The work-from-home (WFH) trend is here to stay. Here’s how to make it as cool as can be!

Design your space to fit your work style.
Side hustle or skyrocketing commercial enterprise? You’ll need to decide whether to

1) add an office nook to your kitchen;

2) convert your guest room to a profit centre or,

3) buy an Airstream Globetrotter (bus-like RV) and park your new home-office-on-wheels in the driveway for easier shipping and receiving!

Fill it with as much light as possible.
Light boosts productivity. Natural light from windows and skylights scores highest and, if you’ve got that going, add living plants for more oxygen, too. Otherwise, fill-er up with fixtures and stock up on lightbulbs!

Save your back.
Splurge on an ergonomic, high-performance captain’s chair. You’re going to spend hours in it, so take full control of your own comfort and health.

Give yourself serious surface space.
A cluttered, old desk or table – with no room for everything you’re working on – leads to a messy business. You’re serious about your business, right?

Try a stand-up desk.
Going vertical could heighten your productivity! These come in two varieties: High-end furniture pieces and makeshift inventions. You decide. You’re the boss here, after all. If you want to use a bar-cart, that could work.

Connect with high-speed Internet.
Your customers & community expect it. This is now the era of empowering Zoom meetings and seamless e-commerce. Think fast!

Set up sensible storage, so you can really organize your stuff.
Use drawers, a filing cabinet, even an entire wall of storage compartments to ensure everything has its place and you can quickly find whatever you need.

Give your space style & personality.
Dress it up for Zoom video calls! Feel good – and help others feel good – about you, your company and your brand. Don’t forget to add inspirational artwork!

Avoid merging work & leisure in one zone, if possible.
At worst, it’s a recipe for disaster (think spills and equipment getting wrecked). At best, it’s still an intrusion on either 1) work productivity or 2) leisure-time fun.

Get some of the latest, greatest home office furniture & devices.
Check out the new wall-beds (aka Murphy beds) with desks. This is a great idea for guest room – office conversions. And then some.

What can we expect to see happening with Edmonton real estate in 2021? That depends who you ask.

While we wait for the annual expert reviews and predictions (usually in early February; watch for our coverage), we’ve mostly been hearing from economists and the realty firms that the 2021 activity and pricing across the country should be similar to 2020 or “up” slightly. That means a price increase of somewhere between 4% and 6% nationally according to some. Here in Edmonton, it should translate to about 2%, putting the YEG average price somewhere in the high-300’s.

Factors currently shaping the real estate market here include COVID-19, low interest rates, oversupply of apartment-style condos (downward pull-on overall pricing) and continued strong demand for single family homes with more space for offices and gyms, large, fenced yards for dogs, kids and food gardens.

Thinking of listing? Right now, could be a great time to do so! Looking for a new place with more space (for the swanky home office and gym)? I know where you can find it.

For many years, the Edmonton community of Crestwood, with its canopy of snowy branches, has been known during the holidays as Candy Cane Lane. It’s visited from sunset to midnight by families from across the city and beyond. Why?

Because every year, beginning some time in November, the entire neighbourhood (meaning every household) decorates the outsides of their homes with lights of every colour and configuration, filling the area with the joyful spirit of the season. And every year, local businesses, residents and visitors donate food items and other gifts to the Edmonton Food Bank for those less fortunate.

From its official website at yegcandycanelane.com: “It not only serves as a source of pure joy for all who pass by, but also a welcomed oasis for the less fortunate and those with health challenges, including children at the Stollery Children's Hospital, patients from the Cross Cancer Institute and countless retirement and extended care homes.”

1. Bake like a mother...or a grandmother! There's nothing better than Christmas cookies or a tasty pie to get everyone around your home feeling festive during these trying times.

2. Fill your house with music. It doesn't have to be Christmas tunes but there are some good ones you might not have heard for a while. They're all on YouTube.

3. If your dream is to sell or buy real estate in December 2020, keep that dream alive! Imagine this: "Honey, open your eyes and look at what I bought you for Christmas (It's a new home)!"

4. Light up your property! That "For Sale" sign out front can look even better with some light (or a string of lights) on it. Throw some coloured floodlights onto trees in the yard while you’re at it!

5. Deep clean your home, streamline your stuff and open your closets to charity! You'll feel good and you'll make someone else's holidays great. Cleaner is safer right now.

6. Watch Christmas movies with themes of love and giving and get into the spirit of the season.

7. Buy a batch of old-fashioned holiday greeting cards, write them and send them the old-school way via Canada Post. Don't procrastinate!

8. Connect online via Zoom for LIVE gift exchange parties, karaoke craziness and eggnog (alcoholic and/or non).

9. Drive! Visit neighbourhoods you've never seen before to check out the lights and decorations. Get out-of-town and see snow-capped peaks from the highways at dusk. This is peak season for Northern Lights, too!

10. Stock up on firewood or buy a portable, fuel-burning fire-pit for the yard and keep the home fires burning. If you’re in an apartment condo, set the mood with the fire log channel on TV. Here comes 2021!

There’s a nice curve in the North Saskatchewan River that runs through southeast Edmonton, close to ravines. On the south shore of the bend, you’ll find Gold Bar, a residential area named after gravel bars where prospectors panned for gold in the 1800s. Beautiful Gold Bar Park is on the east side of this community, connecting further south with another gorgeous greenspace called Goldstick.

The community runs east from 50th St. to the ravines of these parks and south to 101 Ave. It boasts off-leash areas for dogs, networks of urban trails and cross-country skiing in the winter. Single-family homes -- many built during the 1950s when the area developed rapidly -- typically run from the 300’s to the 600’s, averaging out somewhere in the middle. It’s peaceful and full of beautiful views.

For shopping, there are businesses at 50th St and 101 Ave and Capilano Mall is nearby, in the community of Ottewell. There are two schools here: Gold Bar Elementary (run by the Edmonton Public Schools Division) and Mount Carmel Bible School, a private Catholic post-secondary school.