When the Internet came into being – or more specifically, came into being in a way that was meaningful to a significant portion of the population – there was a lot of talk about how it would make our lives easier with all sorts of handy tools. And while I undeniably appreciate being able to figure out which other movies an actor has been in or find myself a contractor online, the tool thing never really happened for me. Until now.

WhiteFence.com has it all figured out. It’s an online system that lets you compare home service providers – everything from your phone to electricity to newspaper subscriptions – in your area to make sure you get what you’re looking for. And WhiteFence provides this to users free of charge. They have literally gathered up all of the companies and services (well, most of them, anyway) that make up the nit-picky parts of life and presented it to users in one neat package for their convenience.

But that’s not even the best part. After all, as a Canadian, the majority of these services can’t apply to the small details of my own life. The Moving Checklist on the site, however, is great for anyone even contemplating a move out of anywhere. Start with their template, input your dates, edit and add to the tasks on the list, and voilà! That is one huge to-do list you never have to list – plus, it’s saved online, so it’s not about to get lost in the shuffle either. Finally, the Internet has fulfilled its promise to me.

When I was young, I was constantly rearranging my room, changing the direction of my bed, moving around my desk and building forts. I remember watching TV sitcom Silver Spoons and was always jealous of Ricky Schroeder’s car bed, to say nothing of the train that ran through his living room. My bed, as neat as it was—a captain’s bed with built-in drawers—wasn’t quite as cool.

When you’re a kid, your bedroom is Shangri-La, the one and only place where you can express your burgeoning tastes and lifestyle, no matter how ill-conceived they might be. Parents only have a short window of time to decorate their kids’ bedrooms; as soon as they reach double-digit tweendom, their bedrooms become closed-door fortresses smothered in pop posters and sports stars. Or worse.

In the meantime, before your kids round the teens, there are lots of great bedroom design themes and fixtures that are way cooler than anything Ricky Schroeder ever had.

As a general rule, stick to a single theme, such as superheroes, animals or fantasies such as princesses. Just remember, you’re decorating for your child, not to your own taste or needs.

Last week, a 72-year-old man in Toronto was charged with 30 counts of mischief for slashing his neighbour’s tires. The man, head of the area’s neighbourhood watch, was trying to prove a point—no parking on the street—but instead, ended up proving a deeper truth: neighbours, like siblings, don’t often get along.
Mention a rotten neighbour and everyone can relate; we all know what it’s like to live next door to a noisy, thoughtless, destructive family, which is why rottenneighbor.com has become so popular.

The website is gaining traction as the newest way to vent against your neighbour and engage in name-calling, yelling and other adult activities. There are better, more thoughtful ways to deal with the people next door, but then again, when faced with unreasonableness, nothing beats a little venting.

Posts entitled “attack dog” and “get a life, nosey neighbor” litter the discussion boards, but don’t seem to result in much else. There was a time that borrowing a cup of sugar was the norm, but now it seems for this, like everything else, we need some help. eHow’s instructions may prove some guidance, but perhaps trying to talk to your neighbors can be just the key. Who knows, you may even find that you’re both driven crazy by the guy across the street.

If you live in a city, chances are your house or apartment is slightly cramped. You need extra furniture, especially if you plan to have house guests; at the same time, you need to save space, so filling up your rooms with clunky couches and tables isn’t going to work. If only furniture could adapt, or transform, to fit the moment—and not just a horribly heavy, horribly designed and horribly uncomfortable fold-out couch.

As it turns out, double-duty chairs, couches and tables exist. Trolling the web for transformative furniture, I came across some stunning examples of changeable, collapsible furniture on WebUrbanist, a blog about urban living.

As noted above, there’s nothing worse than a sofa bed—the thin mattress providing a worse bed than a carpeted floor—so U.K. furniture-maker bonbon trading came up with a solution perfect for overnight guests: a couch that turns into a bunk bed.

Of course, modular design isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and more often than not you end up paying for the look, rather than the materials, especially when it comes to ubiquitous Swedish tastemakers IKEA; heirloom quality, not likely. However, even if you’re not quite ready to drop $4,750 on a coffee table–loveseat, you owe it to yourself to at least take a peek.

We’ve come a long way from the garden gnome when it comes to garden sculptures. The iconic gnome, originally created from terracotta, was first made in Germany in the mid-1880s, as both decoration and to add a helping hand to gardeners by gardening at night when everyone else slept. This myth continued to spread for the next century, even spurning a new pastime, gnome hunting.

Continuing on the Home Improvement Blog’s theme of otherworldly phenomena, we’ve discovered that nowadays, the gnome isn’t the only creature of the night spreading soil and warding off evil spirits. For $90 you can protect your turf with a Zombie of Montclaire Moors Sculpture, designed by British artist Alan Dickinson.

The life-sized, grey-toned zombie appears to be clawing his way out of the dirt, his facial expression potent enough to scare away trespassers and priests alike.

Dickinson was commissioned by Toscano Design, a company specializing in both indoor and outdoor statues and sculptures. The Zombie piece is one of 36 so-called “extraordinary sculptures” sold by the Illinois company, which also includes pieces depicting Bigfoot, Easter Island, an alien and—for a mere $695—Revenge of the Great White Shark.

Of course, those resilient gnomes aren’t taking this garden invasion lying down. Expect revenge. No word yet on whether or not this will improve the lot of weed-ridden front yards throughout North America.

It’s been nearly 40 years since U.S. spaceship Apollo 11 landed on the moon, with Neil Armstrong taking one small step for man (pop quiz: who was the second guy?)

Since those halcyon days, we’ve been lunar crazy; from Ziggy Stardust to Star Trek to so-called space-age design. Like all things nautical, it seems space never really goes out of style.

Which brings me to aerospace engineer Robert Howard Jr., manager of the habitual design centre at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Taking the concept of space-age design to its logical limit, Howard has been given the task of designing a dwelling that could comfortably house four people on the moon for a year.

The house will finally settle the long-held belief that humans aren’t destined to live outside the Earth’s sphere, and will be a symbol of “freedom and opportunity,” says Howard.

Putting aside the usual design decisions—porcelain or ceramic tiles; hardwood, or, wait, what about getting funky with bamboo flooring—Howard has more hoops to build around than Orlando developers. For one, the homeowners, or astronauts, need to be shielded from solar radiation, and every single drop of water, including sweat and urine, has to be recycled and purified. It’s a bit more to ask than putting out the green bin.

Actually, the more I think about it, this isn’t much different than Orlando after all. I have glimpsed the future … and (no big surprise) it has Disney written all over it.

While the U.S. Census Bureau no longer gathers statistics specifically focused on home renovations, up in chilly Canada yearly stats are published on what’s happening in the world of remodelling, compiled by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

Usually, what’s happening in America is happening in Canada—economically speaking. Usually, but not always; it seems like Canada is charting its own future these days. Unlike American builders and renovators, which have taken a hit since the economic slowdown and credit crisis began, Canadian contractors are doing well.

In 2007, Canadians spent close to $19.7 billion on home renovations—about 37 per cent of households across 10 major cities from Vancouver to St. John’s, N.L., according to the recently released CMHC Renovation and Home Purchase Report. An estimated 1.5 million households completed some form of reno in 2007, and while this number is down slightly from 2006, when 39 per cent of all households renovated, things are not exactly cooling off.

Homeowners across Canada spend an average of $12,800 on renovations in 2007, an increase of more than $1,000 compared to 2006. The highest average amount spent was in Calgary, at $15,600, and increase of $3,000 over 2006. The lowest average for 2007 was Winnipeg, at $7,900, a decline of more than $2,000 from 2006.

Statistics Canada divides home renovations into two categories: improvement/alteration, which refers to work done to increase the enjoyment or value of the home, such as a deck or addition; and repair/maintenance, a renovation undertaken to keep the home in working order. According to the CMHC report, 59 per cent of households renovated for improvement, 48 for repair or maintenance, seven per cent to add more space and five per cent to make their home more energy efficient.

More stats: 31 per cent of renovating households remodelled a room, followed by painting/wallpapering and flooring/carpeting, at about 27 per cent. In Ottawa and Edmonton, 20 per cent of all reno projects in 2007 involved some type of major landscaping or exterior addition, including patios, swimming pools and outdoor kitchens.

In Part I, we discussed distressed furniture as a design idea. Now it’s time to stop talking and start damaging furniture!

Distressing furniture is a lot of fun. When else do you get to drag heavy chain across tables, burn cabinet edges or drive over cabinet doors all in the name of an “authentic” look of yore.

Before beginning, there are two things to keep in mind. First, only real wood can withstand on-purpose distressing; MDF, particleboard and other synthetic materials don’t stand up to damage. Second, you’re trying to make the damage look convincing, so concentrate on areas that would naturally wear, such as near handles and along edges. In other words, don’t add a tire squeal mark to your tabletop. For inspiration, take a gander at some examples of well-worn furniture and then simulate the look.

While there’s no single method for distressing furniture, remember that a little damage goes a long way; don’t go overboard or you’ll be left with a decrepit piece of, well, garbage. Start slowly with a few scratches created by dragging a heavy chain across the surfaces, a method equally effective using coarse rocks or rasps. You’re trying to create random markings, so any heavy uneven surface works well. Continuing with the medieval methods, half-drive a few nails into a piece of wood and then simply drop it onto the object you’re distressing, or wrap a pile of screws, nuts and nails inside a cloth and then throw it against the surface. The list goes on and on.

You can also create a distressed look through paint or by lightly sanding around edges and handles (a sander, or even just sandpaper, is another useful tool to get your hands on for this project).

First-timers are encouraged to experiment with random pieces of wood before tackling and potentially ruining your furniture. And if you’re feeling nervous and looking for specifics, you can always Ask the Expert.

Take a spin along a country road in summertime and you’re bound to come across antique furniture for sale—or, in some cases, antique-like furniture: purposely distressed dressers, tables, kitchen cabinets, doors that are made to look used and abused.

Distressed furniture, whether real or faked, carries a feeling of warmth into any room, used sparingly of course; too much and your house becomes a mismatched auctioneer’s room or, worse, a set from Little House on the Prairie.

Having one or two pieces of distressed furniture in an otherwise modernized room creates great contrast and dramatic effect, showcasing the antique object, whether real or faked, as the room’s focal point. A distressed dining room table looks especially striking amidst sleek flooring and furniture; the minimalism of the modern surfaces allows the knotty, pocked-looking tabletop to shine through.

Of course, adding distressed furniture doesn’t begin and end with movable furniture like tables, cabinets and hutches. Equally effective: lining a wall with barn boards or using the boards as trim around a window frame, putting down barn board flooring, or installing a distressed wooden beam that spans an entire room.

Up next: making your own distressed furniture. Why pay for someone else’s old or old-looking furniture when you can make your own?