Building the Friendship of Neighbours in Business

Photo Collage: Building the Friendship of Neighbours in Business
Wo-Built at "Venus Creation in the Neighbourhood" Gathering
Hacienda Mexicano Grill (1353 St. Clair Ave W.), October 21, 2010
2010 @ Olga Goubar, wobuilt.com

In the Corso Italia area, there is a community of merchants, residents, schools, visitors who come to see the goings on in this little village and even the construction workers who have been in, around and all over the area breaking and making roads. Merchants in the community have come together by the efforts of Venus Creations to market for one another to help develop more business within the neighbourhood.

However, this group of business operators has become more than just a network marketing organization - they have become friends who show kindness to each other, help one another with their problems and issues and get to know the personalities of the people. To name a few, Sunnyville Grill, RE/MAX Realtor, Amar Flowers, FunClips Coupons, Optometrist, Tiger Dragon Kung Fu, Agio Ristorante, IC Savings, AMS Advertising, Guardian St. Clair Village Pharmacy, Via Espresso, Portuguese Book Store and Venus Creations.

Just west of Davenport on St Clair Avenue, there are two restaurants next door to each other but at virtually opposite ends of the globe and styles of food. Chef Marino at Agio Ristorante creates four-star high style Italian cuisine in our very diverse neighbourhood of casual eateries. And, immediately next door to Agio you find the Mexicano Grill Restaurant where owner-manager Alejandro Rangel serves up a taste of his homeland.

This past Friday, Venus Creations held another of its evening social events where our local merchants meet and get to know about what's on offer in our area and to enjoy the friendship of neighbours in business. In Alejandro's Mexicano Grill, the food is a pleasant surprise for the uninitiated into Mexican food as you will see below.

Once people started to arrive, course after course stated to arrive each surpassing the previous one in flavours, texture and colour. Of course there were homemade nachos and dips that spanned from creamy guacamole to a hot cilantro-pepper dip that left our mouths tingling.

But, the most interesting and interesting looking dish was the carne mole - spiced chocolate beef in a soft tortilla. This was wonderful and not at all what it looked like. This dish looked like wedge shaped slices of tortilla drizzled with chocolate sauce. But, the flavour is rich, beefy, and spicy with a familiar trace of chocolate flavour and aroma. This was brilliant. Don't think of the chocolate so much as a chocolate bar - all sweet and chewy. Instead, image the delicate and complex flavours in an aged glass of port. Now map this complexity into the form of a beef dish and you start to experience this dish.

If for no other reason than to try this mole dish, do make a point of visiting the Mexican Grill for lunch or dinner. You will not be disappointed.

____________________________________
This article was contributed by Ari Berman, a Management Consultant from Toronto, Canada, with a specialization in operations and process change. He has helped companies spanning aircraft builders to soda drink manufacturers to increase their value - finding and improving important details that never got attended to in past. His work in the construction industry includes overseeing commercial construction projects in retail shopping malls across Canada. He can be reached at 647-235-8181 or via e-mail on ari.berman@cmc-advisor.com.

By the way, the next gathering with Venus Creations in the Neighbourhood will be at Vivid’s Pizzeria on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 anytime from 6:30 pm. Come to try authentic Italian pizza, to meet and mingle with other local business owners and operators, to help develop more business within the neighbourhood. For reservations call Joe at 416-890-2692.

See you there!

links:
thetravelzine-torontosc: Agio Ristorante
thetravelzine-torontosc: Mexicano Grill
Urbanspoon Toronto: Old Toronto: Corso Italia Restaurants: Caribbean / Greek / Italian / Japanese / Mediterranean / Mexican / Portuguese / Vietnamese
MyStClair.com: Our Neighbourhood, Online
Toronto Corso Italia BIA
Facebook: AMS Advertising
AMS Advertising Inc.: Graphic Design, Web Development, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing, Creative Printing, Copy Writing, Social Media Development
http://shoponstclairwest.com/
Shop on St Clair West: Your Guide to a Mosaic of Different Cultures
Portuguese Book Store
Facebook: Joe Furtado
Venus Creation in the Neighbourhood

Renovation Tips: Perfect Finishes

Screenshot: CTV >> NEWS >>Do-It-Yourself >> Getting the Perfect Backsplash
Bryan Baeumler, the host of HGTV's Disaster DIY, invites Canada AM to his home
and shows what every novice handyman can do - tiling a backsplash.
Credit: ctv.ca

This morning I watched CTV and Bryan Baeumler, Disaster DIY, gave some good tips about backsplash installation. This got me thinking. Visual effects are important in any room. There are always focal points in a room. If your finishes are not perfect around the focal points the effect can be disappointing.

Here are some points to look out for and some tips:

Tip #1: Windows and doors: If you tile around doors and windows, or have any other decorative finishes make sure the patterns are symmetrical on either side.

Tip # 2: Focal point around shelves: It is not only the shelves which become the focal point, but also the surrounding walls, baseboards etc. Make sure all the finishes in the immediate vicinity are well executed.

Tip # 3: Outside corners: Corners on the outside of shower basins, cabinets or walls will become focal points. Special care is required for these areas.

Tip # 4: Colour schemes: Before you start, have all the colours and materials chosen so you can see the full impact.

Tip # 5: Wood grain patterns: When using woods be cautious about grain patterns and how the finished product will look either raw or stained. Make samples.

Happy home renovation!

Martina Ernst
CEO
Wo-Built - Innovative Design and Build

links:
Apartment Therapy
Apartment Therapy Marketplace >> Canada >> Toronto
Wo-Built Inc: Design + Build Construction Company: Professional Versus Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Renovations
by Lonya Miller

Tales from the Renovation Track: Why Customers Should Never Be Their Own General Contractors

Collage: It Pays to Have a Good General Contractor
Credits: MS Office ClipArt - mp900399496

Here is the latest installment of Janice Bell’s now famous Tales from the Renovation Track – the series of articles One Woman’s Experiences of Being a Renovator. Now the understanding of why customers should never be their own general contractors.

Part 13 - Why Customers Should Never Be Their Own General Contractors

If you are considering a sizable reno to your existing home or office sometime in the future, I would advise you right now that you should not attempt to be your own general contractor. Why, you may ask? Because there is so much more you should know about renovations and construction than meets the eye. I can tell you first hand, that it is imperative that you do not attempt this if you have little or no construction experience. And, it is particularly true if you have to be at a full time job during said renovations and can only be on the site part of the time.

Your first mistake is not being accessible on site at all times. You might think that because you are available via your cell phone that this is a bit trifling, but a cell phone is simply not good enough. There are always a multitude of decisions to be made on a daily basis as problems may arise at any time, and you can be sure that they will. If you are not familiar with building jargon, you will certainly not understand verbally what the problems are to begin with. You need to be present to make those on-the-fly decisions or you will run the risk of delaying the trades and costing yourself more money and time delays. Sometimes though, the decisions are purely whatever option the customer prefers.

The second mistake, and this is a huge one, is timely coordination between the trades. I will give you an example of a customer/general contractor that I had experience with this year. The flooring guys were ordered in before the drywall on the walls was up. Here was this brand new beautiful oak hardwood floor, but Oh! I can't describe what a pain it was to ensure that the floor did not get marked up while I was drywalling, painting and placing baseboards. This whole process slowed me down considerably and also became a safety hazard as the floor was protected with sheets of 1/8 inch masonite whose edges provided ample opportunity for tripping. And if you get any drywall dust in between the cracks of any type of flooring, it becomes a major job to vacuum it out of there. And yes, you can put plastic down, but then it becomes slippery to walk on, and as a result becomes a safety hazard.

Ill timed coordination is costly too! The same customer ordered me to tear down the ceiling whereupon, once the joists were exposed, it became apparent that squirrels had eaten clean through the bridging between the joists. I was then told to replace all of the bridging. At the same time the in-floor heating contractors came in as a surprise to me and tore out all the bridging I had just put in! After they left, I had to reinstall it, thus costing this customer more in time and money.

A third mistake is trying to hurry things along a little too much. The same customer had ordered another tradesperson in to jack up the floor of the house. Now, this was a considerable amount, perhaps 2 inches or so. Normally, this is usually done no more than 1/8 inch per day at the fastest rate, but this customer was in such a big hurry that he ordered the fellow to jack it up all at once. Now, this request cracked all the lathe and plaster on the walls above the portion being jacked to the point where some of the lathe itself broke in two. After fixing this, I was told that I was too slow because the customer had gone on a website and found out that most drywall was done in three coats. I had to explain that this was not new drywall, but old plaster of which the lathe had to be repaired first and required more than three coats in some areas.

Trying to help doesn't make things easier either. The same customer, again, came in late one night and decided he was going to get the job done faster by sanding the dried mud of new drywall. I had put the third coat on already, and it just needed feathering at the edges. Not knowing there is a slight bow out over drywall joints, the customer proceeded to sand it flat, and re-exposed the paper tape which I then had to put two more coats on to fix. Again, more work, more time and more money.

Finally, naive customers are not aware of all the little details that go into finishing a job. The most common mistakes they make are not allowing enough offset from a sink backsplash to the faucets, so that your hands cannot get around them. Another common mistake is placing electrical boxes too close to doorways and then choosing wide casement which then has to have an ugly cutout to fit around them.

And one final thing to remember is that if you are the general contractor and something major goes wrong, you do not have the liability insurance to cover the repairs.

It pays to have a good general contractor!

Happy Renovations.

Janice Bell
Bell Renovating

2010 © Janice Bell

Tales from the Renovation Track: One Woman’s Experiences of Being a Renovator
Part 1: All in All
Part 2: Weld on Fire
Part 3: They Were Nailed
Part 4: It Pays to Be Honest
Part 5: Rural Renos
Part 6: Messy Is Costly
Part 7: Door Hell
Part 8: Just Where Do I Stop?
Part 9: Dressing for the Trades
Part 10: Very Painterly
Part 11a: Tricks of the Trade: Recaulking bathtubs / Placing peel and stick tiles
Part 11b: Tricks of the Trade: Wheelbarrows / Cutting a plastic pipe
Part 11c: Tricks of the Trade: Drywall mud / Admixtures
Part 12: When Common Sense Should Prevail
Part 13: Why Customers Should Never Be Their Own General Contractors
tinyurl: janicereno

Wo-Built Signs a Partnership Agreement with Snider Homes

Collage: Working Together
2010 © Snider Homes, Wo-Built Inc.

We would like to share exciting news with all of you. Wo-Built Inc just signed a partnership agreement with Snider Homes. You may know them as S.M. Snider Interiors and Exteriors, a company that has been providing quality renovations for over 31 years and you might have seen their motto "We work from the heart, not the pocket book".

We have been looking for a long time to partner with a company to be able to push our community efforts into a higher gear. It was important for us to find a company that has the same high ethical and community values we have and we believe we have found the right fit.

As we have indicated in previous postings we finance our social mission through our projects, we provide mentoring for women on our sites and for us to be able to help more women we need to be able to design and build more large scale projects. We now have access to resources on an ongoing basis to match larger projects and therefore are able to train and mentor more women to be successful in the trades.


Martina Ernst
CEO
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build

links:
About Snider Homes:
Snider Homes - formerly known as S.M. Snider Interiors and Exteriors - Kitchens, Bathrooms, Basements, Additions - Based in Toronto and the GTA - Contracting company offering renovations for your home and business. Oakville renovations. Forest Hill renovations. Markham renovations. North York renovations. Richmond Hill renovations.

About Wo-Built Inc.:
Wo-Built Inc, a Design and Build general contractor in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Our mission is to be the leading quality building company that is sought after for its innovative design and construction and is recognized for using the projects as a means to helping women, the community and the environment.

A Reflection: Making a Difference

Collage: Making a Difference - What Makes Us Tick!
2010 © wobuilt.com

We sometimes get caught up in the tedious day to day running of a company or projects and have to remind us of the greater picture, to be the best builder while doing good (or the long version of our vision: "To be the leading quality building company that is sought after for its innovative design and construction and is recognized for using the projects as a means to helping women, the community and the environment.")

Some key points of what we DO to achieve the vision:

• Design and build with the emphasis on good and innovative designs. We consider us a boutique firm, which can achieve the wow-factor in the design and the finished product.
• Renovations and construction of homes that make dreams come true and are green orientated, and of commercial spaces that help the branding of the business.
• Help women, by providing mentoring and, if we can, employment in the office and our sites.
• We encourage donations of gently used items from the project sites.
• We fight against preconceived ideas that discourage women to enter in the skilled building trades.

All of the above derives from our CORE believes of:

• Being socially minded – Wo-Built was founded on a social idea.
• Believing in fairness and fair treatment to all parties in all of our personal and business dealings.
• Our desire to create and provide the means to make dreams come true for our clients and the women we mentor.
• Teamwork and building positive relationships with our clients, trades and suppliers which are based on trust, understanding, patience and tolerance.
• Our desire to design and built beautiful spaces.

The biggest joy we have is when we see the wonder, pride and joy of our clients for their new home or business. Or when we can help a woman to fulfill her dreams of having a career in the trades.

We want to make a difference in peoples lives. This is why we continue to look for great projects, like-minded people and social opportunities to help – this is what makes us tick.

Martina Ernst
CEO
Wo-Built - Innovative Design and Build

link:
Wo-Built Inc: A Reflection: Making a Difference
http://tinyurl.com/wobuilt18

A Little Culinary Gem in Corso Italia: Sunnyville Grill

Photo Collage: Sunnyville Grill - Little Culinary Gem
2010 © wobuilt.com

Having been in our new home, Corso Italia, for more than a few months now, we’ve had the opportunity to experience many of its culinary dee-lites. One little gem we’ve discovered is a place called the Sunnyville Grill. Located at 1218 St. Clair Ave. W., it’s a fairly new business to the area, but it has all the ingredients required of a good eatery. A warm and friendly ambiance, wonderful home-cooked food and reasonable prices. As a family-run business, Mom helps out in the kitchen, hence all the delicious comfort foods, while Loui, the owner, tours the entire café making sure things are running smoothly at all times. In short it’s one of our favorite destinations for a lunch-time break.

Sunnyville Grill also offers a wonderful catering service for events in the area. As a new business in the immediate area we have had the opportunity to use their catering services for a business meeting and can report first hand what a wonderful experience it was. Their service was prompt, the food was plentiful and all the dishes were freshly prepared. There was a good variety of food to choose from and judging from everyone's comments and the empty plates, all the food was delicious.

We will keep you posted on our many culinary adventures in the neighborhood, so check into our forum from time to time.

Lonya Miller,
Writer
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build

links:
wobuilt.blogspot.com: Sunnyville Grill: Home-style Meal Cooked by Mom with Love
wobuilt.blogspot.com: Wo-Built Inc. Is on the Move!
foodpages.ca: Reviews on Sunnyville Grill
foodpages.ca: Sunnyville Grill - All Day Breakfast
chowhound.com: Hidden gems on St. Clair W?
"The space has been turned into Sunnyville Grill. They offer all day breakfast. I've only been the once--the eggs were cooked to order and the staff were eager. The decor is basic, but it's much better value than Boom."
By mikeb on Feb 02, 2010 08:39AM

Wobinna’s Dream Home Contest: Submission #5 Houseboat

Image: Design Competition 2010
Wobinna Wants to Know: What's Your Dream House? Is It ...
#5. Freedom on the Open Waters in Your Very Own Cozy Houseboat ...
Illustration by Dawn Palfreyman
Copyright 2010 © Wo-Built Inc.

Another great design idea from Lonya, our Wo-Built writer, for the dream house competition examples.

The Houseboat

My goodness! If you’re willing to dream - the housing options seem endless. Another intriguing idea of a dream house is that of a houseboat. Surprisingly, on discussion about this idea – two different ideas emerged. One was that of a floating but stationary house in a floating marina, no less.

MY idea of a houseboat would actually BE on a boat (not a good idea if you get seasick, but as it happens, I don’t). I think by now everyone knows I love a space that is compact – nothing too big (too much cleaning and maintenance) but the appeal of a compact space is also that of its coziness. I’ve seen some luxury houseboats that were totally massive and could accommodate a whole tribe, but that’s not what I would find appealing.

This idea intrigues me, as well, because of the home’s movable ability. Sort of like a tortoise with its shell on its back, your home goes with you wherever you want to go. Have an argument with your neighbors? Move your boat further down the river. Just want a change of scenery? Move your boat to a more pleasing surrounding. And another redeeming quality would be there is no need for a car! Another green idea!

What I would want personally inside MY houseboat would be sort of like an apartment, except that it would just be on a boat. It would have a kitchenette, and a reasonably sized but cozy dining and family area. It would have to have a separate sleeping area or two (for guests) with adjoining washrooms. A small deck might be nice to be able to sit outside on a nice day.

This turtle thinks it would be lots of fun to see more of the world with my own oasis in tow and not worry about noisy neighbors, hotel rooms and timelines. And, if this turtle hits a nice spot and some good weather it just might stay afloat for awhile!

Lonya is the staff writer for Wo-Built Inc.

Here are our 5 great ideas for design concept of the dream house or home: conservatory, tree house, grand staircase, condo, and houseboat.

You might have some really great ideas to add. We are looking forward to exploring your projects and bringing them to completion. If you have any other ideas please submit them to us at info@wobuilt.com


Wo-Built Inc. is dedicated to women in the trades. We created Wobinna & Friends to encourage women to look at the construction industry as an alternative career choice with a multitude of options. Wobinna & Friends is interested in all aspects of the construction industry. We would like to see more women explore the many opportunities open to them and become successful.

Wobinna & Friends and any associated characters, storylines and/or merchandise are the sole property and copyright of Wo-Built Inc. This includes all media.