During the early years of the rebirth of timber framing in this country, most all of the practicing companies were on a level playing field. All of us (with two exceptions on opposite ends of the spectrum) used electric hand tools plus chisels, mallets, squares, planes, knives and pencils to fashion our work. Reawakening and […]

In my first house – which I built in 1971 and 1972 – I layed hardwood floors which I coated with a hard finish. The floors looked beautiful, but as time marched on the cumulative effects of living – dogs running and playing, re-arranging furniture, neglecting to wipe grit and grime off the bottom of […]

Waste For the first decade or so of my adult life I drove well used VW Bugs; they were affordable and easily repaired. With one of them I needed to fix the hand brake. The part needed was a release button which screwed into the brake handle. The parts man at the VW dealership informed […]