project

We are broadening our horizons as of late, what with renovating Monforte Dairy and a cottage on Lake Huron. We are also about to embark on some work in London and Toronto. Perhaps most satisfying of all is the demolition of a "howley kitchen". Out with the old and ineffectual...in with the new and functional. Ironic isn't it?

back blogging

I cannot believe how long I have let my blog lapse, and all due to a complaint about something I wrote. No more.

I have been busy busy over the last year, starting and completing my private pilots license (have actually embarked on my commercial training as well) and of course steady with work on some interesting projects.

Monforte Dairy is the most interesting though...local food production with an eye towards sustainability and support of local farmers, all good stuff in my eye.

aww nuts...

New proper nuts on the left...junk from Britpart on the right...

Nothing is more frustrating to me than realizing a product I purchased is of inferior quality. I recently bought new parabolic leaf springs for the land rover (from Britpart), and the nuts they included with the U-bolts were substandard to say the least. They appear unhardened, and two of them stripped when applying a modest amount of torque (yes, yes...I used a torque wrench!). As they came from an overseas supplier (Britpart), who has not responded to my emailed concern, it is not terribly convenient to simply return them. The threading of said nuts and U-bolts is of a strange specification as well, and no north american fastner company seems able to supply nuts only to fit. So I replaced the u-bolts with locally supplied product, which came with proper longer nuts, which engage by a full 10 threads...bring on the torque wrench! The shoddy nuts engaged by a mere four threads, and being unhardened it's a wonder they could take any torque at all! It seems foolish to me to save perhaps $5 on a $650 product by substituting junk fastners, but as a friend pointed out to me, if they (Britpart) sell 1000 sets a year they are saving $5000 annually. Maybe so, but I won't be following this business model anytime soon. Do it once, do it right and move on. Did I mention Britpart was the supplier?

bats in your attic?

This is an interesting device that a "wildlife" control company installed in the eaves of a customers house...to let bats out, but not back in. Trouble is, a bat can fit thru a hole the size of a nickel, and the hole in this wire mesh is about 3x that size. I can imagine the bats were grateful to a better foothold for re-entry.

ugly ?

This building actually uses the word "castle" in it's name. For a brand new building, it wound up looking for all the world like they robbed the salvage yard for used building materials. The use of different colored roofing and siding materials is baffling, and the one material used throughout is the worlds most boring grey vinyl siding. This material even covers an enormous wall section at the rear of the building, (it is already falling off!) and the lack of windows in that wall is puzzling...it faces the lake, and the best views! The worst views in the neighbourhood are looking at this building.

not so structural now!

Here we have the results of framers and plumbers not co-ordinating their work. Not one joist completely severed...but two in the same house, in two bathrooms!

the big squeeze

This design is a close cousin to the "post and a half" house. The garage is so prominent that a corner of the canopy over the front door (the most important focal point of any home) is lopped off, and the door is squeezed between two side walls. Even the coach house light next to the front door has to be mounted on the sidewall...there's no room beside the door for it! This house needs a wider lot so it can relax a little!