Countless interior designers will agree: wood is an unbeatable value-adder, and an element of choice for giving your home that extra cachet. We’re introducing you today to a member of the Classic Collection, a patio door of the same name made from AuraLast wood.

With this patio door, you’ll not only enjoy the uniquely warm cachet wood affords, but access to all the reliability that has made JELD-WEN’s name for decades.

Available in natural wood or aluminum-clad, this one- or two-panel door can open on the inside or the outside, depending on your architectural project’s requirements.

All the valued features you’ve been looking for:

• Double weatherstripping at the meeting rail
• Stylish state-of-the-art hardware designed to last
• Enhanced security via single and multipoint locks
• Preserve® protective film factory-applied on the inside and outside of the glass for added protection against scratches
• BetterVue™ screens, a Classic Collection specialty, that let in more natural light
• Made from 20-year-guaranteed AuraLast Wood®

Naturally, along with all these elements, you’ll be able to personalize your purchase with one or more optional features, such as grille styles, simulated antique finish, etc.

Click here to see all the details on our Classic Collection swinging patio door. Or consult the Classic Collection brochure or YouTube video prepared specially for you.

Once again this year, on April 22, Jour de la Terre Québec and Earth Day Canada will be celebrating this beautiful planet of ours.

Jour de la Terre Québec’s mission is to stimulate and applaud positive action on behalf of the environment by individuals, organizations and companies. Earth Day is one of the best-known symbols of the environmental movement. Founded in 1970 by American governor Gaylord Nelson and environmental activist Denis Hayes, it’s considered by many as the birth of the environmental movement in North America. For a preview of activities planned or to submit your project, visit the Jour de la Terre Québec portal.

Elsewhere in the country, a multitude of activities are organized under the Earth Day Canada banner every year, including a 5000-person march in Victoria, a 30,000-strong Earth awareness festival in Edmonton, and an enormous clean-up in Oakville by 2000 volunteers.

“At JELD-WEN, our decisions and actions are thought out with ecologically responsible behaviour in mind, constantly,” says Jérôme Samson, an engineer on the environmental committee at JELD-WEN Canada in Saint-Apollinaire. “We have an environmental committee made up of representatives of all areas of activity in the plant. This means we can combine our visions in order to implement viable solutions that yield measurable results, particularly in terms of managing waste materials.”

Sources:

Jour de la Terre

Earth Day Canada

At JELD-WEN, we know you’d probably just love to get a hand with your renovations.

And if renovations are on your list of priorities these days, we advise you to take a look at the weekly show “Leave it to Bryan” on HGTV Canada.

Bryan Baeumler, a well-known construction professional, helps families with their major renovation projects. There’s a lot of action on the menu!

And we’re proud to announce that JELD-WEN will be providing the “Leave it to Bryan” team with the doors and windows required to make their projects a success.

To watch a teaser for Bryan’s show: Teaser

To find out more about Bryan Baeumler: click here!

Founded in 1979, Mountainview Homes has built over 4, 000 homes over the decades. JELD-WEN is proud to introduce them to you since we have been partners for 7 years now, providing them exclusively with JELD-WEN windows and doors.

Mountainview Homes is the largest builder in the Niagara Region, with over 30 years of experience. They have built thousands of homes from Fort Erie to Grimsby and all neighborhoods in between.

Do you know about the Home Finder?

The Home Finder is a very useful tool to help you find exactly the kind of home you’ve been looking for. You can choose from different price ranges, numerous home styles, square footage, region, and more in order to find YOUR perfect home.

My Home Tracker: keep track of the entire process!

After you’ve chosen your home, you can check-in on the construction of your Mountainview Home 24/7.  Click here for more.

What makes Mountainview different?

Moutainview Homes offers a Collection of fully decorated Showhomes. We are pretty sure that you will find a Model Home that fits your needs. Please take a look here.

AWARDS

Mountainview Homes is a proud recipient of two TARION awards – the homebuilding industry’s highest award for customer service excellence.  They were also named the “TARION Large Volume Builder of The Year 2004” and the “TARION Large Volume Builder Finalist 2005”. Most notably, Mountainview Homes was named the OHBA Ontario Home Builder of the Year 2007.

Most recently, Mountainview Homes has put his hands on three prestigious awards at Niagara Home Builders’ Association 2011 Awards of Excellence! Those prizes recognize the highest level of performance in the residential construction industry, rewarding the most creative builders, renovators, designers, marketers and suppliers of the Niagara region.

Over 100 participants competed to win the honors and were judged on February 8^th and 9^th. But it’s only last Friday, March 30^th, at the 2011 Awards of Excellence Gala, that Mountainview Homes received the following prizes:

• Best Overall Single New Home Design for 2-storey 2000 to 2500 square feet
• Best Marketing Brochure
• Most Outstanding Renovation under $ 100 000

JELD-WEN wishes to congratulate Moutainview Homes for this incredible success.

You can also get in touch with Moutainview Homes on Facebook and Twitter.

You may be thinking of selling your house in the near future. To optimize your chances, you should plan out your photographs carefully and take some important technical aspects into consideration. To guide you through the process, we’ve asked a real estate photographer to share some tips.

Here’s some advice that will go a long way.

1. Depersonalize
Potential buyers should be able to imagine themselves living in the house and taking possession of it.

• Remove personal items.
• Remove children’s drawings, unpaid bills, etc., from the refrigerator door.
• Clear off your kitchen counter (cellphone charger, headset, MP3) without denuding it completely.
• Free up your parking spaces by moving vehicles to the other side of the street.
• Cats, dogs, litter boxes and animal beds should be conspicuously absent.

2. Declutter
Potential buyers should be able to visualize your home’s strong points. Don’t hesitate to move furniture and objects that give it a crowded look.

• Move the baby’s highchair and the life-size papier mâché giraffe.
• Hide the bathroom rugs so the floor surface seems larger.
• Primp the exterior as well as the interior. Hide shovels if it’s June, and bikes if it’s January. Collect those autumn leaves, especially in April. Garbage cans, recycling bins and compost boxes aren’t selling points!

3. Know your camera
Here are a few technical tips for using your camera:

• White or pale-coloured walls are often under-exposed because of the way cameras work, and make for dark photos. Purposely overexpose your photos (see your instruction manual).
• If your device has manual settings, use a high ISO sensitivity (e.g. 3200) for the interior.
• Use a tripod or stool for better camera stability.
• Use natural light wisely. The more light there is, the more shadows there will be. Don’t hesitate to close the curtains to balance the light. Turn on all the lamps so that the rooms are well lit and the light uniform.
• The camera should be placed midway up the height of the room. Note: If you’re tall, you’ll tend to point it downward.
• Take two photos per room, one from a corner to show its depth, and another from the opposite corner.
• Pay attention to vertical lines (door frame, cupboards, corners of walls). If the camera is pointing downward or upward, the vertical lines will converge.
• Make sure the camera is level to the horizon. A camera placed at an angle can make the viewer think the floors are slanted.
• Compose your images by purposefully framing them when you’re beside an undesirable object or construction (electrical wires, cupboards for firearms, etc.).
• Some classified ad or property sale sites only accept landscape or horizontal photos. Avoid vertical photos, except when absolutely necessary (powder rooms, walk-in closets).

“It might seem complicated, but by following these basic tricks, you’ll get a more than satisfying result. Basically, there’s only one real rule: Show off the property in its best light—without cheating!” says photographer Carl Viens, a man with an obvious passion for his craft.

ONE LAST TIP…
If your home is equipped with JELD-WEN ENERGY STAR-certified windows, don’t hesitate to show them off in your photos. Potential buyers are increasingly concerned with purchasing high energy efficient properties.

Team Jennifer Jones Enjoys Another Banner Season

It’s been 10 years since Jennifer Jones roared to the forefront of Canadian women’s curling.

“The Shot,” as it is still known, put an exclamation mark on a meteoric rise that has been in the making since the early 1990s.

A quick scan of YouTube yields videos with titles like “Jennifer Jones Best Curling Shot,” high praise for anyone who has ever picked up a broom. If it was indeed Jones’ 10^th end miracle during the 2005 Scott Tournament of Hearts that ensured her name would live on forever in Canadian curling infamy, and her play since then has done nothing to diminish that.

Since taking her first Gold at the Scotties, Jones and her rink have gone on to medal seven more times at the iconic tournament, including a Gold medal three-peat from 2008-10.

Jones first struck gold in 1994 as a junior, a feat that would have ordinarily meant a pass-go straight to World Junior Championships. However a change in the ruling relegated her to a playoff game, which she lost. After years of playing at various levels of competition following that bitter defeat, Jones won the Manitoba women’s curling championships, which earned her a birth in the 2002 Scott Tournament of Hearts – no playoff required.

Long-time friend and teammate of Jones, Jill Officer, knows the ups and downs of competitive curling all too well. Officer has played Second for the Jones rink since their Junior days. She was there for the victory in 1994, as well as the successive Scotties’ titles. Officer’s Scotties’ victories put her in an elite group of four to have won four titles – herself and Jones being two of the four.

On this day, Officer is far removed from the bright lights of championship curling, but the new mother hardly has time to rest on her laurels. Only weeks removed from maternity leave, Officer resumed her duties as Second to compete in the Manitoba Scotties, less than three months after the birth of her first child. After a disappointing showing at the Canadian Scotties, which saw them dominate round robin play before falling in two straight playoff games and eventually claiming bronze, Officer and teammate, Lead Kaitlyn Lawes, find themselves at the Manitoba Home Builders Association Bonspiel, guests of team sponsor, JELD-WEN Windows and Doors.

“This season was unique as we had to juggle our team line up because I was pregnant and missed the first half of the season,” says Officer. “Luckily we were able to have some success on the World Curling Tour and finished with a big win at the Canada Cup which qualified the team for the 2013 Canadian Olympic Trials.”

With the coming of spring and the curling season nearly over, the rink has but two events left: one in Victoria and the World Curling Tour Player’s Championship in Summerside, PEI. After that, it’s all eyes on next season. “The goal is to keep training and competing to get better and improve in any way we can,” says Officer, “but also to really enjoy it and have fun while doing it.”

Reigning as Queens of the Rings for so long in Manitoba, a province where curling ranks among the most popular of winter sports, might have caused a lesser team to collapse under pressure. Officer explains this isn’t the teams M.O. “We just like to go out and have fun and focus on what we can do to be the best we can be.”

One thing is for certain, after so many years on the scene, the team couldn’t have reached the level of success that it has without the support of curling fans in Manitoba. “People in Manitoba have been, and continue to be, incredibly supportive of our team,” says Officer. “We love that people are so interested in our team and especially in the sport of curling.”

A highly competitive curling team requires the support of sponsors to thrive. As a proud sponsor of the Jennifer Jones curling team, JELD-WEN is instrumental to their success, both on and off the ice. “JELD-WEN has been a terrific sponsor over the last few years, explains Skip Jennifer Jones. “Without the support of JELD-WEN, we would be limited in our training, but because of their sponsorship we’ve been able to train and compete to the level necessary to have success.”

JELD-WEN Windows and Doors Canada would like to wish Jennifer Jones and her team the best of luck in the final events of the season, and continued success in 2013.

If you’re like most of us, your schedule doesn’t leave you with a minute to spare, all the more so if you’ve just embarked on a home renovation project.

It’s good to know then that you can register your warranty directly on line at www.jeld-wen.ca. It’s fast and efficient and saves you the chore of filling out and mailing us the documents for your new doors and windows.

To use this tool, simply visit our Website and look for the “Warranty Registration” button on the bottom-left of the home page. If you’ve got your bill in hand, it only takes a few minutes.

Save trees, conveniently!

As a key sponsor of the World-Champion Jennifer Jones rink, JELD-WEN Canada would like to wish the team the best of luck at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, as well as reiterate support for Canadian curling from Victoria to St. John’s.

The Jones rink enters the Scotties as an obvious favorite, having won the title of Canadian Champions from 2008-2010, as well as previously in 2005. Other finishes at the Scotties include Silver in 2006 and 2011 and Bronze in 2007. The 2012 Tournament of Hearts takes place from February 18-26 in Red Deer, Alberta.

“The team and I are just so thrilled to be able to compete at this level once again,” says Jones, “the road to this point wasn’t easy and competition will be stiff at the Scotties. Having JELD-WEN on our side as a sponsor helps us do what we do best, which is hopefully bring the Scotties crown back to Manitoba.

“We’re delighted to play a part in the success of the Jones rink. To help enable the best female curling team in the world compete is always such a real treat and we wish Jennifer and her squad the best of luck at the Scotties,” says Eric Palmer, Marketing Manager at JELD-WEN Canada.

The Jones rink is representing the St. Vital Curling Club and is comprised of Skip Jennifer Jones, vice Kaitlyn Lawes, second Jill Officer and lead Dawn Askin.

In addition to JELD-WEN’s sponsorship of women’s curling in Manitoba, JELD-WEN continues to support men’s curling in the province as well. As co-presenting sponsor of the Safeway Championships, JELD-WEN ensured the execution of the successful tournament.

JELD-WEN would like to congratulate skip Rob Fowler and his team on a job well done on their victory at the Safeway Championships in Dauphin, Manitoba on Sunday February 12th. The Fowler rink will now move on to the Tim Hortons Brier to face off against the best teams in Canadian men’s curling.

From left to right: Dawn Askin (Lead), Jill Officer (Second), Sante Cigana (VP, Sales JELD-WEN of Canada), Jennifer Jones (Skip), Lou Valeriati (VP, JELD-WEN of Canada, Kaitlyn Lawes (Third)

Window & Door advice you can use

«I’ve hired a contractor to replace my old windows. Can you walk me through what they’ll be doing?»

Installing new windows is a great way to save energy and money, but only if the job is done correctly. Here are some of the steps your contractor will be following to replace them. Before any work has begun, your installer will verify all window measurements and remove any facings or mouldings that will be reinstalled after the work has been completed. After your old window has been removed, your installer will inspect the rough opening to make sure all materials and wall pieces are in good condition. At this stage, necessary repairs will be made to ensure that your window will be completely airtight and watertight. After the opening has been cleaned and repaired, your new window will be positioned with shims to ensure the window is square, level and plumb. It will then be secured permanently to the frame with screws. Following the installation, your window will be insulated. Make sure you discuss insulation options with your contractor prior to replacing your windows.

Finally, your window will be caulked to ensure water tightness between the window frame and the exterior siding and new or the original mouldings will be replaced on the interior of your home. Once the installation is complete, the contractor will inspect it with you for your approval. At the same time, they will explain how the window operates, go over warranty coverage and give advice on how to maintain the product.

Subsidy ending earlier than expected

We learned just a few days ago that the EcoENERGY subsidy program aimed at assisting homeowners with their renovations will be coming to an end before its scheduled March 31, 2012, expiration date.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver announced at the end of January that because it had achieved its initial objective of 250,000 homeowners registered in the program, EcoENERGY would be ending ahead of schedule.

Specifically, the EcoENERGY program is now closed to new registrations (effective January 28, 2012). For those already registered, all renovations must be completed by March 31, 2012, and the final deadline for post-retrofit evaluation is June 30, 2012.

EcoENERGY, you’ll remember, gave owners the chance to obtain up to $5000 for energy-efficient renovations to their homes, such as replacing doors and windows.

For more information: http://oee.rncan.gc.ca/residentiel/personnel/8515

Other source:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1123966