The Collingwood – Blue Mountain Real Estate Blog

During the holiday season, I really enjoy going about in the Collingwood area and seeing so many homes decorated for the holidays.  It’s that time of year again when people will start the process and it usually includes using Christmas lights. I’ve been thinking about this topic because while I love seeing the holiday displays, [...]

It’s that time of year again were the prospect of big home heating bills is upon us.    A couple of years ago, John and I had an energy audit completed and then made some basic changes which had a dramatic impact on our heating costs lowering them by over 30%.  The biggest factor was [...]

I know this is true because we’ve done it ourselves. While the Provincial Home Energy Rebate Program is over, the Federal government revived the ecoEnergy program in June. It begins with an Energy Audit to identify where your home loses energy.  In this regard, the Province of Ontario is still offering to pay 50% of [...]

This is Part 3 in a series of our journey to installing a roof top solar system on our home.  If you wish to read from the beginning, start with this link. We are now the proud owners of the largest, residential roof top solar system in Collingwood.  For now, anyway. Since the last post, [...]

This is the second part of our journey to installing solar panels on our roof in Collingwood, Ontario.  Read part 1 here. After making the decision to proceed, we needed to hear back from OPA (Ontario Power Authority) to the application we had submitted.  It took 9 weeks at which point we were told we [...]

Let the sun shine in, we’ll take it with a grin… Funny how life unfolds.  For the purpose of research for this blog, a few months ago I wrote a post about the Ontario microFIT solar program.  The more I read, the more excited I got about the opportunity this program could offer.  We decided [...]

Some good news in today’s Federal budget:  the Government will be restoring the popular ecoEnergy program with a commitment of a further $400 million.  As pointed out on one blog, let’s hope it’s not too late to find the necessary autditors to get this done.  While details have not yet been announced, I would think [...]

I’ve been toying with an idea in my head and am hoping you’ll give me some input.  Please don’t tell hubby John though because I need my facts straight first. You may think this a very odd thing for a REALTOR to say, but is it possible that there is actually a leveraged investment out [...]

Here is a summary of programs designed to help buyers achieve their goal of homeownership. ONTARIO’S LAND TRANSFER TAX REFUND FOR FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS Land Transfer Tax (LTT) is applicable to all transfers of land in Ontario.  First-time homebuyers may be eligible for a refund of all or part of that tax under this program. For [...]

We hear a great deal these days about green homes but seeing them is quite an eye opening experience. Now you can do it right here in this area starting in Thornbury. The Ontario Sustainable Construction & Resource Centre (OSCAR) (formally called The Ontario Green Building Resource Centre) a not-for-profit organization, is hosting it’s first [...]