My Recommendations

This is based on a single interaction so it may not be the case for getting actual work done but this one instance immediately took Eagleson Flooring off the list. We were looking for an in-home consultation for an existing kitchen floor tile replacement. I filled out the contact form on their site and waited. I was really surprised that I received an email THAT DAY (Saturday) and the discussion went really well. We were scheduling a time for the following week and I was really looking forward to it. Then the phone call came. I explained what we were trying to do and rather than offer options, the project manager said "come into our store" (despite asking for an in-home consult) and actively discouraged us from doing the job because the tile was already there, citing higher expenses. If they were the only company we were looking at, we would have come away extremely disappointed. Luckily, we found another company that we decided to use - I will come back with a review o...

After years of dealing with Blinds To Go, we had finally had enough. While the experience of going to a store and choosing from a variety, I wanted to try and use an in-house consultation and installation to avoid any further mishaps. We contacted GotchaCovered in Ottawa  to see what could be done in our bedroom. The consultation was fantastic. Cathleen looked at what we needed to do and offered a number of options. She provided her own opinion and design ideas but respected our overall designs. I can't stress how valuable this is in the consultation. Many will say "well, that's what a consultation should be like" but if you've ever had contractors or bad experiences, you know that in many cases, the consultation is more of a "Ok, sign here" type approach. This was a really NICE experience, especially knowing there was no commitment required. The blinds arrived as scheduled. There were some miscommunications with the installers that delayed the pro...

Don't be fooled by cheap imitations. By that, I am explicitly calling out Masterchef USA and Masterchef Canada, which is based pretty much on the same premise as Masterchef USA. After ten seasons, Masterchef Australia is a comprehensive cooking contest with a real focus on the contestants. It feels like a throwback to earlier episodes of Top Chef moreso than Masterchef. They did expand at one time to Junior, All Stars and Professionals but scaled back to focus on the quality for one show and it shows. We came across the Australian version thanks to Gusto , a lifestyle channel in Canada that was introduced as a competitor to the ubiquitous Food Network. The first season we saw was six but after that we were completely hooked. Why? 1. As noted above, it's comprehensive . It's a three month competition with challenges every day. But the kicker? Each day is broadcast. So when they say "get ready for tomorrow"", the next show IS tomorrow. When it airs on Ten...

With the announcement that Google would be shuttering Inbox, there's been a lot of articles about what to use as its replacement. I've pretty much been living in web mail for the past few years - but on my iPhone and iPad, it's been a bit of a toss-up. Mail on my MacBook Pro hasn't worked properly for months now (and solutions never worked properly) so I figured I would use this as an opportunity to find a better solution overall. Spark  is an email client for iPhone, iPad and Mac OS from Readdle . I started with it on my iPhone, evaluating a few other alternatives but what sealed the deal for me was its clients for the Mac and iPad. Spark has a "Smart Inbox" which combines multiple accounts into a single inbox, making it easier to stay on top of all your mail. Since the feature was offered, I've been using Gmail with its support for multiple email addresses but some mail clients don't support it easily. Spark handled it without a problem. ...

There are lots of devices available for a Smart Home. The Nest thermostat was one of the first that truly ushered in the current batch of tools. Sure, before that, you could use X-10 to automate as much of the house as possible and there were always custom solutions but the current idea of the automated home made it feel so much closer to reality than ever before. I have a Nest thermostat as well as a Nest Protect. When Nest was purchased by Google, I was excited about the possibilities but then discouraged by the founder leaving . But still there was a lot of promise in other areas. I purchased an outlet switch at the Apple Store for an iDevices switch. It worked as a HomeKit device. We used it for patio lights and they worked amazing. They offer an Foundation Kit which includes two plugs and an outside adapter . ALMOST a perfect fit. I did have some troubles with the outside adapter communicating with our at home network. Company sent a new one after a number of troubleshooti...

After going through so many winters and paying for snow removal, I had had enough. I had slipped on the patio steps more than once - even once laying right on my back. I searched Amazon for some heated mats and initially only found products that had really bad reviews. Then I searched outside of Amazon and found Heat Trak. The reviews looked promising and while the return policy included a 15% restocking fee, I ordered a few just to try them out. If they worked, great - if not, I would only use one and return the others. Well, no need. Check this out: First time we used them, there was no snow but it was cold. We had people over and when they went outside in their socks, they were loving it - no boots needed!! Then the snow came - sure enough - the mats worked perfectly. It's not instant - 2 inches of snow melts every hour but that's more than enough to get the job down. They aren't THAT expensive either (under $200 for a 5' mat) Here are some links for ...

If you're looking for speed in a web browser, most people immediately go to Chrome. But between Chrome, Safari, Firefox, most don't really find a big difference between browsers on your mobile device (phone or tablet). When testing a web site, I tried to grab as many different browsers and devices as possible. And that's where I found Puffin . In a word, WOW!! Our web site was operating behind a separate firewall but even then, Puffin delivered pages at least 2-5x faster than Chrome or Safari and this was on an iPhone 5C. Even on an iPad 2, Puffin's speed is incredible. It also supports Flash if you need it. Maybe more so - it's download mechanism is powerful too. On your phone, the chances that you are downloading something directly to your phone for use on your phone is unlikely. Instead, you likely want to refer to it later. Puffin has cloud-to-cloud drive support so when you want to download a file, it will send the link to your cloud drive (like Dropbo...