In the flea markets of SaintOuen in Paris, I too, was drawn to the vintage linen – specifically, to the dishtowels. They were white or coffee-coloured, with stripes or checks in red or blue or green; even though they were modest and workaday, many were monogrammed because they had been included in dowries. 

At the table, I am happiest with simple food: find me the freshest ingredients, ideally those that have not travelled too far to my plate – and leave the plate unadorned. 

Among the noted chefs, people such as Susur Lee and Marcus Samuelsson, and the food writers who contributed to a collection of essays on unforgettable dining experiences in Creating a Meal You’ll Love (Sellers Publishing, 2010, $18.95), several described uncomplicated dishes, unfussy food and family meals. “At home, I like to keep it simple,” wrote Louisville chef Michael Paley. 

“I have grown to love cooking more meals that are simple and straightforward, and that I can make without the use of fancy gadgets and by using only a handful of seasonal ingredients,” food and wine writer Tracey Ryder observed. 

Skye Gyngell, a Londonbased chef, recalled a lunch with her father one hot summer day years ago in a small trattoria just outside Florence: for dessert, they were servedpeaches–“ripe,downy and sweet – sitting on top of shaved ice … I was struck by the rightness of just one thing – one perfect ingredient, unfussed with – pure and perfect in its beauty.” 

It was Laura Ingalls Wilder, the American author who based her Little House series of books on her childhood in a pioneer family, who observed: “I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things in life which are the real ones after all.” 

Simple, real – and unadorned. 

sschwartz@ montrealgazette.com 

Kitchen, bathroom and renovations important in reaching fair evaluation, expert says

How much is your piece of paradise worth? When you need to find out the value of your home – for a family estate, for a bank to offer a mortgage, for a divorcing couple to figure out their assets, or for a property owner to contest taxes – you get the services of an appraiser. This is the person who will take a good look at the condition, renovations and surroundings of the property, and give it a dollar value.

                                                                                                                                                  John Kenneythe Gazette

andy Dodge is busy now doing appraisals for property tax purposes, but these professionals are also important for estates, mortgage applications and in many other areas.“I worry about the value of the house on the market,” says Andy Dodge of Andy Dodge and Associates, who has been doing appraisals since 1982, “and right now property tax appraisals are taking up all my time.”

The most important rooms to evaluate are kitchen and bathroom, Dodge says, and the age of improvements. “If you go into a kitchen and find an old sink with washboard and a plug-in stove, you know that the kitchen is not going to sell very well,” he says, “compared to a kitchen with a Sub-Zero fridge, the latest appliances and huge cabinets. Or if you look in a bathroom and the sink has rust stains, compared to bathrooms with whirlpools and steam showers and double sinks.”

The renovations affect the value, Dodge says, as do the age of windows, furnaces – the overall condition of the home.

And while it’s true that people can put in a new toilet without renovating, or you have to guess whether the fireplace works, there are usually telltale dates on furnaces and toilets, so a good appraiser knows the age.But sometimes, even old has value.

While new windows have advanced technology that makes them airtight, some of the old classic style – leaded windows, ornate woodwork and gingerbread – can increase the value of a home.

The construction of the house is also a factor. In central Montreal, where he does most of his appraisals, there is virtually no wood construction since the Montreal fire of 1852 that destroyed almost half the buildings in the city.

But some old houses have settled on what might have once been swampy ground, so one of his tools, Dodge says, is a marble. “You can put it on one side of the room and see if it rolls. This does affect the value; it’s not very comfortable to live in a house that slants.”

Location also matters. There are clearly some locations where the value is higher, Dodge says, and it’s not realistic to do major renovations in a house that will never sell for a high value.

Because value is what appraisals are about – an appraisal is by definition the most likely price that a willing buyer and willing seller would agree to in an open market. “That’s what our expertise is supposed to tell you.”

A huge factor in the appraisal of a property is the demand in the marketplace, says Dodge, who is certified by the Appraisal Institute of Canada.

Make sure you can afford your dwelling since interest rates set to rise, says Kinsley

In 1981, Karen Kinsley was fresh out of university and thought she was a pretty tough negotiator after sealing a mortgage on a two-bedroom condo in Ottawa’s east end.

“I negotiated a vendor takeback mortgage and then negotiated a one-percent discount on the rate. I thought I got a great deal at 21 per cent,” says the University of Ottawa Commerce grad, who has risen up through the ranks at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. and recently signed on for a second term as president and CEO of the crown corporation that oversees financing, new design and research initiatives to promote housing across the country.

“I was in my 20s and thought the condo was a palace,” says Kinsley, who has been named one of Canada’s most powerful women for the past three years by the Financial Post Magazine and Ottawa’s top CEO by the Ottawa Business Journal in 2009.

CMHC was also named one of the National Capital Region’s top employers by MediaCorp, a Toronto-based publishing company which collects data on employee benefits.

She calls herself a perfectionist who has a habit of dribbling a bit when sipping water or coffee. Two traits that help explain her dedication to the industry and an impish nature that bubbles up during a wideranging interview.

“I probably paid $80,000. It was 1,200 square feet, open concept and absolutely perfect for a young person,” says Kinsley, who stayed in her St. Laurent Boulevard palace for about three years before leaving for Toronto and a senior financial job with Bill Teron and his international development company.

The job and Teron changed her life, planting the seeds that have grown into her passion for the housing and development industry and a career that has her at the head of a complex organization with 2,100 employees at 700 Montreal Rd.

Just as Teron was returning to the private sector after his own stint as president of CMHC in the late ’80s, Kinsley was offered a six-month contract with CMHC in Ottawa. “I said, ‘Great. Something short term and maybe a bit of a break from the pace of working for the private sector.’

“I was wrong on both counts. Twenty years later, I am here and I never did get a break. I have to tell you, I have never regretted a day. It has never been boring and there is always a challenge or two.

“It’s a passion for me,” says Kinsley, who says her enthusiasm for the real estate sector has broadened through her career at CMHC.

Yet her concern for fiscal control and prudent buying has never varied, even as mortgage rates rise and dip.

“It doesn’t matter if mortgage rates are 21 per cent or three per cent. The bottom line is you’ve got to make sure you can afford what are getting into,” Kinsley says.

Interest rates are going to rise, she says, and there is room