Nader Shureih
Editor in Chief
As a market researcher with the federal government, Nader's energies are focused on the good of the public - looking at the Canadian cultural and social landscape for the purpose of developing stronger ties between and among Canadians.
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Message from the CEO
Posted by admin | August 7th, 2009
Hello readers, Sebastien Lessard here, co-founder of NHA.ca and former new homes sales representative. As of today I’ll be starting a new mission of bringing you the readers and future home buyers, inside the ropes of our local residential construction industry. My efforts will see me try to contact every home builder in our region and get them to share some insight into how they go about building their homes and in turn provide us with the best choice of quality housing.
As you’ll quickly notice, and you may already have, I’m not the most eloquent writer and my French background may come through some times (or often times) in my postings. For this I apologize and hope that you can forgive me!?! You will however notice that I’m very passionate about helping home buyers in their most important financial decision they have to make in their present lives, buying a new home.
As a former new home sales representative I have met with thousands of future home buyers and this experience has led me to understand the hardships and tough decisions that come with trying to find the perfect home. As we did when creating this website, my goal will remain to shed a light on subjects of interest for all buyers and try to present the positive aspects and benefits that come with purchasing a new home from a home builder.
So moving forward, you will be able to follow my in & outs of interactions I’ve had with builders, my visits on site of their residential communities and the impressions they left with me afterwards. Now since I’m doing this to help you in your purchase process, your feedback, your insight and your questions will help me a great deal to ensure I provide you with the information you want and need. Therefore don’t be shy to write your comments and in doing so we can all help each other and make our experiences of buying a new home what they should be…fun and exciting!
I’m very excited with this new objective and I look forward to hearing from you! You can also follow me on Twitter @Seb_NHA and on Facebook.
Talk to you soon!
Thoughts?
Posted by admin | August 5th, 2009
Dear readers,
As the summer months pass, and NHA sees more and more visitors, we feel that this blog would be a great forum to help make NHA and the new home community at large a more interactive place by bringing together our collective thoughts and ideas.
The NHA blog welcomes your blog ideas and contributions.
Tell us what you’re interested in, what, in terms of housing, is on your mind, and what is it that you want to read about. Do you want to know more about eco-friendly retrofits? Do you want more information on Ottawa’s neighbourhoods?
Give us your thoughts, submit your articles, leave comments, and we will listen!
More on Art…
Posted by admin | August 3rd, 2009
The other day I read an article, a Pulitzer Prize winning article as it were, about a busker in a metro station in Washington D.C. He set himself up at about 7:30 am on a cold January morning. He pulled his violin out of its case, threw a few coins in the case and pushed it out in front of him, and proceeded to play a Bach piece.
He played for almost an hour. In that hour, over 1,000 people walked by him on their way to work, and he managed to make $32, most of which was a $20 bill that a woman dropped towards the end of his last piece.
No one, save for that woman and a very few other people stopped, even momentarily, to listen to the violinist.
Normally, that wouldn’t be much of an issue, because most of these street musicians, while good, are generally amateurs, and not good enough (I’m generalizing), to warrant special attention. Thing about this particular event though, is that the violinist in question was Joshua Bell, an American musician who, in 2007, received the highest honour for musicianship in the US – the Avery Fisher Prize. His concerts sell for over $100 per seat, and he regularly plays for the world’s elite – heads of state, monarchs, multinational corporation leaders, etc.
He also happened to begin his set with what is considered one of the most difficult classical pieces to play – on a Stradivarius violin valued at $3.5 million.
And he made $32.
Why?
Now, obviously, Bell is good. And not just good, but the kind of good that makes you stop and take a second listen. At least, you’d think so.
Not for these Washington bureaucrats (most of them WERE bureaucrats. The post-event survey noted occupations, and most of those who walked by worked for some federal department or other).
Turns out, this was a social experiment conducted by the Washington Post, posing the question of perception. How do we perceive beauty when it is taken out of context? What, in effect, is the impact of art when it is not framed?
Apparently, we don’t notice it, or give it the credit it deserves as art, or as beauty.
Moral of the story? Make your art apparent. Make the beauty of your home apparent. Contextualize it. Make your home the frame, make yourself its art.
The opinions and positions expressed in any blogs, wiki's and comments in the above links do not necessarily reflect those of nha, its partners, members or users.