How Friction Saved Me 14 Hours A Week
I’m an incredibly lazy person. Only if something is right in front of me will I do it. But if it takes even slightly more effort, I probably won’t. In my day job, we use terms like “user friction” or…
Author Archives: Adrian Crook
10 Purchases to Make Condo Kid Life Easy
If you know me at all, you know that I’m a bit of a minimalist. It’s this sense of minimalism that might make you think I’ve been robbed if you come over and check out my place. But despite my minimalism, I…
Don’t Pay for 95%
Your car sits idle over 95% of the time. Your guest bedroom is occupied one week out of every 52. Your kids use the yard less than 40 minutes a week. Yet we consumers love to envision the maximum usage for…
Opportunity Cost: Suburbia’s Expensive Secret
I just got back from doing another interview on the high price of Vancouver living. Everyone’s fixated on the ever-escalating sticker price of Vancouver real estate. From high real estate costs ($2.5M for the average West Side home) to the…
Square-Foot Hours: Designing 24-Hour Spaces
Michael Mortensen, a Vancouver-based urban planner and developer, wrote an excellent blog post last week entitled “Making Apartments Work Harder: the Third-Bedroom Challenge.” He gives us a great look at how good design can uncover a third bedroom in most two-bedroom condos, simply…
Part 3: Using Tech to Save Money on Pets
No Pets? No Problem This is the third in a series on saving money by turning technology to your advantage. In Part 1, I talked about getting the cable companies’ hands out of your pockets. In Part 2, that old…
Part 2: Using Tech to Save Money on Cars
Say Goodbye to the Money Toilet This is the second in a three-part series on how to use technology to your (financial) advantage. Even if you’re not a programmer, or your six-year-old knows more about your computer than you do…
Part 1: Using Tech to Save Money on TV
Say goodbye to traditional TV Canada is one of the most expensive countries in the world in terms of technology. The prices we pay for cell phone and data plans, for example, fall just short of highway robbery. And if…
Car-Free and Carefree in Vancity
I’ve got five kids, and in today’s one-kid society this means I get a lot of unsolicited advice that starts with “You’ve got five kids! You can’t possibly do [fill in the blank].” This is especially true when it comes…
Teaching Our Kids Transit
These days it’s common to hear people of a certain age (my age, let’s be honest) waxing nostalgic about the old days. We walked to school alone, rode our bike for miles, played until well past sundown, lit everything on…
Access The Good Life, Don’t Own It
The concept of renting something versus owning is so heretical to some, especially those of my parents’ generation, that it’s frequently labeled as “throwing money away.” The freedom of using an item anytime you wish, for “free,” is very compelling….
The Surface That Serves 5 Kids
Finding the right dining table for a small space with a large brood is an ongoing evolution for us. The goal is to have something that scales to seat 7-10 people, without using up an inordinate amount of floor space….
Reader Mail: Owning Your House vs Renting
Hi, I saw your article and it was a pleasant read. I just have one question for you. I agree with you completely with renting a house being cheaper (saving more money) than buying. But everybody I speak with thinks…
Crafting an Art Space from In-Suite Storage
When we first moved into this condo, one of the more curious aspects was that it had “in-suite storage.” So instead of storing all our unused junk in a chicken wire-surrounded, padlocked area on P1 or P2, we got a small,…
How To Rent a Family Friendly Condo
I’m always eager to help people find a new place to live, in part because I’ve done it so often myself that I feel compelled to re-use this expertise somehow. So in the midst of doing my latest impression of…
The Cloakroom Comes Home
My husband and I struggle with hall closet storage in our apartment; our coat/shoe closet won’t stay closed, for jackets and footwear spilling out. Our 3-shelf closet organizer has no room for more shoes when people visit. My small collection…