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HomEcology Podcast – Investment Homes

In this edition of HomEcology Podcast, Moneca Kaiser discusses investment homes

Transcript

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[Music]

 

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you’re listening to the home ecology

 

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podcast with monica kaiser

 

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[Music]

 

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let’s begin

 

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uh we’re here with monica kaiser of

 

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monica kaiser design build uh an expert

 

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in her field and we’re going to

 

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specifically be talking today about home

 

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renovation investments

 

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and before i go any further

 

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i’m just going to

 

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let monica introduce herself so actually

 

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monica can you talk a little bit about

 

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yourself and your background sure liz

 

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i’m happy to be here um

 

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i’m uh i came at this in an unusual way

 

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i studied philosophy actually in

 

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university

 

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and i loved it and i wanted to go

 

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through and

 

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become a philosophy professor

 

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but a couple years in i found that

 

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i don’t know my head was so full of

 

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knowledge and i felt like a great big

 

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big big head and if i fell over

 

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like a bug i wouldn’t be able to get up

 

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again and the knowledge didn’t belong to

 

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me

 

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and it led me to wanting to work with my

 

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hands and

 

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so that’s sort of how i came into

 

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carpentry okay yeah all right and uh

 

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how’d that lead you now to interior

 

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design

 

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yeah so there’s not really a life for a

 

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woman as a carpenter in this at least

 

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there wasn’t 30 years ago and sadly it’s

 

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kind of the dark ages in this field

 

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and there’s still very very

 

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male-dominated profession

 

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um we don’t have anywhere near a

 

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critical mass of women

 

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so

 

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i always knew i wanted to have my own

 

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business

 

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and i’ve always been an artist in my

 

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heart and i studied art and tai chi and

 

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meditation with a beautiful buddhist

 

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teacher for the last 30 years

 

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yeah

 

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and so that all came together with a

 

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deep understanding of feng shui

 

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in a organic kind of way my teacher

 

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taught me that

 

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um so i haven’t sort of

 

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read about these things and philosophies

 

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ever since i left university it’s been

 

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all experiential learning from this

 

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wonderful teacher

 

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and

 

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my business is another

 

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wonderful design challenge of creating

 

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something that’s harmonious mutually

 

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beneficial

 

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and kind to the people we work with we

 

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call them our clients friends plus

 

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clients

 

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and kind to the environment and kind to

 

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um

 

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the community

 

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so yeah okay and speaking on that uh you

 

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actually have a unique approach to home

 

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design can you touch a bit about on that

 

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yeah

 

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be i think it goes back to my

 

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philosophical

 

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passion for

 

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um

 

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building on very very solid foundations

 

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and

 

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we have a concept of home ecology

 

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that i’ve

 

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articulated that i guess i’ve kind of

 

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coined as a way of expressing being in

 

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harmony with our values and

 

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designing our homes so that they’re in

 

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harmony with our values and i believe

 

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that when we align our lives with our

 

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values in a very intentional and

 

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conscientious way our lives become more

 

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meaningful and we’re more happy

 

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and we’re more generous

 

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we it’s sort of it’s not this endless

 

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stream of wanting

 

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you know granite countertops and then

 

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quartz countertops and now they have

 

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this new even higher end countertop and

 

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you know it’s not always chasing the

 

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greatest countertop it becomes more

 

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about oh my countertop’s durable i built

 

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this house to last 200 years i’m good to

 

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go what can i give to my community now

 

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mm-hmm okay

 

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um now let’s get a bit into uh you know

 

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actual renovations and the investments

 

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themselves and renovations and interior

 

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design is often uh considered a

 

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significant investment

 

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uh can they be considered good

 

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investments then

 

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yeah so this is a really important

 

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question because

 

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you know

 

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they say we have less time than we did

 

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during feudal times

 

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and i feel like mortgages and home

 

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ownership is a bit of a scam by the

 

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banks it’s making them very very rich on

 

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our interest

 

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on the interest

 

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and we’re working very very hard to pay

 

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off these homes

 

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and they’re the most expensive thing

 

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we’re ever going to own unless we’re you

 

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know trust fund kids with a yacht or

 

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something but basically the biggest

 

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investment we’re ever going to make is

 

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this house this home

 

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and we can be very cavalier about people

 

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will add something on or rip something

 

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off or tear something out or whatever

 

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without a master plan and without any

 

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respect for the level of investment this

 

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is like

 

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it’s like

 

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it’s absurd to me so we really need to

 

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honor that these houses are valuable

 

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they’re expensive and

 

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they’re eating all our leisure time like

 

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this is this is not just costing us

 

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money it’s costing us time and worry and

 

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concern okay well speaking on that

 

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master plan

 

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i’m assuming that is certain types of

 

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home improvements that you could make

 

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what ty what are the type of home

 

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improvements that are the best

 

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investments a homeowner can make

 

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well it all starts with something we’ve

 

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never heard of but as soon as somebody

 

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buys a home they should buy a master

 

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planning session and do a complete

 

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master plan for that home

 

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before they it’s okay to live in the

 

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home without the master plan but before

 

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you almost hang a picture you want a

 

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master plan okay anything beyond hanging

 

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a picture actually

 

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because

 

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what has to happen is we have to start

 

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thinking about

 

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homes as systems and understand that

 

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every time we affect one part of it it

 

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affects all the other parts

 

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so

 

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if

 

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we just had a client you just did a port

 

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blog piece on it on

Moneca Kaiser Design Build Ltd.

254 Columbus Ave Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1K 1P6

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