Home renovation spending heats up again after COVID-19 pandemic led to deep freeze

After rising to a record high last year in Canada, spending on home renovations fell off a cliff in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the months of lockdowns and the seemingly endless purgatory of working from home have Canadians once again opening up their wallets to make their temporary workplaces as tolerable as possible.

In a recent report, Toronto-based real estate consultancy Altus Group calculated that Canadians spent more than $80 billion on home improvements last year, a tally that outpaced growth in the overall economy.

And the year’s home reno boom was especially impressive, considering that

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Doing home renovations this summer? Consider new windows and doors, design consultant says – National

Hollie Cooper and her husband had just bought a new home and knew extensive renovations were in store. “Part of those renovations were that we wanted indoor/outdoor living. It was really important to us,” Cooper says.

To make that happen in their home, they began looking at window walls as an option. But early research showed that walls like these were out of the couple’s budget.

Then Cooper, an interior stylist who owns Toronto-based Hollie Cooper Interiors, heard an advertisement for a company called Magic that promised windows with retractable screens and folding window walls — exactly the kinds of

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The House’s renovation sets new standards for bars in Tigerland | News

After closing its doors for nearly a year, The House bar in Tigerland looks forward to re-opening soon with a completely revamped look. Plans for a renovation have been in the works since late 2019, after co-owners Jeff Vaccaro and Casey Fields were inspired by the modernity of bars in other towns like Tuscaloosa and Oxford. They wanted to give LSU students a unique atmosphere that no other bar in Baton Rouge has tried yet.

“Yeah [the bar] really needed an update,” Vaccaro said. “Tigerland’s been around since the late ’70s, and it’s been 20 to 30 years since anybody

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