Sonia's Real Estate Blog

If you are planning on redecorating your home, you will want to check out what products are available in the market. Since there are a large number of furniture stores in Edmonton and Sherwood Park, it is a good idea to conduct a bit of research before going furniture shopping. This will help you identify what these stores specialize in and what they sell.

Here we look at 10 different stores that you can visit to find the furnishings, décor, furniture and other interior products you need. These stores offer various styles ranging from traditional to modern and everything in between. Typically most stores require ordering although some of them have ready stocks and you can buy the product off the shelves.

Aspects to Keep In View before Buying Furniture

Before buying any furniture for your house keep a few pointers in your mind such as:

• The available space
• The styling of the existing furniture
• Materials used in the furniture
• How often you have guests over
• Your personal preferences
• Your budget

The top 10 furniture stores in Edmonton

1. URBAN BARN With locations in both Edmonton and Sherwood Park, this store hosts a variety of contemporary and traditional pieces as well as a variety of home decor items to help you make the most out of your space.
2. CHINTZ & COMPANY Situated near 10502 – 105th Ave NW in Edmonton, this store is known for the chic and traditional twist used in their furniture. Unique details are incorporated in all the products, which add a distinctive look to them.
3. RESTORATION HARDWARE Located in Southgate Centre 5015-111st, this store provides customers with a large selection of furniture products. Known for their clean and classic looks with rustic raw elements, this store offers a lot more to customers who are looking for something unique that stands out.
4. POTTERY BARN Located on 8882-170 St, Pottery Barn offers a large selection of various products ranging from traditional, contemporary, a touch of rustic and nautical features.
5. CRATE & BARREL This store is known for its mid-century products with a few modern features and warm clean lines. It is located at Southgate Centre 5015-111 St
6. PIER 1 IMPORTS Furniture that is manufactured here has an ethnic exotic flavour. They have traditional and contemporary styled furniture. The store is conveniently located with locations in both Edmonton & Sherwood Park.
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7. HOME ENVY FURNISHINGS Located at 5240 Windermere Blvd (Edmonton) and #16-9175 Broadmoor Blvd (Sherwood Park), HEF is known for its Canadian made solid wood furnishings and accessories – made to order! Give your home a personalized touch with custom-made pieces from Home Envy Furnishings.
8. RESIDE FURNISHINGS It is an Edmonton based company, known to incorporate industrial and rustic elements to their products. Located at 10434 Mayfield Rd buyers who want an older and rustic look can opt for products from this store.
9. OLD HIPPY WOOD PRODUCTS If you’re looking for a custom piece to add character and a unique flair to your space, look no further than Sherwood Park’s own Old Hippy. Locally made, these furniture pieces maintain the unaltered characteristics of the wood used to ensure an authentic piece just for you.
10. SOFA LAND  Newly opened in Sherwood Park, Sofaland has been family owned and operated since 1992. They have a variety of modern, traditional, and quality furniture at an affordable price.

If you are located in Edmonton or Sherwood Park, you can choose from any of these stores that provide excellent and well-designed products. Good quality products will not only enhance the aesthetics of your home but improve its value as well. Want some more tips or are looking to sell your home? Get in touch with me today, Sonia Tarabay – Top 100 REALTOR® RE/MAX WORLDWIDE. 

For those who may be in the Sherwood Park area, there are tons of places to eat at! Having lived in Sherwood Park for many years, I have accumulated a wealth of knowledge not only about the real estate market, but of the community, things to do, and places to go! There are cuisines that are from around the world, restaurants that offer a home cooked meal and those that are on the funky end of the spectrum. Whatever you want, you can easily find in this area. So here are 5 restaurants in the Sherwood Park that I recommend you visit and that are rated by all those who call this area home and those who visit here!

#1 La Patrona

#2 Cora’s Breakfast and Lunch

#3 Branches Fresh Food Experience

#4 Vicky’s

#5 JOEY Sherwood Park

Looking to make Sherwood Park your home? Call me today! Whether it’s your first time buying a home or you’ve bought and sold property a dozen times before, teaming up with the right Sherwood Park REALTOR® is the critical first step in making a great experience. 

If you ever need a reminder of how special Strathcona County or how inspirational its people, all you need to do is attend the Great Canadian Trade Fair and Sale, which was held last weekend at Millennium Place.

Walking through the Trade Fair, I got a sense of all of the incredible things that people are doing in Strathcona County. There are so many passionate people in this community doing what they love and all of that positive energy is invigorating.

This was my sixth year as an exhibitor at the Trade Fair and it’s a date I always circle on my calendar. One of the best things about the event is seeing all of the familiar faces, from clients who I have bought or sold houses for, to all the members of this tight-knit community that I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know over the years.

It’s also an excellent opportunity to meet knew people and I had a blast making new friends over the weekend, and talking about why they call me Sherwood Park’s Real Estate Tiger. I also enjoyed connecting with my fellow Chamber of Commerce members and with the members of Strathcona County Council.

I’d like to extend a huge thank you to the Chamber and all of its volunteers who once again did a fabulous job organizing the show. Also, thank you to the great restaurants, which brought their tastiest dishes to Taste of Strathcona and to the more than 300 exhibitors. I’m already looking forward to next year’s event!

Warmest regards,

Are you ready to save time, stress and money? I sure hope so! Because when you work with me, you get a top Sherwood Park REALTOR® and an expert Mortgage Broker all in one!

Since the beginning of my career, I have always been motivated to provide an even more complete and improved real estate buying experience for my clients. This is why I chose to be both a licensed REALTOR® with Remax Elite and a licensed Mortgage Broker with Verico iMortgage Solutions. This expertise combo is definitely a rarity within the industry and it’s also a very powerful one. I believe in assisting my clients through the entire process of buying and selling a home, and my deep understanding of the mortgage industry over the past 7 years has allowed me to become a stronger, more knowledgeable REALTOR® who can offer expert advice in all areas of real estate.

Not only am I finding my buyers and investors great deals on Sherwood Park homes, but I am also helping them find great deals on mortgage rates, terms and options available in the market place today.

So whether you are buying your first home or your tenth home, put my expertise to work for you! I am available to serve my clients 7 days a week and welcome your phone calls. Along with my awesome mortgage team, we can help you get pre-approved for financing almost immediately. Then it’s time for us to have a lot of fun house-hunting together! So let’s get started today! Ultimately, my goal is lifelong happy clients.

Warmest regards,

Sonia

As a longtime resident of Sherwood Park, I consider it a privilege to work, live and play in this awesome community!

Sherwood Park has been our home for over a decade now and I can still remember the excitement I felt the very first time I visited this place. I fell totally in love with it! It was as though something wonderful was about to happen. Well, it did! I met some of my most valued friends and clients right here at home, and for that I am eternally grateful.

My husband Eddy and I have three children; Alexa, Lennox and Eva. We feel blessed that they are growing up in a safe and happy community, attending good schools and have made some wonderful friends. Naturally, every parent wants to provide the best for their children and we certainly have found the best of family life living in Sherwood Park.

In following my passion for real estate, I decided to launch my business in 2009 and focused primarily on helping Sherwood Park residents. There was no question in my mind that it was the best decision I ever made. Having grown up in an entrepreneurial family, I had a strong business background and a proven track record in sales. My education was also in business and marketing. In addition, my branding with the use of animal prints was very unique to the real estate industry and my marketing plan for selling homes was very aggressive, which ultimately benefited my clients. Undoubtedly, clients knew when hiring me they would receive my “5 star service”. They knew that I cared about them and that I would work hard on their behalf to help them achieve the best results, whether they were buying or selling a home. Soon I became known as “Sherwood Park’s Real Estate Tiger”.

Today, I am fortunate to have worked with hundreds of clients selling hundreds of homes and helping peoples’ dreams of home ownership come true. Knowing that I have helped make that kind of contribution in someone’s life is incredibly rewarding for me on a very personal level. Having cultivated these client relationships is what keeps me focused and driven  every day to continue to help more and more people in the world of real estate.

I am extremely grateful and appreciative for the ongoing trust and support I receive from the Sherwood Park community. I must admit that it’s a lot of fun to drive around town in my animal wrapped “Sonia-mobile” and see people on the road wave and smile back at me. Sometimes I even get a thumbs up! It’s also pretty cool to be recognized by the kids when I’m shopping around town! I often laugh about it as I am just like every other mom out there.

Should you be looking to buy or sell a home in Sherwood Park, please feel free to drop me a line. I would love to hear from you! Many thanks and I wish you and your family a wonderful year ahead!

Warmest regards,

When shopping for family and friends this holiday season, be sure to shop local! Shopping local helps strengthen the economic base of your community. Here are some benefits below:

Tax Base. One of the five benefits of shopping locally is the increased tax base. By shopping locally, taxes paid by these businesses are used within your community. Common uses for local sales tax include investments in infrastructure, police and fire departments, libraries, and parks.

Jobs. Local shops employ local residents, which means there will be more job opportunities within your community. The increase in jobs, one of the five benefits of shopping locally, also has a domino effect. Local stores will need to hire other local residents to help with accounting, create store signs, etc.

Product Diversity. Product diversity, one of the five benefits of shopping locally, may not seem important at first, but it is a win-win situation for local customers. Big box stores have national sales plans, and generally do not stock their stores with products that are sought after within a specific region. Local shops will need to stock their stores with products that their local customers will want, so if you have many local shops within your community, there will be a much broader range of product choices.

Competition. Competition of local shops is also one of the most important five benefits of shopping locally. Big box stores often drive mom and pop shops out of business, which means there is no competition. With no competition, the big box stores can charge higher prices. By having a multitude of local stores within your community, all of the stores will need to keep their prices competitive in order to gain your business.

Community Well-Being. The final benefit on our list of the five benefits of shopping locally is community well-being. By shopping at local shops, you will most likely run into your friends and family more often, which helps unite the community together as a whole. Local business owners are also more likely to donate more to local causes than big box stores are.

This Christmas, be merry, have fun and shop local!

Reference: http://www.mademan.com/mm/5-benefits-shopping-locally.html#ixzz3tIP0MwZu

November is here and we all know what that means: Christmas is just over a month away! Which also means it’s time to start thinking about Christmas shopping, so break out the eggnog, grab your kids’ wish lists, and let’s get started!

Some people dread Christmas shopping – the crowds, the chaos, the stress of finding that perfect something for the hard­-to-­buy-­for person on your list, the endless looping Christmas music – but if you plan it right and get started early, Christmas shopping can be a ton of fun. Getting started early means you avoid the crazy crowds at big shopping malls, and – bonus – you aren’t yet tired of Christmas carols so they leave you feeling extra festive!

Additionally, if you start your shopping early, you have plenty of time for research, browsing for stocking­-stuffers, and exploring what great gifts you can find locally, right here in Sherwood Park and surrounding area. In a day and age where we can do our Christmas shopping in our PJs in bed with a laptop, it’s important to also remember that Sherwood Park has a wealth of awesome stores, boutiques, one­-of-­a-­kind shops, and Christmas craft fairs where you can find unique gifts you just won’t see anywhere else.

Local Christmas Craft Fairs and Handmade Markets

More than any other time of year, Christmas is when local entrepreneurs, craftspeople, and extremely talented local artists have a chance to show off their goods and really shine. There is a huge amount of talent in the wider Edmonton area, and at many of these sales you’ll find hundreds of local “makers” who love their community and create awesome products. From unique jewelry and clothing to lovingly hand-­built toys and seriously delicious food items, these are great places to find gifts you’ll never see online. Seriously, you can find the BEST stocking stuffers at these events!

Here are some great upcoming craft shows and sales in the area you won’t want to miss:

• Silver Bells Winter Market
  November 29, 10am – 5pm
  The Agora, Sherwood Park Community Centre, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park
• Festival of Trees
  November 14 – 16
  The Agora, Sherwood Park Community Centre, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park
• Sherwood Park Farmers’ Market
  Every Wednesday, 5pm – 8pm
  Sherwood Park Community Centre, 401 Festival Lane, Sherwood Park
• Butterdome Craft Sale
  December 4 – 7
  Butterdome, University of Alberta, Edmonton
• Make It: Handmade Revolution
  November 20 – 23
  The Enjoy Centre, 101 Riel Drive, St. Albert

Local Shops, Boutiques & Events in Sherwood Park

Sherwood Park has a lot of awesome, unique stores and boutiques you won’t find in any mall, all owned and operated by locals who live right here in Sherwood Park. Shopping local means you contribute to our local economy and keep it thriving, and the success of existing businesses make our city an attractive place for more cool people to create more great things!

And remember: Buying someone a gift doesn’t mean you have to get them a “thing”. You can also get them a great experience, like a gift card or certificate to a cool local restaurant, tickets to an upcoming concert or comedy show at Festival Place, or a pass to their favourite local recreational facility.

Also, think about trying out one of our great local bakeries if you’re tasked with bringing a dessert or dish to an upcoming party rather than hitting up a generic grocery store. You’ll be helping a local business grow, and you’ll be the talk of the party for bring something extra­-special!

Below are some curated lists of unique­-to-­us places to get you started.

• Shops & Boutiques
• Gifts & Collectibles
• Unique Restaurants
• Bakeries & Specialty Foods
• Festival Place Events
• Chamber of Commerce Business Directory

Local One-Stop Shopping

Living as close as we do to “the mall” in Edmonton (you know the one) it can be tempting to do a “one­-stop” there, steel yourself against the crowds, and get it done in one go. But why drive all the way to the west side of Edmonton to get stressed out by crowds?

You don’t need WEM to one-­stop your Christmas shopping, not when we’ve got two great local shopping centres right here in Sherwood Park. There are lots of great stores (pretty much everything you’ll find in WEM between the two), you don’t have to drive as far, and you won’t have to wade through all those people. Even closer to Christmas when the stores get busier, our local malls don’t get anywhere near as crazy.

Also, if you need more convincing, remember how long it took you to find parking at WEM last time you went on the last Saturday before Christmas? Stay in Sherwood Park: there’s lots of parking here!

• Sherwood Park Mall
  Over 60 stores and services
  2020 Sherwood Drive, Sherwood Park
• Emerald Hills Centre
  Over 40 stores and services
  5000 Emerald Drive, Sherwood Park

Once again the days are getting shorter, the temperature is coming down, and autumn has definitely hit Sherwood Park. It’s time to pack away summer clothes, bring out our cozy sweaters, and get ready for the coming winter.

But don’t let those “winter blues” get you down! We are lucky to live in a place like Sherwood Park with such a wide range of recreational facilities, activities, and fabulous seasonal events that make winter a ton of fun for your family. There’s so much to do in Sherwood Park over the winter months that you’d have to try really hard to get bored!

It’s easy when winter comes to go into “hibernation-­mode” and seal ourselves in our homes until spring comes. But if you want to beat the winter blues, it’s important to stay active and stay involved in your community. If you meet winter with the same enthusiasm as we always greet the summer months, you may even find you get excited for winter! And remember, the more fun you have when the snow flies, the shorter the cold months feel. The best way to make spring come faster is to enjoy yourself all winter long.

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Anyone who knows me knows I love animals, so Strathcona County is an ideal place for an animal lover like me.

Did you know that Strathcona County is the Horse Capital of Canada? This is supported by a horse survey count that was done in 2011. There are more than 300,000 horses in Alberta and the largest concentration is right here in the County.

The linkages to the horse goes back quite a ways in the history of the County. The name “Strathcona” originated with Lord Strathcona’s Horse, a Royal Canadian regiment. Even today, the regiment performs in period uniform and mounted on horseback.

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Since moving to Sherwood Park years ago, I completely fell in love with the community, and while I continue to service the wider Edmonton area I always get a little extra excited about working with my Sherwood Park clients. I like to think of myself as a self­-appointed ambassador for Sherwood Park, both as a resident and as a business owner here. Sometimes I get asked “Why Sherwood Park?” and I always have my answer ready.

So Sonia, Why Sherwood Park?

Sherwood Park is Family Friendly

Sherwood Park is one of Canada’s most family­-friendly communities, and when you live and work here you notice it right away: there are tons of families everywhere! Lots of young couples are picking Sherwood Park and – most importantly – choosing to stay here as their families grow. Between our great school system, our world­-class recreational facilities, and wealth of park land, it’s easy to see the appeal.

I live and work in Sherwood Park, and my family loves it here. My children love their school and have made a ton of friends. After school, there are so many great activities and classes available for my children to join: My three are involved in dance classes, swimming clubs, Taekwondo, and archery: all located right here in Sherwood Park! One of my favourite places to take my family is the new Strathcona County Public Library located in the Centre in the Park. This wonderful new library is absolutely wonderful for families: there are cozy reading corners, interactive areas for children, and a huge selection of great books for all ages.

In 2014, MoneySense magazine gave Sherwood Park top marks in their review of the best places to live in Canada. Sherwood Park got the #10 spot in the Best Place to Raise Kids in Canada category, the #3 spot in the Overall Best Place to Live in Canada, and the #2 spot in the Best Small City to live in Canada category!

In addition, Sherwood Park has been routinely ranked as one of Alberta’s safest municipalities which, as a mother myself, is a hugely important factor when I chose to raise my family here.

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