shapes, colours and textures of succulents irresistible.

She has been growing, designing and teaching others how to get creative with succulents for over 20 years. Her gorgeous succulent designs decorate her garden in summer everywhere the eye looks — mounted on the outer walls and entrance-ways of the house where she lives in Brandon, spilling over fences and adorning luxurious and imaginative planter displays on patios, pedestals and walls that divide her garden into intimate outdoor “rooms.”

Her taste for the unique and unusual extends not only to the diverse succulent varieties she seeks out, but also to the eclectic stone representations of heads used as planters to display her elaborate creations.

An avid gardener and active member of the Brandon Garden Club, Beam needed to make some adjustments in her approach to gardening after experiencing heart issues in 2008. Succulents are among the lowest-maintenance plants, so they were an ideal choice.

Where there’s a wall, there’s a way

When finalizing plans to upgrade existing flooring in homes, other smaller yet imperative tasks often tend to present themselves as well.

At a recent job site, the entire main floor of the house was to receive new vinyl-plank flooring. Once the existing floors were fully prepped, priority shifted towards the wall dividing the kitchen and dining room areas — a wall that would be removed before the new vinyl was installed.

The square footage of this dwelling was not originally large, likely the reason for an addition to the backside of the house that serves as a main seating area.

To alleviate the confinement within the kitchen, the dividing wall adjacent the dining room had been fitted with an opening at some point. While this added to an open-concept feel, the homeowners decided the wall could be removed entirely, to better suit them.

A Milo moment

Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, unfolded as the perfect autumn day — the temperature remained above-seasonal average, with only the hint of a mild breeze. After a long workday at a boat-access-only cottage job site, my return home included the anticipated ritual of letting out my doggo, Milo, for his late afternoon frolic in the yard.

As my wife pulled up the driveway, both Milo and I were still lying in the grass, enjoying the warmth of the evening sunshine. We then made a bonfire, and watched the sun set — just a loving dog and his humans. Little did we know this would be our last Friday together. Less than a week later, our beloved Milo crossed over the rainbow bridge.

I never had pets growing up. As such, my first puppy, Molly, revealed how novice I was as a fur-parent. No matter, after a few months it became apparent having a fur-baby is all about routine(s): when to feed the dog, how often to let the dog out, not to mention the multiple vet visits and grooming, as well as everything else that is required and expected.

Milo was an impulse buy — his bigger sisters seemed to be squishing him along the glass at one corner of his pen when I first noticed him (at a pet store, when dogs were still being offered for purchase). After a meet-and-greet, I elected to bring Milo home under the pretence that Molly’s approval was imperative. Within two weeks, Molly had clearly accepted Milo as part of the family, and Milo officially became her younger fur-brother. For nine years or so, this duo was the beating heart of the house, affectionately referred to as “M&M.”

Nurseryman’s Grunthal-area property a testament to passion for trees

Visitors to Falk Nurseries located in New Bothwell, a short drive southeast of Winnipeg, can tell at first glance that trees are a central focus at this busy family-owned nursery. Diverse tree specimens have been planted and labelled throughout the attractive landscape so customers can readily identify individual species and assess their characteristics at maturity.

Sheldon Falk, owner of Falk Nurseries, is invested in growing and studying trees as well as shrubs. Early in his career he had a wish list of trees that could grow in our cold climate. Over the years, Falk has made it his mission to visit numerous arboretums and research stations across Canada and in the northern United States. His passion for reading, coupled with friendships with notable tree breeders, has fuelled his research knowledge. Today, Falk’s collection of trees comprises over 200 varieties or species — 600-800 trees in all.

But the testing ground for this vast collection of trees is not at Falk Nurseries, but rather on his private property near Grunthal which he shares with his wife, Cynthia. It’s a stunning 15-acre property with a creek running through it. A long driveway, flanked on either side by majestic trees, at first conceals the house from view but then opens onto a broad and leafy vista over a gently rolling terrain.

A tree and shrub bed in front of Falk’s house was my first introduction last fall to the intriguing diversity of plant material Falk enjoys experimenting with. My eyes were immediately drawn to a beautiful specimen of Tea’s Weeping Mulberry with deeply lobed, dark-green foliage on cascading stems.

Extra steps ensure great stairs

When tasked with a project that involves the introduction of vinyl-plank flooring with underpad throughout the main level of a home, the endeavour usually includes a few stairs.

At a recent job site, the stairway leading to the basement had already been addressed during a previous renovation. As such, only the three stairs leading to the step-down addition required the flooring upgrade. No matter, just these three stairs still presented a few hurdles.

Most deluxe vinyl-flooring manufacturers offer “matching stair nosing” for the majority of their inventory. Instead of roaming the aisles of the big-box stores in hope of finding a close match in either PVC or aluminum, a nosing that is fabricated using the same vinyl style and colour is always the better choice. However, it’s best to inquire as to what type of nosing is available.

Although top-mount nosing can be satisfactory in some applications, the sleekest “look” derives from flush-mount nosing, as this type is simply an extension of the vinyl plank at the same elevation. However, there are a few things to consider before attempting the latter style of nosing.

Baffling basement biffies

I’m not often surprised anymore by what I’ll encounter when asked to update a basement bathroom. However, a recent flooring upgrade did catch me off-guard slightly.

Basement bathrooms present hurdles because their layouts are usually predetermined by the rough plumbing set within the concrete floor at the time the house was originally built. And short of spending a fortune to rearrange the sub-concrete services, adapting an upgrade to the existing layout quickly minimizes options.

This particular bathroom had been upgraded prior to the current homeowners’ purchase of the house. And although it remained functional, there were a few aspects leaving much to be desired, primarily the carpeted flooring. Although I understand the intention to keep a basement bathroom floor warm to the feet, wall-to-wall carpet does not belong in a bathroom, for what seem to me obvious reasons. No matter, the carpet was now coming out and new vinyl-plank flooring was to be installed.

Beyond the carpet, the bathroom floor in its entirety had been built up, with a sort of platform throughout for one reason or another. I suspect this could have also been to buffer the coldness of the concrete below from the space above, or maybe there were a few water leaks along the floor that are concealed by the framework. The homeowners decided to keep the platform and simply re-sheathe it with vinyl once the carpet and underlayment were removed.

Open the door on a new look

Sometimes a main-floor update can be as simple as a fresh coat of paint on the walls. Other times, it may take a little more effort to create the desired look. An interior door upgrade can often change an entire esthetic — without hitting the wallet so hard.

However, swapping out old interior doors for new can be tricky, unless you go a little further, and replace the door jambs as well.

Homeowners often make the mistake of assuming installing new doors will be as simple as removing the old from their hinges and fastening on the new. Unfortunately, not all doors are tooled in the same locations. As such, this can affect hinge placement and striker locations — and if these don’t line up with the new doors, things can get ugly in a hurry.

Although it is possible to source new doors that happen to meet the location specifications of the existing hinges on the jamb, the hinges themselves may be of a different size and shape. As such, it may be best to then purchase doors slabs, un-tooled interior doors that can be fitted on site.

Great ideas for the gardeners on your list

Just as gardening leads to endless topics to discuss or dream about, there is no shortage of useful, creative and pleasurable gift ideas for gardeners.

Daylilies star in documentary

If filmmaking is a visual art form and nature is a powerful inspiration for art, then why aren’t there more films about plants and the people who are passionate about them?

PlantPop is one of those rarest of things — a horticultural film studio that seeks out interesting stories about plants and how they inspire and improve people’s lives. PlantPop, based in Suffolk, Va., is the brainchild of Arthur Parkerson who owns Lancaster Farms, a major plant producer in Virginia.

In the past 11 years, PlantPop has produced over 400 short documentary films that explore the relationship between people and plants. Many of the films are under 10 minutes in length, some are 30 minutes long.

Daylily is PlantPop’s first feature-length documentary film (72 minutes in length). Directed by Maria Morris, this refreshingly beautiful and informative film captures the stories of growers, gardeners, breeders and plant enthusiasts who share a common love for daylilies.

Like a puzzle, fireplace surround comes together piece by piece

Amidst a very hectic end-of-year work schedule, I was able to eke out a few hours over a couple of days to address a lingering upgrade in my very own step-down dining room, the main level of the addition to the house completed in 2018.

From the outset, the gap between the windows on the far wall had been fitted with an early-generation, wall-mount electric fireplace. Unfortunately, the brand did not offer many features, and always seemed bulky. So the space was about to change, for the better.

In recent years, electric wall-mount fireplaces have come a long way. Not only has pricing come way down and the range of sizes expanded, but the plethora of options on newer brands and models put my old bulky beast to shame. Moreover, the old fireplace had been mounted directly to the wall, without being encased (the vent for the heating on this particular unit pointed upward, ruling out an inset application). As such, we lived with it simply mounted to the wall as a stand-alone for the years that ensued after completion of the addition.

The upgrade design would feature a 66-inch-high build-out structure decorated in cultured stone, capped with a stained wooden mantle and a slightly bigger hearth below. After careful measurements, I decided to frame the main structure to a finished width (including drywall) of 66 inches, at a four-inch depth. The height of the hearth would match the five-inch height of the existing baseboards throughout, with a one-and-a-quarter-inch-high quartz slab at 74-inches wide and eight-inches deep, to serve as the hearth’s top.

While renovating on top of irregularly built substructures can frustrate, patience pays off

A good number of my recent job sites have involved a flooring upgrade, at least to some degree.

Working at a house last month, the first phase of several separate renovations was just that — the renewal of the existing kitchen flooring.

Apparently, during the main kitchen renovation completed years ago (and before my involvement), a glue-down style of vinyl flooring had been selected and over time, the sections separated, revealing inconsistent gaps at every seam. The homeowner made it very clear this could no longer be tolerated.

As such, click-style vinyl planking with underpadding was selected to rejuvenate the look of the kitchen, and would also extend towards the back-door entrance and continue along the stairs to the basement. Although the square footage of flooring was minimal, the intricacies involved with such tasks would prove to be quite challenging.

Indoor herb gardens add savoury touches to recipes, elicit fond memories

‘Welcome to our living aromatherapy space,” said Dave Hanson on my visit last week to Sage Garden Greenhouses.

Every customer who walks through the door of the greenhouses located at 3410 St. Mary’s Rd. is greeted by the different aromas of various exotic plants. “I just see every single day how people respond with joy, sometimes nostalgia, sometimes, with a sort of transporting feeling that takes them back to another place in time or reminds them of someone,” said Hanson.

“Many plants, herbs and flowers have this incredible sensory impact in terms of the aroma. Rosemary, for example, is very much associated with memory. It’s supposed to bring you calming energy and a greater capacity to learn. Giving the leaves a little scratch and sniff makes you feel energized — not hyper, as though you had too much coffee, but grounded and calmer. It’s very powerful and gentle at the same time.”

Brushing or crushing the fragrant leaves of an herb infuses the air with a specific essence depending on its place of origin. “I’ve been on a bit of a mission, you could say, to collect different cultivars of plants that are regional from around the world. Sometimes it’s a certain kind of rosemary that grows in a region of Italy or a type of jasmine from a region of India or a thyme that has much more aromatic quality than a standard variety. They’re not all the same — it has to do with the aromatic oils,” said Hanson.

Differing approaches can solve subfloor idiosyncrasies

The decision to upgrade flooring often gives rise to related, but unexpected quandaries that need to be resolved once work gets under way.

At a recent job site, the main floor consisted of two types of adjacent floor finishings: carpet throughout the main living and sitting rooms, and linoleum throughout the kitchen and hallway that leads to two bedrooms. Removal of the carpeting prompted a big decision that would greatly affect the costs and overall approach of the flooring project.

Typically, carpeting is installed atop underlayment that itself can be quite thick. As such, different flooring types adjacent to it may not meet the same elevation as the carpeting, once in place. To remedy the height anomaly, secondary subflooring is usually laid atop the main subfloor to equalize flooring elevation throughout.

In this case, half-inch secondary subflooring was added throughout the kitchen and hallway to ensure the linoleum met the height of the carpet at both entry points into the main living room. Once the carpet was removed, this revealed the lip of the secondary subfloor when transitioning from the living room into either the kitchen or hallway.

Fabulous foliage adds flair to gardens, indoor décor

Welcome to the Jungle is a new and exciting line of foliage plants from Dummen Orange.

For consumers encountering this amazing collection for the first time during the winter months, their first thought might be of the many new possibilities for raising the bar in their indoor gardens.

Beyond a doubt, these new foliage varieties offering a wide range of leaf sizes, shapes, forms and colour options will do just that.

But Welcome to the Jungle is so much more. Any one of the dozens of varieties has a story to tell and can be integrated with your home décor or added to your outdoor containers and hanging baskets.