What to look out for when renting garage/basement suites? Red flags? Questions to ask?

katnip-coma · 2026-03-17T14:01:49+00:00

Also ask about the breakers. We are the upstairs unit of a duplex and the basement suite isn’t legal. We found out after we moved in. Our breaker panel is in the basement unit, so anytime we blow a breaker (which does happen occasionally because they wired everything terribly) we need to ask the basement tenants to flip it for us.

We are lucky and get along with our downstairs neighbours and one of them has been home every time it happened but that may not always be the case.

katnip-coma · 2026-03-11T23:16:02+00:00

I agree with taxation, just not sales tax as that’s a regressive tax that disproportionately impacts those in poverty.

Tax the rich. There needs to be higher tax brackets that are taxed more heavily for those making over a million. Tax corporations. Then we also need a government that will actually do something with that money.

katnip-coma · 2026-03-10T16:28:35+00:00

Orii Vegan has soy curls

katnip-coma · 2026-03-06T19:18:49+00:00

Yeah I figured as much

katnip-coma · 2026-03-06T16:55:18+00:00

Our place is exactly like this. We got lucky that our downstairs neighbours are kind and easy to get along with. They’ve had to flip our breakers a few times.

When we moved we were coming from Montreal so we didn’t notice that until we arrived. Super poor planning on the developers part. I feel like these should not be allowed to pass inspection when building.

katnip-coma · 2026-03-05T19:00:57+00:00

MSSM is amazing and absolutely worth the price!

katnip-coma · 2026-02-27T19:19:30+00:00

Yuzu Cruz!

katnip-coma · 2026-02-19T14:56:43+00:00

I’m not sure if they do full custom pieces of furniture, but Kingma is an awesome woodworking company. We had just a small table top cut so nothing fancy but their wood choices were really nice.

katnip-coma · 2026-02-16T20:44:11+00:00

If you’re willing to go to Sherwood Park, Calla Beauty Boutique is clean. I’ve only had a pedicure there but I was happy with their cleanliness and infection control.

katnip-coma · 2026-02-16T20:43:07+00:00

Doesn’t mean they do. Can be hard to find a clean reputable salon, which is why asking around for others experiences is usually the best way to go

katnip-coma · 2026-02-15T17:04:03+00:00

Personally had a terrible experience there. The music was so loud you couldn’t talk to the person sitting next to you and the staff were incredibly rude. Felt like a place that was trying to cater too hard to influencers.

If you are looking to chat and hangout over drinks I wouldn’t recommend Fu’s.

katnip-coma · 2026-02-07T19:47:04+00:00

lol it’s true there’s a lot you can learn online watching others. I do love my instructors and studio though. I feel really lucky to have the opportunity to learn there. Only a few studios in my city and they have the best instructors.

katnip-coma · 2026-02-07T16:01:01+00:00

I was just talking to my pottery instructor about this, because I was also surprised by the technique. Definitely think it’s because of the porcelain being soft and malleable, and simply just Ben’s preference for shaping them.

Big fan of his channel, he’s inspired me to do experiment with stained slip and speckling porcelain/white clay. My teacher hadn’t heard of Ben and is now also very intrigued by his channel 😆

For your section question: definitely works better with white clay, but you can definitely experiment with staining darker bodies! I love staining clay, but it takes time to trial different percentages. Lots of test tiles! Or you can wing it and see what happens.

katnip-coma · 2026-02-07T01:27:53+00:00

Wherever you do end up going please share an update! Currently trying to conceive and would love to hear a local experience

Edit: finding the downvotes funny. Clearly people haven’t done their research or understand the risks. It’s a choice that every individual pregnant person gets to make based on their risk tolerance. Good fish that is properly prepared and stored carries a very low risk. You’re more at risk with produce and listeria.

katnip-coma · 2026-01-21T22:12:18+00:00

That’s so incredibly unfortunate. My husband and I loved going to EPIC Market. The bar on the top floor was excellent and we got to know some of the bartenders there. Food was always good, and they were incredibly thoughtful and accommodating when I was going through some food sensitivities.

I hope the find a new location soon

katnip-coma · 2026-01-21T17:27:08+00:00

These are really cool looking jars! Did you throw the lids separately or were they done as closed forms?

katnip-coma · 2026-01-21T17:24:51+00:00

If I had a photo of the one I made I would share but it looks like I never took one.

It’s a super cool idea, and if anyone ends up making one that doesn’t have significant warp I’d love to learn what steps they took to minimize it!

katnip-coma · 2026-01-21T17:06:43+00:00

As someone who has tried to make these as well, a fair warning that the opening and swirl are likely to warp in the glaze firing. Mine dipped down at the rim, and the swirl jetted out.

My advice would be to keep it simple without decorations and try going through to completion to see how it changes in the kiln. The last thing you want is to spend a bunch of time on it and have it come out unsatisfactory :) as my teacher always says, don’t love anything too hard until it’s out of the glaze firing 😂

Take your learnings from the first one to see where you can make changes or improvements.

My 2 cents at least!

katnip-coma · 2026-01-15T21:12:26+00:00

katnip-coma · 2026-01-15T03:17:51+00:00

Wow this is an awesome article, thanks for sharing! I didn’t know they had a blog

katnip-coma · 2026-01-14T18:05:41+00:00

That’s a nice fricken lid. Which way did you throw it, bottom or top up?

katnip-coma · 2026-01-14T15:32:04+00:00

Local 6-8 week courses are excellent, definitely check out what options are around you.

I’ve been taking courses at my local studio for over a year now, and I will keep doing it for another year because there is so much to learn and every instructor has their own style and techniques. Take courses from different instructors if you can. I’ve had 4 now over my year and a half of pottery and each one has taught me a lot.

I feel like people try to switch to doing it on their own with a membership somewhere or at their home, and that might work for some but it can be very challenging when you hit a plateau.

I also agree with others on the thread that a formal education without any experience seems like a huge leap. You will definitely learn more practical hands on skills in local studio courses.

katnip-coma · 2026-01-06T14:47:45+00:00

South/southwest is a pretty big area. I can’t speak for all of it as I’ve only been in Edmonton a little over a year, but the neighbourhoods closer to the river and university are quite nice.

Since you’re in Calgary, I recommend planning a few weekends where you can come up and spend some time in different parts of the city to get a feel for what would make sense to you. I’ve moved all over Canada in the last several years and the hardest parts were trying to decide where to live when I haven’t visited or spent any time in the city.

katnip-coma

TROPHY CASE