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R
enovation Contractor Monthly Newsletter | November 2018
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As many of you know, the same team that puts together Renovation Contractor magazine also produces the Canadian Home Builders' Association's members' magazine, Building Excellence. They're just about finished the Winter issue, which includes features on the building envelope, solar energy, and a gallery of gorgeous built-in-Canada Net Zero homes that produce at least as much energy as they consume each year.
If you're not a member of the CHBA - and, really, you should be - you can still read the digital edition of the magazine at
BuildingExcellence.ca.
While
Building Excellence is wrapping up, we're also put the finishing touches on the December/January issue of
Renovation Contractor. Features in that include Herb Ellis' review of the 2019 work vans, long-time contributor Jay Somerset looks at some trendy - and kooky - interior finishing options and, if there's room, our managing editor Allan Britnell will share some more of his travel tales, most recently to Denmark and Spain.
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This coming Sunday (November 11) is Remembrance Day.
Wherever you happen to be that day, at 11 a.m. pause for a moment to pay respects to our fallen heroes. To have an even greater impact, consider volunteering your time, money, or materials to
Renos for Heroes.
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Every November 19 is recognized by the United Nations as World Toilet Day. According to organizers of this annual call to action, 4.5-billion people do not have access to a safe toilet, with nearly one billion forced to take care of business outside. The organizers' goal is for everyone on Earth to have access to a hygienic toilet by 2030. For more information, visit
WorldToiletDay.info.
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Most readers likely know that the Robertson screw and driver are Canadian inventions (developed by Peter Lymburner Robertson). But there are several other items we use on the jobsite on a regular basis that also have a Canadian pedigree, including the paint roller, caulking gun, and plastic trash bags.
A Manitoba-born man named Norman James Breakey was living in Toronto when he created the first prototype of what would become the modern paint roller. Alas, he never patented his invention and it was widely copied.
Three different Canadians all independently invented a variation of the plastic trash bag in the 1960s.
Harry Wasylyk - who is often credited as the product's inventor - started playing around with polyethylene in his kitchen before developing something that he could sell to Winnipeg General Hospital. Meanwhile, Torontonian Frank Plomp developed a similar product that he also shopped around to hospitals and office buildings. But it was Larry Hanson, an employee of Union Carbide in Lindsay, Ont., whose invention went on to become the Glad Bag.
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Do you hear a buzzing sound?
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Homeowners in Tennessee were shocked to discover that some 35,000 bees were living in a hive that the insects had built in their wall. The
video clip accompanying the story - with Flight of the Bumblebee as the soundtrack - shows how a removal expert extracted the hive.
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New Home Hotline: 1.800.363.4663
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