renovation definition Archives

Before and After: How a $360,000 renovation transformed a Junction shack into a sparkling family home

Goodbye, muddy floors, ’70s paneling and dilapidated shed. Hello, airy interiors, bespoke cabinets and EV-ready garage

Toronto, Real Estate, Before and After: basement before

The place

A three-plus-one-bedroom, four-bathroom semi in the Junction that just underwent a big-time renovation. It has a separate one-bedroom basement apartment and a new two-car garage with a panel that can support an EV charger.

Thehistory

Gord Harrison, a contractor, initially purchased this 100-year-old property, for $1 million in February of 2021, as a home for his young family. He brought in his friend Shawn Chua, with whom he had partnered on a dozen previous renos, to share the load. But, a year into the job, they discovered a rat’s nest of problems: poor insulation, asbestos and a basement floor that required re-pouring. Harrison needed to recoup costs, so he kiboshed moving in, instead opting to rent

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Framed Love Sign Made of Matchsticks

13/01/2026 Kartika

Renovation

Changed: February 8, 2023 by Katie Hale · This post may contain affiliate links · Leave a comment

This fun and easy project is the perfect way to show your love. With just a few supplies, you can create a stunning framed love token made entirely out of matchsticks. This is a great gift for your significant other or a fun decoration for your own home. This is a unique craft idea, you will love making it and displaying it.

match the love tokens on the table with the topiary

Framed Love Messages

Learn how to make a framed love message out of matchsticks and a wooden frame. This is a great DIY project that is easy and fun for anyone to do. The end result is a very unique and sentimental gift that everyone will love.

If you like this, then I know you’ll love Valentine balloons framed with sparkling hearts, or pretty heart wall art made of pistachios.

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How Home Depot’s CEO is navigating the remodeling dip

31/12/2025 Kartika

Renovation

The Home Depot deftly navigated the pandemic disruption under former CEO Craig Menear, riding the home improvement boom to annual sales growth in the tens of billions of dollars. Before Menear, who stepped down last year, was Frank Blake, who successfully guided the retailer from 2007 to 2014 through the housing market crisis. In short, both CEOs are tough acts to follow.

Under CEO Ted Decker, appointed last year, sales have edged down after rising 43% to $157 billion between 2019 and 2022, as consumers shift spending back to leisure and away from home improvement. What’s more, home renovations are projected to decline in 2024 after a decade of continuous growth, according to a report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. But Decker says getting Home Depot through this slump is not by any means a turnaround story. Nor does he want to be a “caretaker”

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5 Painted Kitchen Cabinets to Inspire Your Next Renovation | Architectural Digest

21/11/2025 Kartika

Renovation

Katherine used Sherwin-Williams’s Rookwood Dark Red for her painted kitchen cabinets. “This is a Victorian color that feels unusual for a modern kitchen,” she reflects. “I like the juxtapositions.”

graham yelton

Katherine Thewlis didn’t let being a renter stop her from tackling the kitchen in her 1,200-square-foot Johnson City, Tennessee, home last fall. The e-designer and blogger was more than ready to say goodbye to the many features within the space, which included what she called an Easter egg yellow hue, wood paneling, and linoleum floors. However, given that she wouldn’t be able to take on a major renovation, Katherine had to get creative. She needed to keep the kitchen’s original flat panel cabinets intact for storage purposes but did give them a major facelift. “I sanded and repainted them myself to match the wall paint color,” she says. “I wanted it to have a built-in look. I purchased some

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The Secret Garden Flat named London’s best new home renovation

19/10/2025 Kartika

Renovation

A renovated flat by studio Nic Howett Architect that “feels like an oasis” has been named London’s best new home improvement project by Don’t Move Improve! 2023.

Named The Secret Garden Flat, the ground-floor home by Nic Howett Architect was selected as the overall winner from a shortlist of 15 revealed in April.

It was praised by the jury for demonstrating “how a very high standard of craftsmanship can be achieved with a low budget”.

Interior of The Secret Garden Flat by Nic Howett Architect — The Secret Garden Flat has won Don’t Move Improve! 2023

“The Secret Garden is full of surprises,” said judge Marie-Louise Schembri, who is sustainability director at engineering consultant Hilson Moran.

“This beautiful home in a very busy and dense urban part of London feels like an oasis and has consolidated the existing neighborhood and family communities,” she continued.

“The transformation process tells a story of vision, perversion, collaboration and organic growth.”

Wood-lined interior of London house — The renovated flat was

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How to Plan Raised Garden Beds

06/10/2025 Kartika

Renovation

Spring is just around the corner and one of the things I’ve been wanting to add to our backyard this year is a raised garden bed. Or maybe some 😉 I’m still a newbie to the world of gardening so I wanted to make sure I did my research before jumping into building and planting them. If you want to do the same this year then I hope this post helps you start your garden bed journey with confidence!

The breadth of my gardening really started last year when we built a Grade Two Herbal Cultivator and I was instantly hooked. I love to get out on the deck and chop up herbs to use in our meals. So are the kids! They loved watching them grow and we even planted our first tomato! I know they will enjoy this larger bed as much as I do.

SQUARE

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Toronto-area transit station completes major renovation with lots of upgrades

20/09/2025 Kartika

Renovation

Construction work at Bramalea GO Station was finally wrapped up after multiple phases of improvements and years of planning to make it easier for those in Peel Region to connect with other stops on the Kitchener Line.

Some of the major upgrades include a brand-new accessible station building, a parking garage with over 2,000 spaces, and a new bus loop with 18 new platforms for GO Transit and Brampton Transit.

Other amenities at the upgraded station include new passenger pick-up and drop-off zones, covered bicycle parking, an emergency call system, improved lighting, and more than 100 cameras for enhanced security.

Exiting the station northbound to Bramalea Road has also been streamlined, with a new exit directly from the parking garage leading to the signalized intersection.

bramalea go station

The new passenger pick-up and drop-off area at Bramalea GO, which opened up in 2022. Photo: Metrolinx.

For the first time ever, Züm (Brampton Transit’s

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a cinematic-inspired renovation of a victorian home

06/08/2025 Kartika

Renovation

inspired by the cinema world, MCA forms reel house in colorado

located in Coloradothe Reel House sees the sweeping renovation of a Victorian two-story home, offering a modern take on a timeless classic. Inspired by the client’s profession in cinematography, the project by MCA (Matteo Cainer Architects) was designed to capture the essence of the cinematic experience, characterized by excitement, surprise, emotion and lighting techniques. To achieve this, the design team focused on three main elements, the projector, reels, and film strip, as the primary architectural language, resulting in a unique and innovative design that embodies the spirit of the silver screen.

‘As a conceptual approach, we pursued the architectural strategy of ‘nesting’ which gave us the opportunity to design and develop the project from within, as if a ‘film within a film’. By slowly deconstructing and understanding the ‘magic’ behind the camera, we designed a project that curates

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Parks Canada: Renovations to historic PEI legislation taking longer than expected

29/07/2025 Kartika

Renovation

CHARLOTTETOWN – The Prince Edward Island legislature was supposed to reopen some time this year after eight years of renovations and repairs, but Parks Canada now says that won’t happen.

“Parks Canada acknowledged that the project will take longer than anticipated,” the federal agency said in a statement released Monday. “Once all tendering processes are complete, Parks Canada will be in a better position to provide more information about … the estimated completion date.”

The conservation project, which started in 2015, has cost the federal government $91.8 million so far, and the bills are still coming in.

Parks Canada said bids for the third phase of the project were higher than expected, prompting a new round of tenders that have yet to be published.

The third phase calls for interior painting, heritage woodwork and new flooring, as well as a new elevator and upgrades for plumbing, electrical, ventilation and fire

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HOW TO MAKE PLEAT CURTAINS WITHOUT SEWING

20/07/2023 Kartika

Renovation

When I started planning our laundry room update, I knew I needed a solution to hiding all of our shoes under the benches. I’m constantly lining it up and trying to arrange it and it always looks like a hot mess. I love the look of a sink skirt and I think it would be really cute to make a shoe skirt! So I got to work on making no-sew blinds to hide all our shoes!

Exhibit A: I’m honestly shocked that it took me 7 years to decide to cover it. We use this room SO MUCH and no matter how hard I try, it’s impossible to keep shoes neat and tidy. I wanted something that was still functional but also beautiful and curtains seemed like a good option. It would hide the mess but would be easy to pull aside and reach for our shoes when we need

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