Jillian has a strong background in home design after starring in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and hosting Canada’s Next Handyman premiering on HGTV in 2012.

“The PNE is such a historic landmark in B.C., and the Prize Home Lottery is a great tradition in the province,” says Jillian Harris. “I’m so excited to be a part of it.”

The 2012 PNE Prize Home has been uniquely designed to fit into its final surroundings, the mountains of Sun Peaks Resort.  The 3,000 square foot Brtico built home features a ski in and ski out sports room accessible straight from the slopes. It has a mountainous feel with big exposed wood beams and post throughout as well as natural cork flooring.

PNE Prize Home tickets are available now online at www.pneprizehome.ca or available via phone at 604-252-3688 or toll free at 1-877-946-4663.  The first Prize Home preview will take place July 13, 2012.

The Fair at the PNE takes place from August 18- September 3, 2012. For more information about the Prize Home Lottery and the Fair at the PNE visit: www.pne.ca.

As part of the annual Wine and Culture Festival July 6 to 8, 2012, Tourism Sun Peaks and the Kamloops Art Gallery (KAG) are seeking architecturally impressive homes in Sun Peaks to showcase during The Home Tour, Architectural Spaces 2012.

The event, which helps raise funds for the KAG’s art education and exhibits, was held in Sun Peaks for the first time last year. Over 230 people explored some of the resort’s most exclusive addresses which were decorated by interior designers using furnishings and accessories from local retailers.

Contact Janice Nankivell at tspevents@sunpeaksresort.com for more information.

“When you look around the other resorts in the province, mainly in the Interior at Silver Star or Big White, my understanding is they haven’t had a sale of that magnitude in the recent past,” says Peter Nixon who manages real estate development for Sun Peaks Resort Corporation (SPRC).

Lark Frolek-Dale, owner-broker at Re/Max Alpine Resort Realty recently closed the second largest real estate deal in Sun Peaks’ history with the sale of a $2.5 million dollar home. She believes confidence in the recreational real estate market is on the rebound.

“The recreational market’s the first one to be affected and the last to recover, so these significant sales mean that the consumer is confident again and hopefully it will stimulate additional sales,” she says.

Although the most recent sales have been both high profile and high priced properties, other listings are selling too.

“It seems right now the high end and lower priced stuff seems to be moving,” says Nixon who notes that homes priced from $500,000 to $1 million aren’t moving as quickly.

Past investors in Sun Peaks real estate have mainly come from south of the border. With the U.S. economy slowly recovering, SPRC sees an opportunity to gain greater U.S. exposure, and Frolek-Dale anticipates future sales to the growing market of new visitors discovering Sun Peaks this season.

“It’s been years since (we’ve seen) an influx of new visitors at the resort, but this past year it’s been all new visitors predominantly from B.C. and Alberta and I’m starting to see that Washington visitor again. That tells me that in six to 12 months a lot of those first time visitors will be buyers,” she says.

With mortgage rates hovering around three per cent and a variety of inventory available, buyers are striking while the iron’s hot. Nixon believes Sun Peaks’ municipal status also makes it an attractive choice.

“Everybody can say they’re a four season resort, but we’re actually a municipality and we have a mayor, a council, we have opportunities for growth that other resorts don’t have,” says Nixon. “I think the fact that we have a school is something a lot of people are looking at, especially the young families that want to relocate here. It’s always been a challenge to get them to live at the mountain (if) they’ve got to bus the kids to Heffley for school, so I think that’s a big plus as well.”

Even with a real estate market on the mend, there’s still plenty of room for future development in the resort. While SPRC has sold over 50 per cent of its available property for development, future development is on hold until they’ve cleared the current inventory.

“Our direction right now is to try to sell what we’ve already got,” says Nixon. “If you look at us, compared to other resorts, we’re in very good shape, we don’t have a lot of inventory and we want to make sure we’re well sold on that stuff before we look to do new projects.”

The recreational real estate market appears to be taking a turn for the better in Sun Peaks with the recent sale of a multi-million dollar home in the resort. For Sotheby’s International Realty broker, Liz Forster, that deal started the New Year off on the right foot.

“It was very, very sweet to be involved in a significant sale like that,” beams Forster.

The 4,500 square foot timber chalet was listed at $3.9 million and sold for $3,392,500 after being on the market for two years. The last time Sotheby’s sold a home for more than a million dollars was 18 months ago when a home on Sundance Drive was purchased for $1,050,000. But that wasn’t the highest priced home in the resort.

“The highest ever sale price of a residential property in Sun Peaks, prior to this one, took place in January, 2010 with a sale price of $2,205,000,” says Forster, noting the February 2012 sale eclipsed the previous one by more than 50 per cent.

Brokering million dollar deals may put a lot of pressure on some, but for Forster and her team, it’s just another day at the office.

“I don’t see it as making any difference to the actual pressure,” she says. “It may have spurred more buying interest. We’re very busy with people that have been considering buying for a while and holding back. I think this sale may have helped with that motivation for some to step forward.”

The Sotheby’s team has yet to officially celebrate their multi-million dollar sale, but Forster says that will happen soon enough. In the meantime, the team is busy fielding inquiries from Sotheby’s overseas offices.

“We’ve been in direct contact from the Moscow office and the London office about listings,” says Forster. “It’s definitely a sign that Sun Peaks is considered to be very attractive in the recreational market and I think it’s a sign that other people can now see the quality and special unique nature of Sun Peaks.”

Last fall, the Canadian Home Builders Association and trades students from Thompson Rivers University did just that. By using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), the crew erected the walls and roof of a 2,000 sq. ft. home in just 16 hours.

SIPs are prefabricated panels made of expanded polystyrene insulating foam sandwiched between two oriented strand boards (similar to plywood). Hailed as an energy efficient innovation in home construction, they can be used as walls, floors or roofing material. The panels are pre-cut and ready to be assembled, just like a jigsaw puzzle.

“It’s a panelized system and the insulation is already in it. So when you stand the walls up, those walls are finished,” said Duane Svendson from Trout Creek Enterprises, SIPs distributor in Kamloops. At that point, the panels are ready for windows, doors, siding and electrical.

“It’s probably three or four times quicker to build,” said Ryan Lodermeier, president of Kamloops Truss Ltd. Lodermeier plans to distribute SIP panels in Kamloops from the Lower Mainland.

Because of the complex designs of many custom homes in Sun Peaks, it usually makes more sense for builders to use wood framing rather than SIPs. But that may change soon. Amendments are expected to be made to the B.C. Building Code, which will require new homes to be more energy efficient. This will affect the way homes are built to meet the stricter standards.

“And when that happens in the next couple of years, you’re going to see things like SIPs. They’re going to become much more prevalent,” said local builder Darcy Franklin of Meranti Developments. “I think it’s smart for home builders to start looking at SIPs.”

Builders may view SIPs as a viable alternative to improve home insulation. Its high insulation value is due to the airtight construction of the panels. This translates to energy savings especially in the winter.

“It’s going to take about 50 per cent less energy to heat and to cool a home,” said Svendson.

Compared to traditional wood panels, SIPs don’t have studs. That means less heat loss.

“When you take a heat camera (to a traditional wood panel), you can actually see where the studs are because they’ll transfer heat to the outside,” Franklin explained. “With the SIP panels all foam, you don’t have that thermal bridging anymore.”

However, SIPs are still a bit more expensive than traditional building materials, costing 10 per cent more, and often requiring a specialty crew for assembly.

They also may not be as accommodating in design or in last-minute changes—something that builders, electricians and home owners must adapt to when planning a home.

“You’ve got to have your planning down pat,” said Franklin. “Basically before you order SIPs, you should make sure that everything about your house is decided on 100 per cent. They’re pre-cut so you want to have everything laid out ahead of time.”

This also applies to the home’s electrical layout. “Once they work with it and understand it rather than fighting it, I’ve heard that electricians like it,” said Lodermeier. “It’s just the initial shock because it’s so different.”

A Canadian invention, SIPs have been around for about 50 years. As the building industry looks for ways to become sustainable, we may see more houses built using this material in the coming years.

“I think they’re a great product,” said Franklin. “The mainstay in construction in two or three years will be SIPs. We’ll see what
happens.”

For more information, visit www.sips.org.

Tourism Sun Peaks and the Kamloops Art Gallery are looking for four “architecturally impressive homes” in Sun Peaks to feature in the first ever Home Tour to be held in conjunction with the Wine and Culture Festival in July 2011.

The homes will be decorated by a group of interior designers, retailers and florists assigned to each of the homes to display their products and services.

The public may view the inside and outside areas of the home at scheduled times. A tour manager will be on site and attendants will be situated throughout the home tour route during the event. The areas that will be viewed by the public will be decided by the homeowner, Tourism Sun Peaks and the Kamloops Art Gallery.

Interested homeowners must also carry a minimum liability insurance of $2,000,000 and must provide a proof of insurance to Kamloops Art Gallery and Tourism Sun Peaks to be eligible.

For more information, contact Janice Nankivell, events coordinator, at 250-578-5386.

A Dropcam camera can be accessed remotely and set up to broadcast streaming video using your existing wireless service. It’s compact (3.7 x 2.3 x 1.3 inches) and comes in two models: the regular Dropcam which only takes video and Dropcam Echo which also includes audio.

The product was developed by co-founders and software programmers Greg Duffy and Aamir Virani.

Compared to other do-it-yourself wireless cameras, Dropcam is very easy to setup.

“When we first started Dropcam, it was very important to us that the people who’ll use the product didn’t have to understand a bunch of networking technology or IP addresses or any of that complicated stuff that you normally have to understand if you set up a WiFi or a network device, so we made it really easy,” explained Greg Duffy, Dropcam’s CEO. “You plug it into your home router and the camera comes with an application code. When you go into the website and enter that application code, you can immediately see the video.”

What makes Dropcam ideal for remote monitoring is that it doesn’t need a computer to operate after the initial setup. All it needs is either an Ethernet or a WiFi connection to work. The only setback is that it needs to be constantly plugged in to a power outlet, has limited resolution (320 x 240), and doesn’t have the ability to pan, tilt or zoom.

Viewing your camera’s live stream is free on any computer, iPhone or Android phone. If you need video storage, the company also offers recorded video plans. You can choose between seven days of recorded video for $9 or 30 days for $25.

Nobody wants to scour through hours of video to check if somebody tried to break into your home. Dropcam can notify you by e-mail or send a push alert to your phone in real time if it detects motion or sound. Yellow dots on the live video stream’s timeline also make it easy to find clips where the camera detected movement or sound.

“We have a lot of people who use Dropcam in vacation homes. That’s a really popular usage right now,” said Duffy.

“We started getting stories from users who were using it for baby monitoring, pet monitoring, and in some cases, as an entertainment device,” Duffy said, adding that people have used it to see the view from their home or to monitor snow on the mountains.

“We’ve had a customer tell us that it was actually their baby Tivo. You can actually take clips from the recorded video and send it to your friends and family,” he added.

Dropcam currently ships in the US only, but they’re working to enable shipping to other countries. Dropcam (US$199) and Dropcam Echo (US$279) are available at www.dropcam.com or www.amazon.com.

If you’re looking for a user-friendly surveillance camera for your home that’s reasonably priced, then you may want to consider this product.

For more information, visit www.dropcam.com.

The document is a response to numerous inquiries by landlords and tenants on privacy issues and was formed by investigations of privacy-related complaints from tenants.

It’ll include answers to frequently asked questions, such as the type of information a landlord can collect from a prospective tenant on the initial application form. It’ll also include guidelines on privacy-related issues, such as the use of video surveillance in an apartment building, for the duration of the tenancy agreement. Through this document, landlords will learn how to handle, use, disclose and store information collected from the tenants in accordance to the Personal Information and Privacy Act.

Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham hopes the document improves the relationship between both parties.

“We hope these guidelines will assist landlords and property managers in discharging their duties under the Residential Tenancy Act in a manner than respects the privacy of tenants and promotes transparency in landlord and tenant relationships,” said Denham.

Read the guidelines online at www.oipc.bc.ca.

Check your chimney. “Make sure that the chimney is completely clean,” said Allan Dobie, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s senior research consultant. “Ideally, it needs to be done before the first fire gets lit in the stove. There might be a lot of creosote from the last season. The first fire could potentially light a chimney fire and you don’t want that to happen.”

If you haven’t cleaned your chimney in a long time, it’s best to leave it to a professional chimney sweeper.

While you’re up there, don’t forget to clear the gutter and the downspout of any accumulated leaves. This ensures melting snow drains properly when spring comes.

In the main house, the biggest culprits for air leaks are windows and doors. The good news is that these leak sources are also the easiest to fix.

There are several ways to check for leaks. One way is to feel the draft around windows and doors. Another easy way is to use a lit incense stick or candle on a windy day to detect drafts. Cold air seeping through cracks will disturb the smoke or flame. Condensation on the windows is another sign of a leak.

“Caulking around your windows is a good idea,” said local homebuilder Andre Grether. “You can install shrink wrap plastic on the inside of your windows too if you want to go the extra mile. It’s not hard to do and it’s very inexpensive. I think it can save you some money.”

Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Replace old batteries and make sure to replace smoke detectors older than 10 years.

“It’s the heating season and if you’ve got a wood fireplace, all of those heating elements and appliances are in full functioning mode, that’s really the time when a fire can happen,” said Dobie.

Inspect your plumbing. Installing insulation kits to outdoor faucets can help prevent frozen pipes in the winter.

“If they have any hose bibs on the outside of the house that has shut off valves, they should shut those off and make sure to drain those hose bibs,” said John Hecimovic, a local plumber and gasfitter.
He also recommends disconnecting and draining the outdoor hoses to protect pipes from freezing and bursting.

“(Burst pipes) happen quite a bit in Sun Peaks. A lot of people leave their hoses on or they don’t turn off their hose bibs,” said Hecimovic. He recommends turning off the main water valve if you’re going to be away for an extended period of time.

Insulate any exposed pipe and use heat tape for extra protection. Also, don’t forget to have any leaky outdoor faucets repaired before the freezing weather comes.

Last but not least, drain and clean your hot water tank, examine your furnace, and fix any ducts that aren’t fitting properly.

“Boilers with radiant heat should be serviced if they haven’t been serviced in the last two years,” Hecimovic said.

“If the home has a heat recovery ventilator, then the filters and the core need to be cleaned and the filters changed,” suggested Dobie.
Furnace filters must also be changed regularly. “Pleated filters are probably the best ones to use. The very inexpensive fibreglass filters are also quite good.” Dobie recommends preventive measures like regular vacuuming and leaving shoes at the door to minimize indoor dust.

It won’t be long before Sun Peaks is once again blanketed in white. Invest in winter preparation and you’ll have a cozy house to come home to.

The Sun Peaks Fire and Life Safety Bylaw is a comprehensive bylaw that details the mandate and authority given to the Sun Peaks Fire Rescue under the new municipality.

It includes a clause that requires all property owners to provide the number of a contact person who has access to their property in the resort. The contact information is needed so firefighters will know who to call if the building’s alarm goes off.

The bylaw was introduced at the Sept. 7 council meeting and will undergo three readings before it’s passed.

Sun Peaks Fire Chief Bill Stoner said when a fire alarm goes off, it’s their responsibility to make sure there’s no fire in the premises.

“We never want to go to a place, hear an alarm ringing and walk away. We’re going to check it out. What we don’t want to do is break the door down,” he explained.

“What we’d like to know is who we’d call so we don’t break the door down. That’s the idea behind the bylaw.”

Stoner said it’s not a common occurrence, but the team has forcibly entered a house once or twice a year in the past in response to an alarm or after seeing smoke coming out of a house.

Without a bylaw in place, there’s little choice left for firefighters but to force a door open when the smoke alarm does not stop ringing.

“First of all, we’d try to get the door open through any non-forcible means necessary. So if there’s a property management sticker on the window, we’d call the property manager,” said Stoner.

If there’s no one to call, Stoner said they would find ways to enter the house through non-destructive means, such as looking for an open door.
“Worst case scenario, we would have to force the door (open) to ensure that there’s no fire in the house, because we can’t leave the house with an alarm ringing and just assume there’s no fire. That’s really negligence.”

The next council meeting is scheduled on Monday, Oct. 18.