There are some excellent websites that have a wealth of information on preparing  rooms for painting, which paint to choose, faux finishes and more.  Check out Benjamin Moore who has a system called Personal Colour Viewer.  You can choose your room, change the colour fan to your choice and 'paint' walls, trim, ceilings, etc.

And Ralph Laren Home has a fantastic website as well, that should answer all your colour questions. Again you can choose a room, choose a color and watch the room change.

These sites also include a paint calculator, a Personal Portfolio, color choices identified with the product number and you can e-mail the images and details to your painter!

Most of us know that not everything goes into our curbside recycling, but what do we do with these items?  For a small fee some items can be recycled at Pacific Mobile Depots.  Visit their website for details and costs.

Another great site is the North Shore Recycling. Once on the site, look to the right side for a green bar that says "find out how to recycle or disose of over 200 items." This list covers just about everything!

Do you hate to throw out those banana peels, egg shells, coffee grounds, potato peelings, etc. but you don't have a compost? Chuck them into the brown bag with those grass clippings and racked leaves and put it curbside.

Make conservation second nature.

High sales levels spur rise in home values

VANCOUVER, B.C. – November 3, 2009 – Strong demand has led to a steady rise in Greater Vancouver home prices compared to last year.

Over the last 12 months, the MLSLink® Housing Price Index (HPI) benchmark price for all residential properties in Greater Vancouver increased 6.8 per cent to $553,702 from $518,668 in October 2008.

"While home prices have been rising in 2009, they have not eclipsed the peaks reached in early 2008," Scott Russell, Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) president said. "We're coming off several months of unseasonably high sales levels, which has allowed for a gradual increase in home values this year,"

The REBGV reports that residential property sales in Greater Vancouver totalled 3,704 in October 2009, an increase of 4.1 per cent from the 3,559 sales recorded in September 2009, and an increase of 171.6 per cent compared to October 2008 when 1,364 sales were recorded. Looking back two years, last month's sales increased 22.3 per cent compared to October 2007 when 3,028 sales were recorded.

"High confidence and low mortgage rates are continuing to drive the activity we're seeing in the housing market today," Russell said.

New listings for detached, attached and apartment properties in Greater Vancouver totalled 4,977 in October 2009. This represents a 2.3 per cent increase compared to October 2008 when 4,867 new units were listed, and a 13.4 per cent decline compared to September 2009 when 5,764 properties were listed on the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) in Greater Vancouver.

At 12,084, the total number of property listings on the MLS® decreased 4.1 per cent in October compared to last month and declined 37 per cent from this time last year.

Sales of detached properties increased 201.6 per cent to 1,487 from the 493 detached sales recorded during the same period in 2008. The benchmark price, as calculated by the MLSLink Housing Price Index®, for detached properties increased 7.7 per cent from October 2008 to $749,808.

Sales of apartment properties in October 2009 increased 148.4 per cent to 1,607, compared to 647sales in October 2008. The benchmark price of an apartment property increased 6.3 per cent from October 2008 to $380,975.

Attached property sales in October 2009 are up 172.3 per cent to 610, compared with the 224 sales in October 2008. The benchmark price of an attached unit increased 4.6 per cent between Octobers 2008 and 2009 to $468,798.