Light - Our beacon of hope. We lit the first candle on the Hanukkah Menorah last night as we set off to celebrate 8 days of light, warmth and celebration.

There are a number of activities scheduled in and around Metro Vancouver. 

This Wednesday you can celebrate the Miracle of Light and learn about the holiday of Hanukkah through songs, stories and fun in Richmond at the Public Library and Cultural Centre at 7700 Minoru Gate from 7PM to 7:45PM

Also on Wednesday Gordon Neighbourhood House will be partnering with the Jewish Seniors Alliance and Neighbourhood Small Grants to host a Hanukkah community event. It's for all ages and will run from 5PM to 7PM at 1019 Broughton Street, Vancouver. It will include live music, latkes and sufganyot, plus dreidel spinning competitions.

On Thursday you can take part in a Menorah Lighting at the West Vancouver Community Centre, where you can join them for stories and songs and delicious sufganiyot, jelly donuts. It takes place from 6PM to 7PM at 2121 Marine Drive, West Vancouver.

On Sunday from 2:30PM to 4:00PM you can venture back to Richmond and join them for the last night of Hanukkah when they light the 25ft Menorah, accompanied by fun and entertainment. Again at the Richmond Public Library and Cultural Centre at 7700 Minoru Gate.

Then you can join in for A Celebration of Light on the 'Highway to Heaven', where the Richmond Jewish Day School invites you to an evening of warmth, snacks, songs and festivities through a celebration of diversity with members of the Richmnd community around the theme of light. From 6:30PM to 8PM at the Richmond Jewish Day School at 8760 No 5 Road, Richmond.

However you decide to celebrate - Happy Hanukkah. 

Located at the corner of Davie and Nicola Street, the Gabriola House greets passersby with it ominous presence.

In 1900, Sugar king, Benjamim Tingley Rogers hired renowned archetect, Samual Maclure to build Gabriola, which gets its name from the distinctive sandstone exterior quarried from Gabriola Island.

When the premises was finished at a cost of $25,000 it was said to be double the next nicest home in town at 17,327 square feet, located on an entire block with landscaped gardens, stables, greenhouses and beautiful views of English Bay.

When Rogers died in 1918, his widow Mary moved out and the mansion was turned into a rental apartment house call 'The Angus' in 1924. In 1978 it was transformed  into the high-end steak house, Hy's Mansion, then into Romano's Macaroni Grill in 1994.

The home is the site of numerous ghost sightings.  Every year in fact, many people say that they've seen ghosts in the window. Further, many claim they've seen multiple ghosts in the residence.

When the mansion was a restaurant, staff claim they encountered ghosts on a regular basis, and some have claimed that utensils, such as cutlery, actually floated in the air.

The mansion was also the site of a horrific murder in 2016. Specifically, the body of a japanese student named Natsumi Kogawa was found inside.

Since Romano's Macaroni Grill shut down, the home has sat vacant.

The property was recently purchased for $6.72 million, and plans are underway to convert the property into rental condos and 4 townhouses. While the home is being converted, final plans do not include tearing down the structure. Instead, the building will undergo renovations.

At Keith Vines and Associates, we offer good old fashion service, working with our home buyers and sellers in a relaxed, friendly manner, applying every available tool available to achieve the best possible outcome. We also love referrals and will gladly pay for them. If you would entrust us with your friends/family, kindly send them our way. Refer, and You Shall Receive

My wife, Gigi and I have a few favourite TV shows, but never in a million years would we have been caught binge watching. Maybe 2-3 shows a week at the most. 

Then a friend of mine mentioned that he and his wife were watching this Turkish program with subtitles on Netflix. Black Money Love. He said it was a little far fetched, but it had their attention.

I boldly said that we would never get involved with a show with subtitles, let alone a show with 164 episodes. 

But after mentioning this show to my wife, she suggested we check it out. We did, and enjoyed it. We agreed to watch maybe a few shows a week - taking our time as we worked our way through the episodes.

Well, we got hooked! We started watching a show every evening, then stretched it out to 2-3 per night - sometimes 4.  We are now officially binge watching this Turkish TV show with subtitles. We worked our way through all 164 episodes in just over 2 months. No, we are not proud!

Have you found yourself binge watching a tv program? Is so, which one and would you suggest it??

At Keith Vines and Associates, we offer good old fashion service, working with our home buyers and sellers in a relaxed, friendly manner, applying every available tool available to achieve the best possible outcome. Please take a moment to sign up for Keith’s Grapevine – a periodic eletter full of interesting market news, advice and tidbits

The Ford Econonline, or Ford E-series, includes a variety of full-size vans, with a 59 year production run.  Only the Ford F-series, which was developed in 1948 has outlasted the Econoline series in terms of Ford models.

The E-series came out in 1961 as a replacement for the Ford F-series panel van. Four generations of the E-series have been in production every since. 

E-series vans were the top-selling models in the U.S between 1980 and 2015 with the model line's discontinuation. This represents nearly 80% of the share of the market during that time. Since then, Ford has only produced the stripped and cutaway chassis configurations for the E-series.

The Ford Econoline made its debut on September 21, 1960, marking the start of the first generation of the E-series.  The Econoline began its development as design sketches from 1957 and was introduced as a cargo van, passenger van, and a pickup truck.

The E-series was introduced alongside the Chevrolet Corvair van in 1961 and made itself known for several different design precedents. Among those were the Chevy Van and Dodge A100 models, as well as the European Ford Transit. 

At Keith Vines and Associates, we offer good old fashion service, working with our home buyers and sellers in a relaxed, friendly manner, applying every available tool available to achieve the best possible outcome. We also love referrals and will gladly pay for them. If you would entrust us with your friends/family, kindly send them our way. Refer, and You Shall Receive

The government of B.C. is planning on introducing new laws to protect consumers in this hot real estate market, including  adding cooling-off periods.

They are looking into how to place restrictions on the real estate business regarding buyers concerns about being committed to buying a home without knowing everything they need to make a fully informed decision.

The Finance Minister annouced the new law last Thursday, saying the change will be similar to the cooling-off periods already in place for pre-construction strata sales.

The government has also been asked to review other potential consumer protection measures, including looking at the blind-bidding system and waiving of conditions when making offers.

The Minister explained that 'People looking to buy a home need to know they are protected as they make one of the biggest financial decisions in their lives. Especially in periods of heightened activity in the housing market, it's crucial that we have effective measures in place so that people have peace of mind that they have made the right choice'.

With this step, the minister is moving ahead to protect people and their interests in the real estate market by bringing in a cooling-off period for homebuyers and looking at additional measures to ensure effective safeguards are in place.

The government is suggesting the legislation for the cooling-off periods will be drafted for introduction in the spring legislative session.

At Keith Vines and Associates, we offer good old fashion service, working with our home buyers and sellers in a relaxed, friendly manner, applying every available tool available to achieve the best possible outcome. Please take a moment to sign up for Keith’s Grapevine – a periodic eletter full of interesting market news, advice and tidbits

When you flip a coin, physics, not probability, determines how it will land. Mathematician Persi Dianconis found that a coin is slightly more likely to land on the face that was up when you flipped it.

The way a coin lands in not 'randem', it easy, with a little practice, to manipulate your coin flip so that it lands the way you want it. What's more, if you're spinning a coin, it's more likely to land tails up, since the heads side weighs slightly more.

Want some more 'facts' that you have always believed that are actually false?

At Keith Vines and Associates, we offer good old fashion service, working with our home buyers and sellers in a relaxed, friendly manner, applying every available tool available to achieve the best possible outcome. We also love referrals and will gladly pay for them. If you would entrust us with your friends/family, kindly send them our way. Refer, and You Shall Receive