There may be a bit more snow now, but Avonlea homeowners still prize community involvement and family-friendly activities.

Opening tonight at 7:30pm with a film about how bicycles can change the world, and followed by a live performance about the first woman to bike around the world, ReFrame provides a great framework to educate and entertain the family.

And while the festival aims to celebrate the latest works of film and video from local, national, and international filmmakers, it doesn’t eschew younger members of your family, as it includes programming for both children (REELKids) and teens (Changing Our World).

So if you feel like watching something that you wouldn’t catch at your average commercial theatre, check the ReFrame website for scheduling and ticket information.

Have you been to a previous edition of the ReFrame festival?

Your next winter meal?

Ask people about winter activities, and they’ll most likely mention skiing and tobogganing and skating and hockey.

Yet there’s more to winter than spending time outdoors. Take the city of Barrie, home to our Just4U community. While Barrie does have its fair share of outdoors winter activities, such as alpine skiing and tubing, it also hosts another fantastic winter event that involves no athletic gear.

Called Barrielicious Winter Festival, this event kicks off today in various locations across Barrie and Simcoe County (and continues until February 5^th).

It aims to promote smaller restaurants, veering people away from big franchises and promoting the downtown area. Prix fixe menus begin at only $20 per person (and the maximum is $25). They include 3 courses, but no alcohol or taxes.

Previous Barrielicious sessions have garnered quite a few compliments, and this year promises to be no exception.

Click here for a list of participating restaurants (which number 50), and make sure you book soon if you’re interested — participating restaurants have a way of being fully booked pretty soon.

But why stop there? Having applied these principles to the communities themselves, wouldn’t it make sense to apply them to the homes’ interiors as well?

Life is easy at Port Hope Golf & Country Club.

Take our Port Hope Golf and Country Club community. Designed for active adults, this is already a green community, featuring Energy Star-qualified homes and located so that amenities are within easy walking distance.

More to the point, it’s also a community whose homes are designed with ease of movement in mind. Consider their optional features that are part of our accessibility options program:

• Wider door openings and hallways
• Right-height raised toilets
• Easy-opening lever handles for doors and faucets
• Lowered light switches and upper cabinets
• Anti-slip bathtub in the ensuite bathroom
• Easy-reach grab bars in bathrooms
• Accessible spaces

Thanks to these features, Port Hope Golf and Country Club homeowners can rest assured life in their homes will be effortless.  And all it took was for design to place people first and foremost — much like New Urbanism does.

A beautiful streetscape at our Port Hope community.

What I didn’t mention is that the Toronto Star recently printed a nice write-up about our Port Hope community. It was great to be featured in Canada’s largest newspaper.

Take a minute to read the article here and leave your comment below. Or you can just come to our sales office and model home for more information.

Have a great weekend!

Port Hope Golf & Country Club Sale Office

Address: 415 Lakeshore Road, Port Hope

Hours: Monday to Friday (from noon to 5 p.m.) and weekends and holidays (from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.)

Contact Information: 905-885-6565 or  http://www.masonhomes.ca/communities/portHope

Avonlea winning the Places to Grow community award was one of the highlights of the year.

With the New Year around the corner, it’s a perfect time to take a look back at the previous year’s major events.

But before we do that, we’d like to thank you all for reading, participating, and trusting us to build the home of your dreams. May you have a very happy New Year!

• In 2011, Mason Homes turned 50. It’s hard to believe, but we’ve already been doing this for half a century. There’s nothing else we’d rather do.

• In February, we won the EnerQuality’s Leader of the Year award.

• In March, we announced we’d build a new Design Studio in Peterborough, a convenient location for our homebuyers at our Avonlea and Port Hope Golf and Country Club communities, as well as for our upcoming new home community in Cobourg.

• In May, our Avonlea community won the award for Places to Grow Community of the Year. This is one of the most anticipated BILD awards, and in the case of Avonlea it recognized its forward-thinking planning and combination of smart growth and new urbanism with green building initiatives.

• In June, we opened our Port Hope community.

• In November, we held an event for Port Hope homeowners and another for Avonlea homeowners. We also won five awards at the Peterborough & The Kawarthas Home Builders Association’s 2011 Kawartha Awards of Distinction. 

Once again, thanks, and have youselves a very happy New Year!

What I’m about to say may sound cheesy, but I’ll say it anyway: at Mason Homes, we’re happy when our homeowners are happy.

This is why we build homes that are perfect for you to raise your family — a Green for Life home that is EnergyStar-qualified as a standard rather than an upgrade, and a home that, being environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, will help contribute to your family’s healthier living environment.

This weekend, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, chances are most of you will be happy. Happy you are together with your loved ones. Happy you have some time off. Happy you’re enjoying good food and drink. Happy (I hope) that you live in a Mason Home.

For that, I thank you and wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

The last days of any year are always a good time to look back and reflect on what we accomplished and where we could’ve done a better job. It’s also a good time to make plans.

One of my plans this coming year is to change our company’s website, www.masonhomes.ca.

With that in mind, I ask you, do you have any suggestions? What do you like about the current site? More importantly, what would you like to see changed?

I look forward to your comments!

Another favourite activity of mine is to help protect the environment, especially when done in a way that immediately helps improve your quality of life.

The problem is that Christmas often brings about a frenzy of superfluous spending that can tax the environment by producing excess waste (not to mention all the fuel used to transport merchandise).

When properly chosen, even electronic gadgets can be (fairly) green. The Phillips Eco TV set features recycled packaging and an energy-saving LCD screen.

So how can we reconcile these two seemingly contradictory aspirations?

It’s actually quite simple.

• Cut down on the amount of paper used for gift-wrapping. Or consider not wrapping the gifts at all. Some people use children’s artwork, old maps, a bandana or a scarf.

• e-Cards aren’t just convenient and cheap (or sometimes even free) — they also save paper and gas (which would be used to transport mailed cards).

• Don’t leave Christmas light on all day. Consider getting LED Christmas lights, which use up to 90% less energy. Bonus: they also last a lot longer.

• Recycle your Christmas tree. This link has useful information.

• Get toys that use no batteries. Wooden toys can boost critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

• Consider making gifts rather than buying them. From homemade soap to a secret hollow book, homemade gifts ensure that you not only you experience more pleasure than when you buy to the mall — they also tend to used more often and bring about more pleasure to he person who receives them.

Your turn! What do you like to do to make your Christmas and festivities greener?

After all, what’s the point of it all if we don’t spend quality time with our families, especially this time of the year?

Our Avonlea community is a fantastic place to watch your family grow.

Peterborough (Avonlea):

• For a bit of holiday music, at 3pm on Sunday, the Kawartha Youth Orchestra will play in a concert called “Winter Tales” at Market Hall Theatre. Find out more here.

• For a mere $4.50, this Saturday you can get a light lunch comprising sandwiches, sweet treats, tea or coffee at the Christmas Holidays Tea & Bazaar. You can also buy homemade meat, turkey and fruit pies, jams, pickles, preserves, candy, craft, and more. Check this site for more information.

• In the small town of Keene (only 10 kms from Peterborough), from 5 to 9pm on Saturday, an event called Christmas by Candlelight will be celebrated at the Lang Pioneer Village Museum, featuring horse and sleigh rides, carolers, demonstrations, festive foods and a visit from Father Christmas. Find out more here.

Remember, our Avonlea Sales Office is open from 11am to 6pm on the weekends. Drop by or call 1-866-443-7900 for info on our new homes in phase 2 and our inventory homes for sale.

St. Catharines (Chicory Walk)

• On Saturday from 6am to 3pm, the Christmas at St. Catharines Farmers’ Market event will allow you to buy direct from the grower, getting the freshest ingredients for a family feast. Complimentary hot apple cider will be served, and there will be a horse-and-carriage- ride departing from the market square. Find out more on this site.

Interested in our final clearance at Chicory Walk? Visit our Sales Office from 11am to 6pm at 6 Chicory Crescent or call 905-688-3777.

We’re also having a drop-in this Saturday from 4 to 6pm in our Port Hope Sales Office at 415 Lakeshore Rd. (Call 905-885-6565 for details.)

• Best Tract Built Home over 1,500 sq. ft. (the Monarch)
• Best Sales Brochure
• Best New Home Sales Office
• Best Print Ad Campaign
• Best Project Logo Design & Signage 

Having put so much work and thought into this community (as we do with all others) it’s nice to see it get recognized.

The home that won the award was the Monarch model. Through this home’s design we attempted to address the needs of active empty nesters (which form the community’s target demographic).

A large living room adjoins a formal dining room, and a kitchen with optional breakfast bar.

Because many empty nesters love to entertain, the Monarch features an open-concept design in a bungalow that includes a loft, good for extra bedrooms, guest space, games room, or a home office.

The ensuite bathroom is like a personal spa — the large shower is enclosed in floor-to-ceiling glass doors, the tub features air jets, and tasteful tiles complete the look.

The Monarch also has a large living room, adjoining a formal dining room, and a kitchen with optional breakfast bar. Eight-feet sliding doors in the kitchen and large windows overlooking the back yard make this living area flexible and flooded with natural light.

We are happy and honoured to have won this prize.

We’ve built the Monarch as a model home in Port Hope, so come visit it this weekend and see it for yourself!

Note: We’ve just added pictures taken during the ceremony to our Facebook page. Check them out here.