My bride and I were on the way to Hawaii on our honeymoon, comfortably (well, not quite comfortably, I was 6’ 4” then and legroom was in short supply) ensconced in our seats. I couldn’t help but notice the guy beside me was reading one of those articles from a magazine inserted in the pocket [...]
I was called out to inspect a log house in the country near a hamlet called Canton. No, we were not in China …closer than that. It wasn’t quite a log house. It was half of a log house. A huge old maple had crashed through it during a recent storm. It certainly was a [...]
Someone advised me to see an elderly lady in the hospital in Lindsey, I forget just who now. All I was told was that she was very interested in history and antiques and wanted to share something with me. I did go to see her and I’m glad I did. She was supposedly gravely ill [...]
The phone was ringing. But it was the middle of the night. Must be an emergency. I rolled out of bed to answer it. It was someone in an agitated state for sure. When he right away asked me what my log buildings cost I figured him for a nutcase. I told him anyway. I [...]
If I were to consider the greatest gift of my youth, it may not have been the English sheepdog I met when I was adopted at the age of four or that tricycle when I was five. Now that I think back from my current perspective that has spanned about seven more decades I’d say [...]
It was not quite as seldom as I liked that I was met with what I came to call the His/Her conundrum. Some men love a log house. Some women love a log house. Sometimes they both love a log house…but not often enough for me. Needless to say, I get few calls from those [...]
Fifty years in the restoration or reproduction of period houses often offers unexpected challenges. Dr. Morley for instance, was particular about having a period style house, so particular that we drove over most of southern Ontario picking out what we agreed were the nicest, while pertinent features of mid-century stone houses. Leaving out the bric-a-brac [...]
There is a timeless truth that is as relevant today as ever. And that is tradition. To speak of tradition is to speak of an immutable principle and an application that transcends this moment by its having been a primary precedent of conscientious men. Tradition not as custom or habit, nor even as the transient [...]