Why go to the National Home Show?

A couple of weekends ago I went off to the National Home Show down at the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place. It's a northern-North American style indoor market with stalls featuring everything from EcoLogoM spray foam insulation, like the Avenue Insulation Inc booth, to Milk Paint at the Homestead House Paint Co. booth, to pool tables and jacuzzis, sewing machines and pianos!

Pink Lomence Modern Crystal Piano at Grand Piano House Inc Booth

There were insurance companies, real estate agents, mortgage specialists, utility companies, arborists, plant nurseries, landscape architects, people selling garden furniture, kitchenware, in-floor heating systems, micro-fibre mops, sandals, solar panels and roofing made from recycled materials. I only had time to pop in for a couple of hours, which was not enough time to see everything but long enough to catch a mild case of the not-quite-spring renovation/re-decorating fever.

Umbra had a great booth and lots of products for sale. I wanted to get one of those metal tree-branch hooks for our bathroom but they didn't have any by the time I got there. They assured me they have them at their downtown Concept Store on John St just north of Queen St. W. One of their staff told me it was their first time at the show and they had a great reception.

Umbra was there promoting their products and concept store.

The number of products and services was dizzying! And the place was packed with people. I didn't come looking to buy anything but to see what was available. We are going to need a new mattress for our guest bedroom and have been looking at all natural mattress options so I was interested to find this booth belonging to a Greek company new to Toronto.

Coco-mat 100% natural bedding & mattresses.

We likely won't be able to afford major renovations for at least a few years, but we both agree forward planning, research into products and contractors and detailed costing analysis and budgeting are all important. What to do with all the old windows will be one of those questions that will need a lot of research. For the moment, sealing them up with plastic wrap and caulking is our plan but down the line we may want to look at restoring them or replacing them with more energy efficient ones, maybe fiberglass. Inline Fiberglass, a reputable fiberglass window and door manufacturer, had a great booth (apologies for the crappy photo!).

Inline Fiberglass Windows and Doors Booth

In the meantime while we consider the bigger projects, there are little things we can do to protect or rehabilitate some parts of the house. There were several dealers with booths promoting this little piece of technology for softening water and descaling water pipes, including those supplying old radiator hot water heating systems like we have. I'll have to look into this some more but it looks promising.

Scalebuster at Alchemy Water Solutions Booth

We haven't had the pressure checked on our system yet, but are aware that scale build up can create blockages and blockages can make pipes burst. Definitely something we want to avoid!

Lastly, having moved from an apartment style condo to a 2-1/2 storey typical downtown Toronto home on a relatively narrow lot, we have had to adjust to getting more exercise going up and down stairs for everything. So I had to include this....

For when we get really old (or lazy)!

For more of the people and companies that were there see the National Home Show's Interactive Exhibitor Listing page.