Renovation & Design

Renovation & Design

Once the L-bracket is mounted along the perimeter, the main supports and cross section create a grid for the floating tiles.

Drywall or tiles with style? When it comes to replacing ceilings, you’ve got options

Marc LaBossiere 5 minute read Saturday, May. 16, 2026

Roughly a decade ago, a homeowner was adamant he wanted his basement ceiling drywalled, to match the style of the main floor of the house.

Although it was an older home, the basement had high enough floor joists above to allow for seven-and-a-half foot ceilings, completely drywalled. The project went fine, but several locations required quick access panels to reach service shut-offs and clean-outs. And therein lies the rub — why drywall a basement ceiling if a bunch of holes are required?

Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why a client might insist upon a drywalled ceiling in the basement — it makes the lower level feel much like the rest of the house. However, most scenarios would not allow a clean installation of drywall, primarily because of the services that run throughout the lower-level ceiling joists: main ducts for the HVAC system, hot and cold water feeds, drain plumbing that connects to a main stack, and so on.

There are generally accepted alternatives in these cases, and they can be quite complementary when installed strategically.

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Renovation & Design

Jpg 1_classic perennials_Siberian Iris_Swans in Flight_ with low carpet of Cerastium tomentosum Snow-in-Summer Walters Gardens photo Siberian iris swans in flight with a low carpet of white-flowered snow-in-summer are classic perennials.

It’s bloomin’ plant sale season

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Preview

It’s bloomin’ plant sale season

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Saturday, May. 16, 2026

It’s been a cool and windy start to spring this year. The anticipation of flowers — not a few pretty blooms scattered here and there but a lush and abundant flowering display — grows stronger each day.

Even small spaces can be filled with masses of vibrant flowers. For lasting appeal, choose quintessential perennials such as irises, peonies, clematis, delphinium, poppies, salvia, foxglove, clustered bellflower, daisies, speedwell, salvia, lady’s mantle, phlox, echinops (globe thistle), daylilies, snow-in-summer and more. You can also sprinkle in self-seeding annuals like snapdragons, cornflowers and calendula.

What could be more satisfying than a classic cottage garden look that features extravagant colour? Key factors include planting densely in groups of at least three. Choose plants of different heights, including ground covers, so that no bare ground is visible. You may also want to create curved borders and add a vertical structure such as an obelisk, trellis or arbour.

But above all, you will need beautiful plants that flower reliably.

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Saturday, May. 16, 2026

Renovation & Design

Syngenta Flowers photo Florencio begonias such as Florencio Cerise have bright-yellow centre stamens and superior heat-tolerance.

Beguiling begonias

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Preview

Beguiling begonias

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Saturday, May. 9, 2026

All it took was one look at Rodney Wohlgemuth’s begonias and I decided to break my own rule of not buying begonias before May 15.

Wohlgemuth owns Green Oak Gardens, located two kilometres east of Beausejour. The expansive greenhouses are tucked behind a large red barn in a picturesque rural setting with a winding creek and a sweep of mature trees in the background.

On my visit on May 1, the sun’s rays were warm and there wasn’t a hint of wind. I was primed to shop for plants.

Wohlgemuth grows a wide variety including annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees. He especially loves begonias which are displayed throughout the main greenhouse — luscious begonias on plant tables as soon as you step inside the greenhouse, begonias in hanging baskets above you and begonias in beautiful mixed containers on the floor.

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Saturday, May. 9, 2026

Renovation & Design

Photos by Marc LaBossiere / Free Press Although the top decking hue has faded slightly, the canola oil has already lasted longer than the store-bought product applied years before.

The canola oil experiment, revisited

Marc LaBossiere 6 minute read Preview

The canola oil experiment, revisited

Marc LaBossiere 6 minute read Saturday, May. 9, 2026

In late June of 2023, my Reno Boss column depicted an experiment using canola oil to treat my aging deck boards, and the column generated the most feedback I have ever received for any of mine to date.

Interest in the ongoing performance of the canola oil on my deck still finds my inbox with queries, on occasion. After receiving a couple of them recently, I thought it might be a good idea to revisit the experiment and discuss the results it has yielded.

The concept of using canola oil arose after having treated my front and rear decks once they began to fade. Both had been subjected to years of sunlight, and the resilience of the brown treated lumber had clearly dissipated.

My first attempt at rejuvenation involved an expensive Behr deep-penetrating oil product. The process involved clearing the entire deck surface, prepping the top decking by using a high-pressure spray wand, letting it dry and choosing an arid morning to quickly apply the expensive oil in such a manner that sequential lines of application would not reveal any overlaps.

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Saturday, May. 9, 2026

Renovation & Design

Becky Slater photo Eighty to 90 per cent of Winnipeg’s three million trees are on private property. A private tree bylaw could help protect them.

Book a passionate, grassroots call to protect and grow our urban forests

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Preview

Book a passionate, grassroots call to protect and grow our urban forests

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Saturday, May. 2, 2026

Out on a Limb by Erna Buffie is a 100-plus page, digest-sized paperback packed with a powerful message about the importance of preserving and growing Winnipeg’s urban forest.

It’s one of those rare books where not a single word is wasted. This is not a sentimental ode to trees but rather a passionate call to immediate action.

Published this year by Great Plains Press, Buffie’s work is the third instalment in the City Project series. The series’ editors are Emma and Michel Durand-Wood. Together with Buffie, all three are grassroots activists who do not shirk from citizen-led action to preserve Winnipeg’s tree canopy.

As a documentary filmmaker, Buffie worked with CBC’s acclaimed series, The Nature of Things, for more than 20 years. She directed Smarty Plants, an award-winning 2012 documentary which uncovers the real secret world of plants. She also directed episodes of the incomparable Canadian documentary series, Recreating Eden, which ran for five seasons on CBC.

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Saturday, May. 2, 2026

Renovation & Design

Marc LaBossiere / Free Press The dryer duct and vent, new 30-amp outlet, and ABS drain plus water feeds combo insert make for a clean look along the back wall.

Seize the opportunity

Marc LaBossiere 6 minute read Preview

Seize the opportunity

Marc LaBossiere 6 minute read Saturday, May. 2, 2026

The introduction of an additional laundry room on the second floor within any home is a tricky prospect at the best of times and requires careful planning prior to execution.

Although a laundry room was not a priority during an elaborate kitchen remodel I handled, an opportunity presented itself to tackle the endeavour.

While the walls were being stripped down to studs on the main floor, a useful corridor via which to run rough plumbing and electrical from the basement to the second level was too good for the homeowners to pass up.

This particular kitchen remodel a couple years ago was a huge project. The area of the dining room into the old kitchen was roughly 700 square feet in size, and involved removing a dividing wall, introducing two new kitchen picture windows and a side coffee bar with sink beyond the centre island with the main sink area.

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Saturday, May. 2, 2026

Renovation & Design

Jeffries Nurseries photo The sugar maple is Canada’s national tree. Inferno sugar maple has inflorescent orange-red fall foliage colouring.

All you need to know to grow species of our iconic national tree

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Preview

All you need to know to grow species of our iconic national tree

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Saturday, Apr. 25, 2026

Maples are one of the most common tree requests at garden centres every spring.

Many customers know exactly what they want and specifically ask for Autumn Blaze. (The full botanical name for the Autumn Blaze Maple is Acer x freemanii Jeffersred.)

A hybrid between red maple (Acer rubrum) and silver maple (Acer saccharinum), Autumn Blaze was discovered by Ohio nurseryman Glenn Jeffers in the late-1960s. Autumn Blaze combines the fast growth and drought-tolerance of the silver maple with the vibrant scarlet-red colour of the red maple. The iconic foliage is deeply cut with five pointed lobes.

The exceptional name recognition of the Autumn Blaze Maple often makes it the default choice for homeowners seeking brilliant-red fall colouring. But there are several other maple cultivars with outstanding red fall colour worth considering. There are also important things to know about maple trees.

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Saturday, Apr. 25, 2026

New Homes

MHBA photo Beware this summer of contractors offering cash-only deals with a handshake ‘contract’ when considering home-renovation quotes.

Get it in writing from contractors this summer

Lanny McInnes 4 minute read Preview

Get it in writing from contractors this summer

Lanny McInnes 4 minute read Saturday, Apr. 25, 2026

Now that winter weather appears to be behind us, Manitobans are turning their attention to preparing for spring yard work, gardening and planning on how best to enjoy the long and beautiful summer we all deserve.

Sometimes, that also means planning a summer renovation project for your home. Many homeowners are booking these summer projects with renovators now. But one thing to keep in mind when researching both your residential project and picking the right renovator to do it, is that when a deal sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

There are some key points to remember when you are offered a “really great deal” on home renovations, especially cash-only deals where the person doing the work is being paid “under the table.” These deals usually mean no taxes are paid and no permits are taken out for the work to be done. Possessing no receipt and no contract also means there is no record of the work being done on a dwelling.

If your contractor cuts a few corners and uses substandard materials, you have no recourse because there was no formal agreement. If the workmanship is shoddy or the renovation work caused some damage to your home, there is no actual record of the work ever taking place.

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Saturday, Apr. 25, 2026

Renovation & Design

MARC LABOSSIERE / FREE PRESS The subfloor panels are easily installed in the big open area of the home’s main rec-room space.

Elevate a home’s lower-level flooring

Marc LaBossiere 5 minute read Preview

Elevate a home’s lower-level flooring

Marc LaBossiere 5 minute read Saturday, Apr. 25, 2026

Basements in newer house construction often follow a similar process to that found on any other floor of a home — joists with plywood or OSB sheathing atop as a subfloor.

This configuration is possible when a new house is being built with a crawlspace below the lower-level floor structure. Not only does this help in keeping the basement warmer, it also allows easier access to run rough plumbing and electrical below the basement floor elevation.

However, in older homes, the basement floor is generally concrete, which can be quite limiting. As one can imagine, changes to the existing rough plumbing of a basement level in an older dwelling with a concrete floor will be very costly. As such, basement bathroom renovations in such dwellings often utilize the existing placement of the toilet flange, sink and shower drains to avoid increasing costs.

At a current basement renovation project, the homeowners elected to recycle the existing bathroom layout for that very reason. However, costs were then incurred by adding a sump pit and pump and also a backwater valve as preventative measures against the possibility of a storm sewer surge that could inundate the basement.

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Saturday, Apr. 25, 2026

Renovation & Design

MARC LABOSSIERE / FREE PRESS The decorative stringers are offset to better cater to the floor plan of the rec-room, and laundry entrance.

Mastering the drywall ‘frame’ game

Marc LaBossiere 5 minute read Preview

Mastering the drywall ‘frame’ game

Marc LaBossiere 5 minute read Saturday, Apr. 18, 2026

When the term “framing” is used in the context of interior construction, the first connotation is that of structural support and layout.

However, framing for just about any project can lead to frustration if the process is not well-planned from the get-go. While minor shifts and changes are often necessary to facilitate implementation of subsequent tasks, insufficient planning that overlooks all the requirements of a project can result in the need for drastic measures later on.

Interior framing can be quite monotonous, despite its necessity. In addition to helping sidestep small glitches, incorporating a strategic approach serves a very important purpose. As an example, framing the back wall of a basement bathroom to accommodate a vanity may seem straightforward enough — studs positioned atop a base at 16-inches on centre with a cap plate, then secured to the adjacent walls and ceiling joists above.

However, by first verifying the intended location of the ABS rough plumbing, the studs can be shifted slightly to better accommodate the process, rather than having to chop through a newly erected stud that may be inconveniently located for the plumbing feed.

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Saturday, Apr. 18, 2026

Renovation & Design

Gaillardia SpinTop Orange Halo Improved is an exceptional new perennial from the True North Perennials collection. It looks equally good in landscapes or containers.

Perennials in the zone

Colleen Zacharias 6 minute read Preview

Perennials in the zone

Colleen Zacharias 6 minute read Saturday, Apr. 18, 2026

The reputation of Manitoba’s cold climate precedes us into nearly every major North American plant-breeding company. You could almost say, if a plant survives winter in Winnipeg, it will survive anywhere.

Dummen Orange is a leading global breeder and propagator of ornamental flowers and plants. It has been in operation in North America for 26 years. The company’s True North Perennials program differentiates Dummen Orange from other breeders on our continent, many of whom test their plants in places where winter temperatures do not exceed -34.4 C — in other words, Zone 4.

Hence, many new plant introductions are classified as hardy to Zone 4 because they have not been tested in our Zone 3B climate. Vanstone Nurseries in Portage la Prairie is a key regional testing ground for the True North Perennials program, which is focused on our zone.

“This has become a very big deal,” says Duayne Friesen, Winnipeg-based sales representative for Ball Seed Company, a major North American supplier of seed and young plants to commercial greenhouses. “There is significant demand, especially in Canada and the northern United States, for plant varieties that are guaranteed cold-hardy.”

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Saturday, Apr. 18, 2026

Renovation & Design

Nik Friesen-Hughes photo Looking for an echinacea you count on? Magnus coneflower keeps coming back if you plant it in lean soil.

Pragmatic plots

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Preview

Pragmatic plots

Colleen Zacharias 7 minute read Saturday, Apr. 11, 2026

Our climate is changing rapidly, and our garden plans need to adapt accordingly.

“We need a planting design that functions as a resilient, self-sustaining ecosystem suited to our climate,” says Nik Friesen-Hughes, landscape designer and owner of Dogwood Landscape Design Build. “We’re already seeing warmer temperatures overall in winter and summer and a longer growing season. In a climate such as Winnipeg’s, plants must handle extreme cold, heavy spring moisture and drought. So, we want to design a garden that’s resilient to all these things.”

Managing landscape water efficiently is a good starting point.

“Resilient landscapes don’t just use less water, they manage the water where it is,” says Friesen-Hughes. What if you could charge up your soil profile in spring with the extra moisture in the snow to help plants withstand hot, dry conditions that occur later on?

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Saturday, Apr. 11, 2026

Renovation & Design

Marc LaBossiere / Free Press The three-tonne heat pump is installed in an area that avoids snow drifting in the winter.

Get emergency heat with one simple wiring change

Marc LaBossiere 7 minute read Preview

Get emergency heat with one simple wiring change

Marc LaBossiere 7 minute read Saturday, Apr. 11, 2026

From this past autumn into the dead of winter, our household dealt with an unfortunate bout of HVAC issues.

In the fall, the heat pump’s blower fan failed, resulting in sole reliance on the air handler (furnace) to heat the house. Moreover, the blower fan caused a surge on the heat pump’s circuit board. As such, both the blower fan’s motor and the control board needed to be replaced.

At some point during the coldest spell of winter, the air handler’s control board also suffered a catastrophic failure. Luckily, this issue was rectified within a week, and the house once again had heat. It wasn’t until recently that I received an ETA on the heat pump’s control board, even though the blower-fan motor had arrived several weeks prior. No matter, the heat pump “fix” was scheduled with my HVAC guy. However, there was a lingering programming issue that had always presented complications, dependent solely upon the outdoor temperature when the heat pump was not operational — the temperature lockout.

For those who aren’t familiar with electric heat pumps, the units are essentially air conditioners with a dual purpose — they provide heating in the cold months, and cooling during the warmer times of they year. Our Canadian climate, however, usually necessitates a “backup” heating system for times when the heat pump cannot efficiently or effectively heat the house properly. For instance, in Manitoba, my heat pump can effectively warm the house when the outside temperature remains above -15 C. Below this temperature, the heat pump struggles, even though the system will begin to call upon the heating coils in the air handler (the electric furnace). And even though this is the proper function, the heat pump’s efficiency begins to drop off greatly as the outdoor temperature dips below -15 C.

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Saturday, Apr. 11, 2026

Renovation & Design

Photos by Michelle Austin Michelle Austin photo Escape to the English countryside with this beautiful wallpaper design from an original hand-painted watercolour by Michelle Austin.

Regina watercolour artist brings nature-inspired designs to home décor

Colleen Zacharias 6 minute read Preview

Regina watercolour artist brings nature-inspired designs to home décor

Colleen Zacharias 6 minute read Saturday, Apr. 4, 2026

Inspired by her garden and the textures, patterns and colours found in nature, Michelle Austin’s designs bring the outdoors inside your home.

Austin is a Regina watercolour artist and surface pattern designer. She creates original hand-painted works of art for wallpaper, fabric and home textiles.

Her exclusive watercolour designs for wallpaper are available through West Coast Walls, based in British Columbia and Australia. Now, Austin’s garden-themed art has led to an exciting new partnership with a New York-based textile company which manufactures and distributes fabric across North America.

From walls to cushions, bedding, curtains, quilts, table decorations and other décor accents, Austin’s subdued colour palettes enhance home interiors with botanical elegance.

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Saturday, Apr. 4, 2026

Renovation & Design

MARC LABOSSIERE / FREE PRESS A new bar fridge facing the dining room is incorporated into the island design.

A kitchen island unto itself

Marc LaBossiere 4 minute read Preview

A kitchen island unto itself

Marc LaBossiere 4 minute read Saturday, Apr. 4, 2026

While working at a job site for weeks at a time, it has been my experience that conversations with homeowners eventually lead to the prospect of other impending projects.

In this case, fortunately, this led to early preparations for a secondary revamp, hastening the installation process. While prepping a feature-wall fireplace location with the necessary electrical circuits, a new kitchen circuit was also introduced for an upcoming island upgrade. Once the cabinets arrived weeks later, the new circuit was ready to be implemented.

A kitchen island is nothing more than a layout of specified lower cabinets, with decorative panels to conceal the reverse sides of functioning cupboards. As such, the general depth of an island can range anywhere from 26 inches to considerably deeper, provided the kitchen offers the required space.

At a recent kitchen island upgrade, the space boasted more than enough usable area for a larger island. The existing island set-up seemed puny in comparison to the proposed design, which entails a longer island by the standard depth of cabinets with a countertop overhang of an additional 12 inches, rendering the rectangular top at 74-by-39 inches.

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Saturday, Apr. 4, 2026

Renovation & Design

Marc LaBossiere / Winnipeg Free Press Old dilapidated stairs to the home’s back-door entry (left) evolved into a four-season covered porch fit for entertaining guests (right).

‘Before’ and ‘after’ images highlight true transformation

Marc LaBossiere 4 minute read Preview

‘Before’ and ‘after’ images highlight true transformation

Marc LaBossiere 4 minute read Saturday, Mar. 28, 2026

On occasion, while rifling through my photo catalogue on my iPhone, I stumble across a forgotten “before” image taken at a job site. And when that photo underscores how spectacularly a transformative reno project has improved the homeowners’ abode, I can’t help but write a before-and-after column to showcase the upgrade.

Looking back on the project, it was a series of complementary decisions that led to the vast improvement.

During my first visit to the job site, it was clear the old wooden stairs that lead to the back door of the house had become dilapidated, and even unsafe in certain areas. As such, the homeowners wanted my impressions on how best to revitalize the rear access structure.

Thoughts had been entertained regarding the viability of transforming the back stairs into a covered porch area, primarily to ease the process of entering the house during the winter months.

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Saturday, Mar. 28, 2026

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