PeapodLife BEST HOMES …Show Me the SLOW MONEY! Investing in the Future via Grassroots Organic Growth Makes Dollars and Sense

Video: TED Talk by Ari Derfel, Executive Director Slow Money

Source: YouTube: TEDxPresidio - Ari Derfel - Slow Money

“Combine poisonous factory-farm tomatoes with disgraced investment banker Bernard Madoff. Throw in a stock market disaster. You get a public spooked by the dangers of industrial food production and investors wary of risky business. This may be the recipe for a Slow Money revolution.”

~ David Gutnick, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Source: slowmoney.org: Slow Money: Investment strategies appropriate to the realities of the 21st century

If you have just watched the above TED Talk and did not pause to consider the gravitas of Ari Derfel’s introduction, here’s what you missed:

“Too much and for too long, we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product…counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage…Yet, the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play…It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything…except that which makes life worthwhile.”

The quote, we soon learn, was from Robert F. Kennedy, and we cannot accept the truth of Derfel’s assertion that it could had been written half an hour ago and still be completely relevant today (perhaps even more relevant then when Kennedy first spoke those words).

Image: Robert F. Kennedy

Source: listal.com: Listal: The Kennedy Family Curse list

Just how relevant? Derfel is certainly not the only TED Talk presenter to use this quote. Be it U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s TED Talk on The next age of government or Chip Conley’s TED Talk on Measuring what makes life worthwhile, Robert Kennedy’s famous 1968 speech is practically a prophetic treatise on the state of our world.

In fact, Chip Conley was so inspired by Kennedy’s Speech that he created a kind of balance sheet for GDP (GNP)…

Image: What GNP Counts and what GNP Doesn’t Count

Source: peakorganizations.com: PEAK: Transforming the Way Business Is Done: Chip Conley’s 2010 TED Talk Transcript: WHAT COUNTS

So what does all this have to do with Wo-Built?

If we look at The Slow Money Principles, we discover that local investing and investing for the future—and food security—are key.

Wo-Built’s PeapodLife initiative is already a step this direction, from our team’s social entrepreneurial standpoint. However, taken to the next step, we have Wo-Built / PeapodLife BEST HOMES initiative: a way for almost any investor to make an investment in their local community via green real estate investment, social responsibility, and an ROI focus creating a positive feedback loop and future social, environmental, economic investments (“SEE” Investments).

PeapodLife BEST HOMES (Building EcoSystems & Technology via Home Ownership for the Masses that's Economical & Social) offers Toronto and Southern Ontario investors an approach that is truly unique, and offers a slow money approach to alleviating the infrastructure burdens on municipalities and taxpayers!

Together with our partner, Casavant, we can help investors profit from converting old, derelict, crumbling, toxic houses into the healthiest, most stress-free, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly properties imaginable.

Imagine the difference it would have made for the City of Toronto during 2013’s flood disaster had thousands of homes been equipped with their own rainwater capture infrastructure and indoor rainforest ecosystem?  Imagine how many hundreds of millions the insurance companies would have saved (costs that will ultimately be passed along to consumers through higher premiums).

Now, imagine if you, as an investor, had refurbished, converted, built and flipped and/or rented those life-saving properties? And imagine if Wobuilt’s PeapodLife BEST HOMES unique all-in-one green real estate investment program meant those green renovations and ecosystems could be rolled into the first mortgage, greatly reducing your up-front capital costs (and risks)!

Here’s the break-down:

Image By Wo-Built: UNIQUE BEST HOMES INVESTMENT PROCESS

PeapodLife BEST HOMES Investment Benefits:

• Buy, renovate and sell green properties at a fraction of the cost of a typical capital investment, and even less time and effort, and headaches.
• Peace of mind: PeapodLife and any affiliated contractors / subs we use are performance bonded to 1 ½ times the cost of the renovations.
• The system our Architectural Technologist uses is the same one as the insurance agency and is featured on W Network program The Property Brothers.
• Working with the right investors, PeapodLife can also convert existing properties into green rental, rent-to-own, condo, co-op, mixed residential-commercial, or commercial properties.
• Legal Second Suites possible (most likely in the basement) that benefit from all the green technologies on the property, including the ecosystem!

If we’re looking at a simple home buy, renovate & flip scenario, imagine what potential buyers will experience when walking into a PeapodLife BEST HOME (and the IMPACT IT CAN HAVE ON PEOPLE WHO EXPERIENCE IT IN PERSON)…

Video by Wo-Built/PeapodLife: Living Wall EcoSystem Fitch Street

Source: youtube.com: YouTube: Peapodlife Living Wall EcoSystem

Imagine hundreds, if not thousands of homes with the healthiest, most vibrant and beautiful living spaces imaginable. Imagine residents with boosted immune systems, lowered stress, rich relationships with living breathing ecosystems, and growing their own organic food via hydroponic umbilical systems!

THE POSSIBILITIES FOR GREEN SOCIAL REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS ARE ENDLESS! BEST HOMES ARE JUST THAT.

Contact Wo-Built and/or PeapodLife TODAY to learn more.

You can contact us by phone 416-402-2679

Toronto Real Estate Market Ripe for an Investing Revolution — the Smart way to Invest in Canada’s Hottest Housing Market

Image Collage by Wo-Built: Estimated Year-over-Year Increase in Toronto Real Estate Prices
Sources: Microsoft Clipart 00196324.wmf;
rediff.com India: Binary Options Broker: Investing In Toronto Condos;
toronto-realestate-agent.ca/: Toronto Real Estate: Guide To Toronto Real Estate

“Toronto is on track to end 2014 as the hottest housing market in the country, with prices likely to rise 8.1 per cent, year over year”
– thestar.com: Business: Toronto housing market on track to be hottest in Canada for 2014: report

According to Royal LePage’s House Price Survey and market forecast, Toronto will experience another red-hot housing market in 2014.

Only 6 months into the year, and the largest price increases were 8.3% for two-storey homes (at $730,806 on average) and 7.2 per cent (or $611,906 on average) for detached bungalows.

Some of these averages have been skewed, according to Royal LePage, because of “irrational bidding wars that have propelled prices further into the stratosphere” (Source: thestar.com).

So why does all this matter? If you’re in the market for a home, it means greater competition for fewer desirable properties, bigger mortgages and down payments, and bigger mortgage payments.

If you’re a real estate investor, however, what it means is an incredible opportunity to work with Wo-Built and its Partners to employ a revolutionary approach to buying, renovating, marketing and selling homes.

The key to the investment opportunity are performance-bonded home renovations which can be rolled into a first mortgage. This means tremendous REDUCTION IN RISK to you, the investor. YOU ONLY NEED TO INVEST A DOWNPAYMENT AND CARRYING COSTS UNTIL THE HOME IS SOLD.

Here’s how it breaks down:

•    First, get pre-approved for a mortgage.
•    Next, sign an agency agreement and work with one of Casavant Corp’s 300+ top realtors to identify an undesirable property in the GTA or Golden Horseshoe.
•    Locate a property and make a conditional offer.
•    Property inspected by Architectural Technologist & Design Changes Drawn Up.
•    Close on Property.
•    Performance Bonded Renovations by Wo-Built or Performance-Bonded Contracting Partners.
•    300+ top Realtors vying to market & sell your upgraded property.

Now, let’s talk about these “irrational bidding wars.”

Just imagine having a newly renovated (or rebuilt) home in one of Toronto’s more desirable neighbourhoods, with an open house hosted by a top Realtor, properly staged by a professional staging company, and potential home buyers entering the home experience something an indoor rainforest ecosystem by our PeapodLife division like this…

YouTube Video: PeapodLife Living Wall EcoSystem Fitch Street

This recently completed Living Wall Rainforest EcoSystem was installed at 235 Fitch Street in Welland, Ontario. Like most PeapodLife EcoSystems, it features orchids, moss, bromeliads, African violets, cacti, aquatic plants, fish & more. Like all PeapodLife EcoSystems, there is no soil, chemical additives or fertilizers of any kind.

Source: youtube.com: Living Wall Rainforest EcoSystem, published by PeapodLife

And by the way, videos and photos CANNOT do PeapodLife Ecosystems justice. You have to experience them in the flesh to appreciate them. But once you do, you’re hooked. And no, there is no one else, ANYWHERE that has ANYTHING that compares.

We call them BEST HOMES, and they are YOUR OPPORTUNITY to create one-of-a-kind GREEN REAL ESTATE properties with a financing, design, marketing and sales team backing you all the way; managing the process from beginning to end for you.

Check out The BEST HOMES Investment Case Study for a house in trendy/desirable Junction area in Toronto (based on an actual property available for purchase, real world renovation costs, real estate fees, etc. and greenhab investing with PeapodLife BEST HOMES Program).

Visit PeapodLife.com for more information, pictures, videos, testimonials and much more.

Contact Wo-Built for more information.

Narrowest House puts a Broad Smile on our Face Keret House by Jakub Szczesny ekes out a place in our Hearts

Image Collage by Wo-Built: Jakub Szczesny’s Keret House

Images Source*: dezeen.com: Dezeen - architecture and design magazine: World's narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

"I started to think who could live there. It had to be a person that would like to be a hermit, someone who would like to spend time alone doing something…It requires a sense of humour, as you cannot stay long in a place like this"

~ Jakub Szczesny, Architect

Source: dezeen.com: Dezeen - architecture and design magazine: World's narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

The Keret House, squeezed into a crevice between two buildings in the centre of Warsaw, is a perfect example of how light can transform even the smallest of spaces into a place perfectly livable.

Image: Etgar Keret in his house, Photo by Bartek Warzecha

Source*: kerethouse.com: KeretHouse: First night at home: Etgar Keret in his house

Well, okay, claustrophobes need not apply. But considering that the house, designed by Polish architect Jakub Szczesny, is a mere 122cm at its widest point, one cannot but smile at the ingenuity of design and clever use of space—what little there is of it.

Image: Keret House: Entrance Hall & Stairwell.

Source*: dezeen.com: Dezeen - architecture and design magazine: World's narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

According to the official website, Keret House was an exercise attempting to “fill the cracks” of a disjointed Warsaw.

“Jakub Szczęsny decided to fill such a crack, to restore its existence by turning it into a perfectly functional living space and by inviting somebody to take care of this space. The architect designed a House, which, despite its microscale caused by the size of the plot, constitutes a functional space – a place to live. Szczęsny invited an Israeli writer of Polish descent - Etgar Keret to live in the House. By doing so he imparted one more function to the House – the function of a study.”
Source: kerethouse.com: Keret House: Settle in Void

Image: Keret House: Looking down on staircase.

Source*: dezeen.com: Dezeen - architecture and design magazine: World's narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

Szczesny paired up with Israeli writer Etgar Keret and began developing the triangular house which could reasonably accompany a single person to live and work—the kind of work a writer might do.

Image: Keret House: Main level after staircase “hatch” closed.

Source*: dezeen.com: Dezeen - architecture and design magazine: World's narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

All the furnishings in the house are custom, which is how they managed to fit all the furnishings, according to Szczesny.

Image: Keret House: Custom furniture is as minimalist as the house is narrow.

Source*: dezeen.com: Dezeen - architecture and design magazine: World's narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

We here at Wo-Built think that Keret House is more than just some novelty or one-off art project.

Image: One would have to be very friendly with anyone sharing Keret House’s only bed.

Source*: dezeen.com: Dezeen - architecture and design magazine: World's narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

We think Keret House demonstrates what can be achieved with the use of natural light and how remarkably tight spaces can be made to feel more open and inviting (if not exactly “spacious”).

Image: Keret House.

Source*: dezeen.com: Dezeen - architecture and design magazine: World's narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

There are many homes in old Toronto, Etobicoke, Markham and elsewhere build on long, narrow lots. While none of these houses are as extremely narrow an example as Keret House, a great deal can be learned from its example in opening up the feel of these old houses, and making better use of space.

Image: Keret House in Warsaw, Poland rendering.

Source*: dezeen.com: Dezeen - architecture and design magazine: World's narrowest house by Jakub Szczesny

Just how useable is the space? See the Keret House “in action,” below:

YouTube Video: The world's thinnest home has been built in a Polish alleyway Published by ITN

Source: youtube.com: The world's thinnest home has been built in a Polish alleyway

Attila Lendvai
VP of Strategic Development
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build
Project Director
PeapodLife - Advanced Human Habitat via Building EcoSystems & Technology

* Image Photography is by Bartek Warzecha, © Polish Modern Art Foundation, The National Centre for Culture.

A Unique Look at Living Space: This Box Gives New Meaning to “Outside the Box”

Imgur - Just a box..Oh wait! by krimpaa *

“Think outside the box” is so inside the box!

~ Christopher Peterson, Ph.D. in The Good Life

Source: psychologytoday.com: The Good Life: Positive psychology and what makes life worth living

So you’re confronted with it: an empty room with only a rather innocent-looking (or is it ominous-looking?) box awaiting you.

You approach it with trepidation and perhaps some tepid curiosity. It looks innocent enough; there’s nothing particularly special about the markings or materials. Entirely unremarkable. But curiosity gets the best of you. Moving in for a closer look, you find latches and hinges.

You really have no choice but to begin fiddling with it.

Well that was unexpected. It’s clearly a configurable box, and it’s beginning to configure itself in the empty space of the room.

A little more configuration reveals the contents of the box. They will need to be removed and arranged, but into what?

Removing the top piece, you seem to have created…ANOTHER BOX! This is either a very good sign or a sign of regression.  But let’s continue…

Great. MORE BOXES! Still, I doubt anyone would have gone to these lengths to play a practical joke on you. There must be SOMETHING worth getting at, so let’s continue our configuration.

Still more boxes within boxes.

Is that a little stool for the desk? Things are beginning to look up.

A closet appears to be forming in the corner…

I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to get the sense there’s more to this box than meets the eye: is that a mini wardrobe and a shelving unit?

I’m getting the distinct impression this box belongs in a college dorm room…

…or a Jr. bachelor apartment in Tokyo.

If our eyes don’t deceive us, that’s a bed…

…complete with wardrobe and plenty of storage…

…for all the stuff you could need in your bedroom!

At Wo-Built, we’re all about clever use of space and get a kick out of innovations like this complete bedroom set in a box.

We hope you got a kick out of it too. And for more kicks, checkout the video, below! (Also for those sceptics who are thinking to themselves: “yeah, but it probably takes FOREVER to take apart and set-up!”).

Well, the video is UNDER 3 MINUTES, so you be the judge!

VIDEO: Room in a Box: complete room packs into a small cube! by UpBeatnik

Source: YouTube: http://youtu.be/ajzM8nRfkfY Uploaded by UpBeatnik

Attila Lendvai
VP of Strategic Development
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build
Project Director
PeapodLife - Advanced Human Habitat via Building EcoSystems & Technology

* Images and Original Story Source: viralnova.com: It Looks Like A Boring Box In A Room. But What Came Out Of It Blew My Non-Engineering Mind.

A Celebration of Life: Happy International Day of Happiness!

Image:  Momentification. A celebration of Life: 8 days of growing a new leaf.

A new leaf arrivals in our office EcoSystem.

Photos: wobuilt @ 2014

On the first day of spring which is also the International Day of Happiness: a celebration of life.

As we had such a cold winter, there are no buds on trees and bushes outside yet; but we have timely leaf arrivals in our office EcoSystem.


This plant has not produced any leafs for about a year.

It was a potted plant rooted in soil, but once transplanted into our hydroponic EcoSystem (which by the way also cleans the turtle tank) it started growing again.

So we welcome spring with our EcoSystem, a happy occasion.

Martina Ernst
President/CEO and Co-founder of Wo-Built Inc
416-402-2679

Momentification. A celebration of Life: 8 days of growing a new leaf.

A new leaf arrivals in our office EcoSystem.

Photos: @wobuilt

One-Stop Shop for Home Buying and Renovation Seven Issues You Face and the Solution to Your Dream Home

Image: Wo-Built & Casavant Make Your Home Renovation & Buying Process Easy

Image Credit: Microsoft Office.com: Hands passing model house

We know all too well having the home of your dreams is no simple matter:  whether you’re buying a new home, renovating your existing home, or plan to purchase and renovate a resale home.

Here are 7 issues to consider when it comes to buying/renovating an existing home:

1. 1. Can you afford it, really?
2. 2. How will you find it?
3. 3. How will you know that the home that is being sold to you is the one you’re actually buying? (That is, what aren’t you being told about it? And don’t think a home inspector is the answer.)
4. 4. What about the renovations? How much are they REALLY going to cost?
5. 5. What is lurking behind the walls, in the attic, underneath the basement that no one has bargained for, and that no self-respecting contractor will “let slide?”
6. 6. Are you planning on making a basement apartment? Do you have the funds to, as Mike Holmes would say, “make it right?” Or, will you fall into the trap as so many homeowners do, and get a cheap contractor in to do a cut-rate half-ass job resulting in yet another illegal second suite?
7. 7. Do you want to have an indoor rainforest ecosystem from PeapodLife, complete with a fully integrated suite of sustainable home management and green technologies? Would you like your indoor ecosystem to connect with landscaping, eco-pond, and permaculture garden?

The Solution:

Wo-Built has joined the Casavant group of top-tier Realtors, Financial Institutions, Insurance Companies, and Grade-A Contractors to deliver you, the consumer, the world’s first fully integrated home buying, financing, renovation and ownership system.

Casavant’s program offers advantages to each stakeholder group mentioned above. Its vertically integrated system means:

• Consumers like you have a one-stop, no-haggle, no-fuss, headache-free home ownership experience. No more hunting endlessly for homes and financing; no stress guessing quality of homes and costs of renovations; no more dealing with cut-rate and half-baked contractors.
• Realtors have business sent to them and get to participate in revolutionary programs which help alleviate the dire need for affordable home ownership and available social housing units.
• Contractors have business sent to them, get to help more people become home owners responsibly (NO SUB-PRIME MORTGAGE SCHEMES HERE!), build/convert/upgrade desperately needed affordable rental inventory, all without dealing with emotional home owners, and potentially volatile disputes, thanks to professional third-party verification by certified Architectural Engineers.
• Financial Institution and Insurance Companies are able to get more high-quality homes and home-owners on their books.
• The Government gets more tax revenues and alleviates pressures on the rental and affordable housing markets.
• IN SHORT, EVERYONE WINS.

For more information, visit http://www.casavantcorp.com

Wo-Built is proud to be a part of Casavant’s revolutionary paradigm shift. And, we are happy that through this program, our revolutionary new paradigm in buildings, PeapodLife becomes INSTANTLY AFFORDABLE and ACCESSIBLE to almost EVERYONE.

Win-win-WIN, indeed.

Toronto Talk: Trees Inside - Indoor Ecosystems: November 7

Screenshot: Meetup: Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems;
Thursday, November 7, 2013 at The Inner Garden of 401 Richmond;
Unit 384, Third floor, 401 Richmond Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 1R8
Credit: meetup.com: My Personal Tree - Tree Planting Events - Toronto, GTA, ON

We would like to invite everybody to attend this exiting talk about ecosystems:

Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems

When: Thursday, November 7, 2013

Time: 6:30 PM

Where: The Inner Garden of 401 Richmond

Location: Unit 384, Third floor, 401 Richmond Street W, Toronto, ON M5V 1R8 (Location/Map)
401 Richmond Street West is located on Richmond just east of Spadina Avenue.

Come out and hear from speakers Martina Ernst and Attila Lendvai on the topic of indoor ecosystems.

About the Speakers

Martina Ernst is the President and Co-Founder of PeapodLife, www.peapodlife.com, a Division of Wo-Built Inc and a director of Genesis Eco Fund. She is a design & build specialist who helps businesses improve the quality of their work spaces. Her education, both in architecture and business, and her 25-year building industry expertise give her a unique approach to designing spaces with a balanced emphasis on aesthetics, practicality and profitability. Featured on Extraordinary Women TV, the radio shows Small Business Big Ideas Show and From a Woman's Perspective, Martina's passion is to provide the healthiest indoor environment possible for her clients.

Attila Lendvai is the Co-Founder and Project Director of PeapodLife, www.peapodlife.com, a Division of Wo-Built Inc and a director of Genesis Eco Fund.  He's a passionate social entrepreneur with one eye on the big-picture; the other on the bottom-line. Atilla has 20 years of international experience as a consultant and manager of both for-profit and non-profit ventures, working with companies such as IBM, ABB, Gas de France, Nova Scotia Power, Georgian Bancorp and Emilio & Coco. A seasoned speaker and emcee, Attila is also a blogger and author of The Attlas Project - SEE the World in a New Light, and contributing author of Competitive Intelligence and Global Business. Attila was recently interviewed on AllTalkTV.com with David Grossman and is a regular contributor to Greenaddition.blogspot.ca. Attila has made PeapodLife his life's mission to bring clean air indoors to serve humanity in a deep and meaningful way.

This is a pay what you can event. Proceeds go to the Genesis Eco Fund and upcoming tree-planting Meetup events.

About the Meetup Group

My Personal Tree - Tree Planting Events - Toronto, GTA, ON
This is a group for anyone interested in meeting people and making a difference in protecting the natural environment for the future. All skill levels welcome. We started this group to connect with people interested in attending tree-planting events in Toronto and around Ontario.

Through these reforestation projects, and using tree saplings and seeds contributed by people/organizations from all walks of life, we make our best possible use of resources, people and knowledge to proactively protect the environment and offset carbon emissions.

This Meetup is run by a co-counder of My Personal Tree, a new Toronto start-up. Find out more about us at www.mypersonaltree.com.

Want to attend? Please RSVP here: meetup.com: Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems

Photo: PeapodLife's Booth at The Property Show

Martina Ernst, President and Co-Founder of PeapodLife and

Attila Lendvai, Co-Founder and Project Director of PeapodLife

PeapodLife (www.peapodlife.com), a Division of Wo-Built Inc (www.wobuilt.com)

2013 @ wobuilt.com

Come out and get some insight from PeapodLife Social Entrepreneurs and GenesisEcoFund.org Directors Martina Ernst and Attila Lendvai on things that you have never thought of before, and get some knowledge of ecosystems in the company of a high-order rainforest ecosystem!

links:

blogTO: Trees Inside - A Talk on Indoor Ecosystems
genesisecofund/blog: Trees Inside: Talk + Meet n’ Greet a Real Indoor Ecosystem In Person
greenaddition/blog: 3 Secrets to Using Nature to Grow Your Business: Amazing New Keynote for Green Business Associations!