A Sneak Peek At Calgary Luxury Homes For Sale
Monday, November 4th, 2013 
We have all thought of our dream home at one point in our lives. I’m sure you have ideas on what you want your dream home to look like and where you want to live. In fact, most of my clients have very detailed accounts of what it should look like inside and out. If you’re in the market for a luxury dream home, then one of these fine Calgary homes for sale may be to your liking. If not, sometimes it’s just fun to take a peek at some of the architectural masterpieces that Calgary has to offer. Let me show you some of the best of the best:
Live out of the box with a modern 2-acre family home
How would you like to live in a house that no one could possibly miss, that would surely always spark a lively conversation about how awesome it would be to live “out of the box,” and that’s actually a showcase of next-gen architecture with its award-winning modern design? The things that you can do with this house are limited only by your imagination. And the best thing is it was designed for the entire family! Floor-to-ceiling windows show off the living room and the fireplace; the deck and ground-level patio lead to the big, beautiful yard; the Denca-designed kitchen creates the perfect workspace for the finest of meals; and the upper bedrooms are virtual oases with magnificent views, a fireplace and luxurious baths. There’s also a media room, a game room, and a family room; a family office with four built-in work stations; a gym with large floor-to-ceiling windows that will make you feel you’re exercising outdoors and from which you can walk out to the patio; an ultra-cool office with I-beam-constructed stairs and a catwalk and double doors that lead to the garage for a shop or a man’s hideout; and a staircase that leads up to a tower with 360-degree views. Grown-ups would feel young again from the superb energy of this place; and young children would surely get a kick out of living in such a creative environment that nevertheless still has lots of trees that they can climb. See more of this property!
Make your address an elegant loft-style bungalow with a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired design
If you want to live more in harmony with the environment and people rather than many years into the future, what could be better than a corner 4,500-square-foot loft-type bungalow with a design inspired by legendary Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic architecture? Open your front door to gleaming walnut hardwood floors and 10′ ceilings. and glide up an open staircase to the glorious master suite with a lovely walk-in closet, a gas fireplace, and a spa-like en-suite bathroom with a steam shower. Then move on to the offices for him and her, and the parlor with a two-way fireplace. Make mealtime a grand performance with the dream kitchen that has a Sub-Zero fridge, a Sub-Zero wine fridge, and two Sub-Zero freezer drawers located in the center island, as well as custom cabinets, granite counters and a sunken eating nook. On the lower level, you’ll find three more spacious bedrooms and a huge media/games room. This is the life! See for yourself !
Understated luxury and superior functionality rolled into one
Someone with a great taste for practical luxury just bought this 2013 detached two-storey family home perched strategically on a 29.5×124-foot lot on a tree-lined street in Altadore to accommodate east light in the morning and west light at night. It has hardwood flooring and nine-foot-high ceilings; two bedrooms downstairs and three upstairs (reached with a glass-railing staircase), with the master’s bedroom offering city views, a two-sided fireplace and a spa bath; an ultramodern dream kitchen with quartz counters, a centre island and Viking stainless appliances; and a media room, wet bar, four-piece bath, cold storage and in-floor heating on the lower level. There’s also a sound system inside and out, a video matrix, skylights, custom millwork, and a high-efficiency furnace; a professionally exposed aggregate and patio that leads to a big landscaped backyard; and a detached double garage. And here’s the finishing touch — this house is covered by the Alberta New Home Warranty Program.
These are but three of the fantastic luxury homes you’ll find in the Calgary real estate market. No wonder luxury homes in Calgary have been breaking sales records in the last eight months!
Are you looking to Sell or Buy a home in Calgary and need someone who won’t rest until you’ve found your dream home or until your home is sold? I’ll work hard to earn your trust and to deliver exactly what you need. Contact me at 403-589-0004 or at TheHowardTeam.net.
About Bryon Howard
Bryon Howard and his team of Calgary real estate professionals sell an average of one home a week. He is a member of the MLS Million Point Club, which ranks him roughly in the top 8% of productive realtors in Calgary. His aim is not just to please clients but to help them buy/sell a home in Calgary at the best price, in the shortest time, and with the least hassle. He is a member of the RE/MAX House of Real Estate that leads in the Canadian market. Learn more about Bryon at TheHowardTeam.net.
Whether you are searching through a list of houses for sale in Calgary or capturing a moment you want to hold on to, taking photos and storing them is an interesting outgrowth of recent technology. Naturally, when we gather with friends and family, especially during the holidays, we’ll be taking a lot of pictures. Truth be told, we’ve become a trigger-happy, photo taking lot as most of the devices we carry with us have built in cameras which are “good enough.” In fact, there’s a recent adage that goes along the lines that the “best” camera you can have is the one that’s in your pocket. Well, if we make a quick survey of the items we usually have with us, a point and shoot camera is not one of them, let alone the larger, more capable DSLR. So which camera is most likely to be in someone’s pocket then? The funny thing is that our mobile phones which take on the workhorse role of taking pictures simply because these items are usually with us. Interestingly enough, phones and tablets have something else over most point and shoot cameras and DSLRs: phones and tablets can connect to the cloud. This in turn means that anyone can quickly and easily share photos on the different social media networks or simply store material in the different cloud storage services. Well, what’s a tech related article without some recommendations and, to that effect, I’ve found some applications that made saving to the cloud possible.
Picasa is Google’s free photo app which has both a desktop and a web component, the Picasa Web Albums. It allows you to edit, add cool effects, organize, and share your photos on Google+ or email. I like most its geo-tagging and face recognition tools. It scans faces and once you’ve matched it to a name, helps you do the same to the rest of your photos. With geo-tagging, it pegs your photo on a map to show where you shot it, which is ideal for those sightseeing photos all of us take. In my usage case, geo-tagging is a real convenience while doing research or listing several houses for sale in Calgary. There are also many editing and enhancing tools that go beyond the basic red-eye correction, cropping, fill lights, auto contrast and color features. If you’re an enthusiast, you’ll have fun tweaking your pictures. All these features are quite handy as well given that sharing and minor touch-ups are going to be in the top spots of the list of things to do with your recently taken photos.
By far the most popular choice, Instagram, isn’t only an app but also a social network. I play around with my pictures using the filters that are included with the app. Moreover, the interface is simple and easy to get into. In addition to the quick photo editing capabilities of the app, its social component is what is really going to drive its usage as anyone can directly share on Flickr, Tumblr, and Facebook–very convenient for a realtor who is researching a few houses for sale in Calgary. All in all, Instagram is user friendly and it is just wonderful to have when you’re taking all those memorable moments that simply have to be on your online album.
I used Dropbox mainly for document-sharing but since they updated the app, photos and videos can now be automatically loaded onto the cloud. Opting into the auto upload feature is one time deal, after which the Dropbox client will extract images from your phone or tablet. Dropbox, in this regard, is particularly competitive and is doings its best to encourage users to test this new feature. In fact, if you upload often, you get 3GB of storage space added 500MB at a time. Unlike Picasa or Instagram, there is no editing or enhancing features but you can easily share and access pictures anywhere you are in the world.
Now, Touchnote is one app every person who loves postcards should use. While it may not save photos per se, it does take photos and send them as postcards, literally the printed on paper kind. Better yet, you need not step into a post office. Simply create your postcard and go through the app’s easy to navigate interface. Speaking of interfaces and options, you can rotate images, zoom in, add a 220-character text overlay, and, when you are done tweaking your post card, you can send it to a specific address. The app isn’t for mobile devices only though. You can send postcards from your computer and from your Facebook account. It’s a pretty nifty, but simple to use app that has a novel approach to keeping in touch.
If you’re thinking of buying or selling property, the Calgary real estate market has been on the rise for most of 2012. While home sales in the rest of Canada have been trending downwards because of new mortgage rules, Calgary’s has been expanding. In fact, the trend for most of 2012 is one of growth, both in volume and values this year. 
Common wisdom holds that the holiday season is the worst time to market property as it is the year’s busiest. This notion, however, is a misconception and the holidays can be an opportune time for listing your Calgary home. Here’s why:
