I counted myself out of the real estate market for most of my life. Growing up, we lost our family home, twice — the first time to a lack of economic opportunity in rural Canada, and again, a decade later, amid the U.S. auto industry’s slow-motion crash.

So from the time of my parents’ early years as immigrants, to the rentals in between the two houses we lost, to the apartments my brothers and I shared in university, to my days as a young journalist in Toronto, I was a tenant. For many millennials in the GTA — fellow products of a brutal Recession — renting is becoming the norm.

When I moved out as an adult, I considered renting a fiscally responsible choice — not that my freelance income qualified me for a mortgage at the time — and appreciated the flexibility and lifestyle it afforded. There were fewer headaches, but you could never really shake the feeling you could be royally screwed over at the whim of your landlord.

Years later, my then-girlfriend (now wife) and I moved into a modest, budget-friendly condo we bought in Toronto, which we later sold to finance our move to Hamilton, Ont. It was only then that it hit me that I had missed out on some life lessons that people with a family home in their history may take for granted.

Case in point: home improvement skills.

Enter the renovation generation

Millennials have been dubbed the “renovation generation,” so-called because those of us who do have the option and inclination to buy a house are moving into the most affordable homes we can find — those of the older, grittier, original-wood-and-linoleum variety, not unlike my craftsman-style house, circa 1920.

Back in 2017, MoneySense reported we’re rapidly edging out boomers on renovation spending. One thing about contracted renovation costs, though: they can balloon very quickly. For homeowners who are strapped for cash — and who among our generation of homebuyers isn’t, when a mortgage can eat up a majority of income — taking on a do-it-yourself ethic is a must.

Alas, I had the ambition, but not the skills.

I feel like I missed out on learning opportunities. When we lived in a single-family home in the Detroit area, during the so-called “good times,” I was too young to have an interest in learning renovation skills from my handy father, who was an engineer by trade and had worked as a contractor in the past. By the time my formative years rolled around and I might have had more interest (or a longer attention span, at least), I didn’t need to know how to lay floor or install a light switch — just my landlord’s phone number. From then, we were in apartment after apartment.

That’s why I really looked up to anyone who had mastered this practical skill set — the people I see showing off the decks and fences they built for their homes on Instagram, or the neighbour who gave me a tour of his newly rebuilt shed, or the family member who tore his kitchen down to the studs for a top-down rebuild. Skills I see them pass onto their children, and I’d like to teach my own daughter one day. They didn’t have to rely on hiring someone else to make their house a home. They just had to roll up their sleeves, grab their power saw and get to work. Me? I got my first real toolbox as a gift on my 30th birthday. That was a year ago. (Rest easy, Ikea FIXA tool kit.)

There’s a first time for everything

Now faced with the million-and-one things that could go wrong in a full-sized house of my own, I can’t lie — I felt totally in over my head. I had to smarten up, fast.

It took a few weeks for the new-house honeymoon to come to an end, and for me to start seeing the ways our place was showing its age.

Our original-wood window and door casings, however handsome, had either developed gaps or started falling off entirely in some rooms. The backyard concealed buried bricks (and a skunk den!), and the front yard was a mess of deeply rooted perennials in place of a lawn. Our 30-year-old furnace chugged hot air straight out the uninsulated, unfinished attic. Oh, and is that asbestos tape? Clearly, I had my work cut out for me.

Always one to try something new (and Not Bitter At All about that one time my wife suggested I call my brother-in-law to change a lightbulb), I dove in with both feet to personally upgrade as much of our new place as I could. That meant learning as much as possible, and swallowing my pride when asking for advice.

Don’t put things off

Perhaps you hate painting, or you’re worried of failure like I was, but the hardest part of finishing a project is getting started in the first place. You’ll have to find something to get you over that hump. I had a nine-month deadline working in my favour to motivate me to start checking projects off my list, but whenever I noticed myself dragging my feet I’d think back to our previous home.

The first night in our condo was spent listening to the drip-drip-drip of the bathroom sink — and every night after that, until we “got around” to fixing the leak two years later. Now imagine the same problem spread across four times the square footage. Cringe.

The blessed silence that followed was an object lesson in fixing problems (or implementing improvements) as soon as they crop up. The sooner you start, the longer you’ll be able to enjoy the rewards of your labour.

Watch and learn

One balmy summer day last year I helped my brother-in-law lay sod in his backyard. It was a veritable family affair as we split the work up among a half-dozen volunteers, led by him and his horticulturalist buddy. I was charged with less pivotal tasks such as wheelbarrowing dirt and unrolling the grass, but by paying attention to the process and asking questions I learned the basics — strip, till, add topsoil, fertilize, sod, seed and water like hell.

I was able to put the knowledge to work when I installed grass in my front lawn, solo. After taking a few seasons to dig out the sprawling garden that had aggressively taken over our frontage (a neighbour affectionately called it “the jungle” — um, thanks, I guess?), I was the proud owner of a healthy green lawn, established just in time for fall.

Be patient

If you’ve moved into what you hope will be your forever home like I did, congratulations! You have years of non-stop renovations and repairs to look forward to. In fact, it never ends, I’m told. But your takeaway here should be that you have years to go. The best thing you can do for your budding skillset — and mental health, for that matter — is to slow down.

When I set out to repaint two bedrooms, I assumed it would take me a day each, tops, to bang out the work. Then I discovered the rooms needed more than a fresh coat of paint. There were cracks to be filled, doors uninstalled, surfaces sanded, edges taped, plaster patched, gaps caulked, walls primed, walls re-primed… you get the picture. Rather than brood over the rapidly expanding scope of the job, I spread the work out over a period of weeks rather than days to save me the mental anguish.

You should also create a schedule that works for you. I chose to handle the majority of interior projects this year, and hope I’ll have time for exterior jobs like repointing the brickwork next spring and summer. This helped me compartmentalize the work and set more specific goals. The longer timeline eased the pressure, giving me room to make mistakes, fix them, and learn how to do each step correctly.

I went to great lengths to get rid of a skunk in my backyard.

Oh, and you’ll make mistakes

Speaking of which, you can measure twice, cut once all you want, but that won’t prevent the dozens of mistakes and oversights that go into every successful final product. The best way to avoid errors is by spending more time planning — especially when you’ve never done something before.

Things like sketching out a flower bed plan or researching the right primer to go over oil-based lacquer reduce the time it takes to complete the job and ensure it’s done right the first time. When, not if, you make an error, the upshot is there’s always a fix. Don’t panic.

Admire your work

One of my final projects — for this year, anyway — was building the window casings for our newly finished attic. When I called my wife up to check them out, she was impressed with not only the final product, but how my skills had progressed. Similarly, I have a feeling my family has stopped seeing me only as a soft writerly type, and more a soft writerly type with excellent sanding and painting skills.

And I have to admit, I’m starting to see it, too. A year ago we would’ve hired out for all of the projects I tackled myself. I can walk to almost any corner of my house and confidently say that I had a hand in making it more beautiful and functional.

The loft space that we use as an office-media room, the nursery where my little girl will sleep, the lawn I’m hoping will become the envy of the neighbourhood — taking it in makes me happy I stepped out of my comfort zone. Still sporting paint-stained hands on a Monday morning is a small badge of honour. My wallet doesn’t hurt so much, either.

There’s still so much left to do, but finally I feel confident enough to take on some jobs currently out of my depth. Next up on my to-learn list? Handling my own electrical. Because there are only so many times you can call your brother-in-law over to change a lightbulb.

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The final day of the 2014 NFCA Convention at Bally’s Las Vegas concluded on Saturday with the Coaching Staff of the Year Brunch, along with several speakers, roundtable discussions and the travel ball curriculum.

The day began with attorney Tracy Warren, who spoke about contracts during her “How to Protect Your Job” seminar. Following Warren, the Coaching Staff of the Year brunch recognized coaches from all memberships (regionally & nationally) and allowed all the National Coaching Staffs of the Year to speak in front and thank their peers.

Another popular portion of the morning was “Drills, Drills, Drills” where coaches shared their own drills on different parts of the game, which included head coach Mike Lambros of North Davidson (N.C.) High School (slapping), Cal State Fullerton head coach Kelly Ford and her staff (Team Competition Drill Series) and Kentucky associate head coach Kristine Himes (Offensive Drills).

Follow lunch, roundtable topics included West Texas A&M’s Kevin Blaskowski (Preparing Your Team For the Post-Season, Stanford’s Rachel Lawson (Systematizing for Excellence) and Darcy Brownell of Sierra College (Building Blocks to Team Chemistry).

The convention wrapped up with three speakers in the afternoon and the Travel Ball Curriculum. The afternoon presentations featured Rick Pauly, pitching coach at Georgia (Pitching Performance Measures), Tori Nyberg from Elevate Performance Counseling (Why and How to Teach the Mental Game as Part of Regular Preparation) and Orthopedic Surgeon (University of South Carolina) Dr. Chris Mazoue (Epidemic of Overuse Injuries of Softball).

The three-hour travel ball curriculum, featured a college head coaching panel featuring Tim Walton of Florida, Jen McIntyre of UConn, Larissa Anderson of Hofstra, Randy Simkins of Dixie State, Ketih Parr of Christopher Newport, Darci Brownell of Sierra College and Joe Yegge of Kirkwood Community College. It was followed by Texas Glory’s Kevin Shelton, Fury Fastpitch’s (Tenn.) Pat Moyer and Hanson, who presented “Measurements and Standards.”

This year’s convention was one of the most successful in the Organization’s history with approximately 1,450 attendees (record high) and 600 vendors (120 companies).

Artifact, Valve’s online trading card game, has received some considerable backlash from fans for its “pay for everything” payment model – and Valve has given an official response.

As reported by PC Gamer, fans have a bevy of complaints about the game’s payment model. Despite the base game with its initial set of cards costing $20, fans will have to pay $2 for every booster pack of cards. Fans can also win more cards by playing drafting modes using event tickets (which cost real-world money to purchase) or buy and sell specific cards in the marketplace, which Valve also profits off of.

The backlash to this got so bad that one of the most popular Artifact threads on Reddit urged fans not to buy the game to dissuade this sort of monetization.

Valve has responded to some of these complaints in a blog post yesterday before the game’s public beta went live. Issues pertaining to drafting were addressed, with Valve noting fans couldn’t draft with friends, or practice draft modes without spending an event ticket. Fans also noted that starter cards (which everyone begins the game with) would be next to useless on the marketplace, necessitating the purchase of booster packs anyway.

To somewhat remedy this, the next beta build will include a “Casual Phantom Draft gauntlet available in the Casual Play section,” though that appears to be more of a practice mode. Another complaint, that starter cards which everyone begins with would be included in booster packs and would therefore be next to useless on the marketplace, is being dealt with by allowing “extra, unwanted cards to be recycled into event tickets.”

For more on Artifact, check out our first look at game’s draft mode, and read about how Valve won’t force you to chat with your opponent in the game.

Artifact is set to be released on November 28 for PC, MacOS and Linux on Steam, and later in 2019 for iOS and Android devices.

Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The National Pro Fastpitch League and CBS Sports Network have signed an agreement making CBS Sports Network the exclusive television home of NPF for the second consecutive season and expands the overall coverage package of NPF action.

CBS Sports Network will continue to provide exclusive coverage of the NPF’s regular season competition featuring 8 weeks of Monday and Tuesday night live primetime telecasts. Regular season coverage will take place from 7 different cities in 5 different states.  In addition to regular season coverage, CBS Sports Network will carry live action of every single Championship Series game in 2015 from the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama.

Leading the way in 2015 coverage, CBS Sports Network will air the NPF College Draft Presented by Bownet in a live telecast on April 1 at 6:30 pm EST. The addition of the Draft to the NPF broadcast schedule will mark the first time in League history for live television coverage. 2015 NPF College Draft Presented by Bownet, will take place at the CMA Theatre in the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, located in Nashville, TN.

“We are extremely proud to continue our partnership with CBS Sports Network for the second year in a row,” said NPF Commissioner, Cheri Kempf. “We realize there is a very broad audience following the sport of fastpitch softball, and we look forward to expanding the coverage of the very highest level of competition the sport has to offer in 2015.”

The 2015 NPF College Draft Presented by Bownet, the NPF regular season competition and the NPF Championship Series are all produced by the NPF in conjunction with Guenther Productions, an Orlando-based production company.

The NPF regular season coverage will begin June 8 at 7:00 pm EST, with the defending Cowles Cup Champions, USSSA Pride visiting the league’s newest team addition, the Dallas Charge. The teams will square off at the home field of the Charge, The Ballfields at Craig Ranch in McKinney, TX, a suburb of Dallas.

— Courtesy of Gaye Lynn Wilson (NPF)

New U.K. research has found that sleeping longer than the recommended amount could be bad for your health. More than eight hours of shut-eye is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death, compared to sleeping less than seven hours.

Led by researchers from Keele University, along with colleagues at the University of Manchester, the University of Leeds and the University of East Anglia, the new analysis looked at 74 studies which investigated the link between sleep duration and sleep quality and the risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease.

Together, the studies included 3,340,684 participants who self-reported their sleep duration.

The researchers found that participants who reported sleeping for more than eight hours a night had a greater mortality and cardiovascular risk than those who slept for less than seven hours.

A sleep duration of 10 hours a night was linked with a 30 per cent increased risk of dying compared to sleeping for seven hours, a 56 per cent increased risk of dying from a stroke and a 49 per cent increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.

In addition, poor-quality sleep was associated with a 44 per cent increase in coronary heart disease.

Lead researcher Dr. Chun Shing Kwok said, “Sleep affects everyone. The amount and quality of our sleep is complex. There are cultural, social, psychological, behavioural, pathophysiological and environmental influences on our sleep such as the need to care for children or family members, irregular working shift patterns, physical or mental illness, and the 24-hour availability of commodities in modern society.”

“This research began because we were interested to know if it was more harmful to sleep below or beyond the recommended sleep duration of seven to eight hours. We further wanted to know how incremental deviation from recommended sleep duration altered risk of mortality and cardiovascular risk.”

“Our study has an important public health impact in that it shows that excessive sleep is a marker of elevated cardiovascular risk.”

“Our findings have important implications as clinicians should have greater consideration for exploring sleep duration and quality during consultations. If excessive sleep patterns are found, particularly prolonged durations of eight hours or more, then clinicians should consider screening for adverse cardiovascular risk factors and obstructive sleep apnea, which is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person’s breathing is interrupted during sleep.”

The results were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s senior economic adviser gave Canada and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a symbolic pat on the back Sunday for how the federal government has been “hanging tough” on the diplomatically delicate extradition case of senior Huawei Technologies executive Meng Wanzhou.

Larry Kudlow said he’s “proud” of how Canada has handled the Meng matter — a tacit acknowledgment of the diplomatic bind the U.S. Justice Department created for the federal Liberals in December when they asked that the chief financial officer and telecom scion be arrested and held in Vancouver, pending extradition.

Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, is at the centre of a sprawling U.S. indictment unsealed last month that accuses the growing tech juggernaut of misrepresenting its ownership of a Hong Kong-based subsidiary between 2007 and 2017 to circumvent U.S. sanctions against Iran. She and the company are facing 13 counts of conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice.

Watch: Trudeau says ‘rule of law’ followed in Meng Wanzhou case

“I’ll just say how proud I am of Prime Minister Trudeau, and Canada, for hanging tough on Huawei,” said Kudlow, director of the U.S. National Economic Council.

He acknowledged the grief the case has caused Canada since Meng, who remains under house arrest in Vancouver pending an extradition hearing, was detained at the city’s airport in early December: two Canadians have since been detained in China, ostensibly for national security reasons, while a third — convicted by a Chinese court of drug trafficking — is facing the death penalty.

“That’s why I’m so proud of Prime Minister Trudeau for staying with the rule of law and assisting the United States. I’m very proud of him.”

Kudlow made the comments following an appearance on a free-trade panel at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington alongside federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau. And it wasn’t the only instance that he dropped the prime minister’s name.

As world leaders were gathering last year in Argentina, where Trump, Trudeau and former Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto signed the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the prime minister approached Kudlow in an effort to move past the animosity that had erupted six months earlier at the G7 meetings in June in Quebec.

Trump, apparently piqued by Trudeau’s hard-line rhetoric on tariffs and trade, unleashed a Twitter tirade that denounced the prime minister as “dishonest” and “weak,” refusing in the end to sign on to the agreed-upon end-of-summit communique. Kudlow called Trudeau’s comments a “betrayal,” while U.S. trade adviser Peter Navarro suggested he deserved a “special place in hell.”

The dust-up left Canada-U.S. relations, already strained over the ongoing NAFTA talks and a burgeoning cross-border tariff war, at their lowest point in recent memory — until Trudeau crossed the corridor to reach out to Kudlow.

“He came up to me — this is a true story — after the USMCA ceremony, he walked across the hall to come up and grab my hand and give me a hug,” Kudlow said. “I asked him if we could please turn the page on any of that stuff that occurred last spring, and he said, ‘Absolutely,’ and then we started having some policy discussions.

“Justin just grabbed my hand and gave me a bear hug, and I was thrilled.”

Asked whether the animosity has similarly diminished between the two leaders, Kudlow said: “I think it’s partly happened.”

Trump floats possibility of dropping charges

On Friday, Trump himself floated the possibility — again — that the U.S. could drop criminal charges against Huawei, as the president wrapped up two days of negotiations at the White House aimed at resolving America’s own ongoing trade dispute with China.

“We’re going to be discussing all of that during the course of the next couple of weeks,” Trump said at the White House during an Oval Office meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s special envoy, Vice Premier Liu He.

“We’ll be talking to the U.S. attorneys. We’ll be talking to the attorney general. We’ll be making that decision. Right now, it’s not something we’ve discussed.”

Late Sunday, Trump announced he would hold off on a dramatic spike in tariffs on Chinese exports, originally scheduled for Friday, pending the outcome of U.S.-China trade talks that he said on Twitter have “made substantial progress.”

“Assuming both sides make additional progress, we will be planning a Summit for President Xi and myself at Mar-a-Lago to conclude an agreement.”

The Coalition has provided a first look at Gears Pop! gameplay, which offers a condensed real-time strategy experience with a few special Gears of War touches.

Revealed in a developer video, you can watch a single PvP match between studio head Rod Fergusson and lead game designer Tyler Bielman. Though a “soft” launch is coming soon, a wide release of the game will come sometime in 2019 for iPhones and Androids.

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“The object of the game is to play out your units and push forward and take down the outposts and the leader at the opposite end of the field,” said Bielman.

You progressively take cover attempting to get to the other end of the field: destroying an enemy outpost at the other end will net you a single point. A power bar at the bottom of the screen fills up in discrete segments, with each unit costing a certain ammount of these segments to play.

Teams can be comprised of famous human characters like Marcus Fenix, JD Fenix, Kait, etc., but can also include Locust units for greater team diversity. All units, of course, are in cute, Funko Pop! proportions – massive heads and all. Specific characters have special abilities: Marcus takes cover faster than other units, JD has a “down but not out” ability and Kait can run past enemy units to directly attack outposts. The more field you’ve taken, the further up you can spawn units.

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“Ultimate abilities” are in the game and can offer tactical advantages, like using the Hammer of Dawn to eviscerate enemy units – though after using one, it will have to recharge over time. With a minute left in a match, the bar will begin filling more quickly for both players. If the game is tied after the three minutes are over, players go into sudden death and the first player to score a point wins the match.

Gears Pop! was announced at E3 2018 alongside Gears Tactics and Gears 5 (which most definitely won’t be called Gears of War 5). For more on Gears 5, check out how its tone reminds us of God of War (in a great way).

Colin Stevens is a news writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

SALEM, Va. — By becoming the first Division III team to win three straight NCAA softball championships, the Tufts Jumbos have earned the right to be mentioned alongside such softball powerhouses as UCLA, Cal State Bakersfield and Cal State Northridge.

The Jumbos finished the season a perfect 51-0 and closed the year on a Division III-record 53-game win streak with two wins Monday over Texas-Tyler in the NCAA Championship Series. Tufts won game one of the best-of-three series 2-0 and rallied from two runs down in the sixth to score a 7-4 victory in game two.

Tufts hasn’t lost since falling 2-1 to Salisbury in the opening game of the NCAA Championship Series on May 26, 2014.

In the three NCAA divisions, only UCLA (1988-90) in Division I and Cal State Northridge (1983-85) and Cal State Bakersfield (1988-90) in Division II have won three straight crowns.

The Jumbos rallied from two runs down in the top of the sixth, scoring four times to claim a lead it would not relinquish. Cassie Ruscz hit an one-out homer to left to get Tufts on the scoreboard, pinch hitter Raina Galbiati drove in two runs with a single to center and Christina Raso doubled home another run.

Texas-Tyler (50-5) fought right back in the bottom half, getting one run back on Shelby Shelton’s single down the left field line before four-time NFCA All-American and Tournament Most Outstanding Player (for the third straight year) Allyson Fournier struck out fellow All-American Vanessa Carrizales to escape a bases-loaded jam.

The previous inning Jackie Mendez hit the first home run off Fournier this season, a solo shot to left with two outs, which was the first earned run she allowed in 54.2 innings. Mendez also scored the first Patriot run, coming all the way around from first (she got on with a two-out walk) when Carrizales reached on a throwing error.

Ruscz added some insurance in the top of the seventh with her second homer to left in as many innings.

KK Stevens homered to lead off the bottom of the seventh, and Texas-Tyler loaded the bases with two out, but Fournier induced a fly out to left to end the contest.

Fournier finished with six strikeouts, but walked five and allowed nine hits in the win. Counterpart Alaina Kissinger scattered six hits and allowed one run over five innings for the Patriots, while All-American Kelsie Batten was the losing pitcher in relief, allowing four hits and five runs in two-thirds of an inning, but only two of the runs were earned, as Texas-Tyler made three of its five errors in the sixth.

In the opening game, Fournier struck out seven and walked two in a two-hit shutout and Gracie Marshall went 2-for-2 and Bri Keenan drove in both Jumbo runs.

With one out in the fifth, All-American Raven Fournier singled to right and Samantha Siciliano walked. Marshall followed with a single to center to load the bases.

Keenan then singled to left center to score both Fournier and Siciliano.

Whitney Burt and Stevens provided Texas-Tyler’s two hits, while fellow All-American Kelsie Batten allowed five hits and struck out three in the first 4.1 innings before Alison Kissinger allowed nothing over the final 1.2 innings.

Jumbo teammates Michelle Cooprider, Keenan and Ruscz joined Fournier on the All-Tournament team, while Batten, Christa Hartnett — who had ESPN SportCenter’s No. 1 Top Play in Sunday’s win over Salisbury — and Mendez were selected for the Patriots.

Tufts matched Linfield’s 51 wins in the Wildcats’ 2011 title run for the most by a team in a season in Division III history. Texas-Tyler, meanwhile, had the second-most wins in a Division III season.