Renovations Ruth

06/19/2025

We're hiring a lead carpenter, share if you know anyone who would be a good fit!

Renovations Ruth

07/11/2023

It's not doing very much anymore, but once upon a time in this 130 year old house, someone thought a tree trunk was stronger than bricks. We suspect this house was built on grade originally since the sill plate is a 6x8. This tree trunk is under a join in the 6x8 and possibly held it up while the basement was being dug out and then they just left it in place after bricking up the walls. No footing under the tree, and no footings under the walls either. Soil engineer has been in and assumes the house will stand another 130 years as is. We'll take the tree out tho, if its not too firmly attached on the neighbour's side. We kinda want to keep it in place for someone else to ponder over in the future, but it's a termite risk. Maybe we'll mill the boards and give it a fresh life above ground.

06/01/2023

Happy Pride Month!!

05/17/2023

We put in a plastic zipper door.
We taped all around the door.
Dust will find a way!
Resistance is futile.

05/05/2023

This is one of the most complicated jobs we've ever done - basically building a new house inside an existing house - because time was not gentle with this little 125 year old building and every time we turned around there was a new problem to solve.
But it's also hands down the most interesting design. We're getting to the fun part now!


studio

05/04/2023

Our underpinned basement job is almost ready for paint, cabinetry and trim...the icing on the cake.

03/30/2023

Ducts unlimited, all shiny and new.

03/16/2023

This is a cool pic: The 3,000 men who helped construct the 810 ft (246 m) high Chase Manhattan Bank pose for a photo near the end of the constructional work. New York City, USA. August 1964.


These days that approximately 10% of the workers on that site would be women. And it would be hard to get 3,000 trades people at all!

02/22/2023