C&G Supporting the Elwood Village Festival

Filed under Community Events, Local Community by on November 29, 2011 at 2:13 pm {no comments}

Today’s Chisholm & Gamon blog is a taster of what will be a wonderful community event this Sunday 4th of December – the Elwood Village Festival! Supported by Chisholm & Gamon since its inception, we’re proud to be involved again in 2011′s family festival.

Starting at 12pm (which gives you ample time for a sleep in and late brekky), the Elwood Village Festival takes place on Ormond Road between Beach Avenue and Pine Avenue. You can find the Chisholm & Gamon team assisting the Elwood Life Saving Club by providing a sausage sizzle with tasty snags, bread and tomato sauce – complete with staff to help the life savers cook, serve and sell sausages. This means that 100% of the profits go directly to the Elwood Life Saving Club’s projects. A good (and dare we say it, tasty) venture! We’ll also be handing out jolly orange C&G balloons by the dozen to children attending the festival. Over the years our orange balloons have proved a ‘must have’ accessory for festival goers – we started with 250 balloons when the Elwood Village Festival began but have now increased supplies to 1000! Chisholm & Gamon staff have already started inflating and tying up our biodegradable balloons for Sunday’s celebration. A special mention must be made of Managing Director Torsten Kasper who is on the organising committee for the festival.

Some of the events you can look forward to on Sunday include:

  • African drumming workshop
  • Mad Hatter’s Colouring-In Tea Party
  • Roving performers
  • Musical performances by both St Columbus and Elsternwick Primary Schools
  • Gourmet food stalls
  • Petting zoo and face painting
  • A drop-in visit from Santa
  • Local traders with showbags and special ‘Village Festival’ promotions

Click here to follow the Elwood Village Festival on Facebook.

Inset: A map of the Elwood Village Fair – there are so many goodies to enjoy!

Chilled Out

Filed under Tips & Advice by on November 29, 2011 at 12:10 pm {no comments}

As the mercury begins to climb, Chisholm and Gamon take a look at several passive ways to keep your home cool this summer.

Passive cooling, which can be defined as thermal comfort without using air conditioners or fans, is an affordable and environmentally friendly means of keeping the temperature down inside your house.

Exterior shading plays a key role in cooling your home passively as direct sun can generate a huge amount of heat. According to the experts, shading walls that are exposed to eastern and western sun can eliminate up to 90% of this heat. Shading walls can be achieved in several ways. These include large eave overhangs, sunshades and awnings over windows and/or external landscaping.

Eaves with an overhang of 900mm work well on a home’s northern and eastern aspects. Bi-fold or sliding aluminium shutters can be useful on the east. And vertical sunscreen devices that help shade walls, such as retractable venetians or low-maintenance aluminium blade louvres are good options for the western side of a building.

Traditional canvases offer the best energy efficiency when it comes to awnings. But for a lot of people a view to the outside is also important. In that case you can choose a sunscreen fabric that offers some transparency whilst still providing good solar-optical properties.

Used in conjunction with a well-designed layout and good insulation, shading can be an extremely effective way to keep your power bills in check whilst minimising your carbon footprint. It will also add value to your property.

C&G: Doing Their Bit For The Market!

Filed under Market Updates, Real Estate News by on November 29, 2011 at 11:10 am {no comments}

Inset: Going… going… gone! Chisholm & Gamon’s Managing Director Torsten Kasper leading the pack in local auction clearance rates.

Chisholm & Gamon are pleased to report that our clearance rates at auction have remained consistently high. The REIV have reported that last weekend’s auctions achieved a clearance rate of 53%. Chisholm & Gamon are certainly doing their bit to keep auction clearances up – we are currently enjoying a 95% clearance rate for properties in the $400,000 – $600,000 k bracket. We’d surmise from these strong results that confidence exists across a range of market segments – from first home owners to investors. A quick recap of some of the properties sold:

  • 6/4 Avoca Avenue, Elwood - $470,000 Auction sale – negotiated after privately. A huge art deco one bedroom with lock-up garage. Sold by Torsten Kasper (image inset).
  • 4/23 Foam Street, Elwood - $490,000 Auction sale. Ideally positioned in a boutique block, very sunny with off street parking.


Whilst the medium to upper end are experiencing some turbulence, there are buyers ready to pounce provided they feel that pricing has met the fair market range. A stunning light-filled townhouse, 78 Spray Street Elwood (picture inset) sold within 48 hours almost at the full asking price. Exceptional presentation and astute pricing were  key to this fantastic outcome.

Chisholm & Gamon Local Focus: Tony Wong of Madame Wu

Filed under Local Community, News by on November 28, 2011 at 4:46 pm {no comments}

In today’s C&G Local Focus blog, we’ve chosen to interview Tony Wong – a local business owner who has managed several successful restaurant businesses throughout his career. Tony has recently opened the popular Madame Wu at 100 Ormond Road, Elwood (dangerously close to the Chisholm & Gamon offices, admittedly). We’ve taken some time to find out more about the inspiration behind Madame Wu, and learn a little about Tony’s business history too. So – here he is!

C&G: Tell us your inspiration behind the name ‘Madame Wu’. Who was/is Madame Wu?
Tony Wong: My mother was a great cook with interest in all aspects of Chinese food, as was her mother and her grandmother whose maiden name was Wu.
Hence the inspiration for the name ‘Madame Wu’.
 

C&G: What made you decide that Ormond Road was the place to start your new business?
Tony Wong: Ormond Rd is fast developing into a restaurant destination strip ever since Geoff Lindsay moved in with Dandelion. The street now has Vietnamese, Thai, Italian, and Chinese cuisine with Madame Wu.

C&G: What do you love best about Elwood?
Tony Wong: Ormond Road Elwood has such a beautiful Village atmosphere.

C&G: What changes have you observed in Chinese restaurant dining over the past decade?
Tony Wong: Changes on the menus of Chinese restaurants have been a focus on authenticity, subtle flavours, fresher ingredients and a move away from the old style of “cafes” when lemon chicken and sweet n’ sour pork were the staple dishes.

C&G: What sets Madame Wu apart from other Chinese restaurants?
Tony Wong: Madame Wu is small, intimate and elegant.

C&G: Tell us the three ‘un-missable’ menu items from your new restaurant.
Tony Wong: The three items on my menu that I would like my customers to enjoy are Cantonese roast duck with orange marmalade, steamed fresh wild Barramundi and grilled Black Angus Pure Sirloin with sesame and soy dressing.

C&G: If you could invite three people to dine at Madame Wu, who might they be and why would you choose them?
Tony Wong: The three people I’d love to invite would be Chong Liew (Botanical), Gilbert Lau (ex-Flower Drum) and my wife Chong. Gilbert – because he was my mentor, the man who inspired me to want to be in this industry. He taught so many important elements of the restaurant trade. My wife because she is my greatest critic and I want to know what the others think of my food.

C&G: How long have you worked in the hospitality industry, and why were you inspired to become a business owner?
Tony Wong: I have worked in the hospitality since 1976 and i was inspired to be in business simply because i saw “ownership” as the way of the future.

For bookings at Madame Wu call 9531 0888 – their new website will be available at the end of November. Below – images of the delicious offerings at Madame Wu.

Moral Fairground – Fair Fashion

Filed under Community Events, News by on November 28, 2011 at 3:54 pm {no comments}

 

With the busy Christmas period of celebrations and parties fast upon us, Chisholm & Gamon encourage you to keep thinking about sustainability and the purchase of ethical goods. Whether your mindfulness comes via your choice of gifts, or in the clothing and designers your choose to support – next week’s Moral Fairground : Making a Stand For Fair-Trade will keep you fashionable and ethical!

Held at BMW Edge, Federation Square on Friday 2nd December from 7:30pm – 9:00pm come and join the Moral Fairground for their Fair Fashion show. Showcasing ethically produced clothing from up-and-coming local designers, Fair Fashion proves that choosing sustainable and ecologically sound design doesn’t mean having to wear only organic t-shirts or cheesecloth harem pants. Designers showing their collections on the runway will include Bachhara, Bento (image inset, below) Ghost & Lola and Cylk.

There will also be a contribution from RMIT design students, who will introduce their pieces and explain how they have incorporated sustainability in their work. You will also have the opportunity to support ‘The Scarf Project’, which is a collaboration between RMIT students and village communities in Laos. At the Fair Fashion show you will be able to purchase silk scarves made by Laos villagers, which have been customised and hand-printed by RMIT design students. All funds raised will go towards Lao Sericulture which provide water filters for villages, schools and hospitals in the region. A perfect (and mindful!) Kris Kringle or stylish accessory for yourself.

Tickets are only $30.00 and include a goodie bag filled with ethical treats! Click here to get your tickets to the Fair Fashion Runway show.

Page 1 of 3123»
 
Recent Comments Tags

Chisholm & Gamon Rebrand Video

Elwood – Suburb profile

Black Rock – Suburb Profile

Port Melbourne – Suburb Profile

Follow ChisholmGamonRE on Twitter

Web site set up and SEO optimisation by Mike Andrew Consulting