Meet the Builders

This morning I went to the Montreal Expo Habitation that is being held this weekend at the Olympic Stadium.  For anyone who's in the building industry, who owns a house, or plans to buy a house, this is the place to go to get ideas and professional advice.  The place is huge; it took me two hours to walk through it but I could easily have stayed all day.

I certainly wasn't disappointed in the variety of exhibitors.  The names of some were familiar to me: Fenplast, CertainTeed, Bain Magique, BASF, and others.  I used to work for a manufacturing plant that built machinery used in the plastics industry and they had many clients.  It was nice to see their actual finished products as opposed to just seeing names on a shipping schedule.

This light display caught my eye.  The maker is a small local company called Lampes Lotus.   The shades are made from interlocking pieces of recycled plastic and they look very cool.  Their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Lampes.Lotus

I also talked with a gentleman from the furniture company Meubles Dancause, which specializes in creating cabinetry from reclaimed wood. www.meublesdancause.com  I have a fondness for this sort of thing because my late aunt lived for many years in a renovated wood farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere, and had a few pieces in her home that had been made from boards salvaged from old barns on her property.

On the floor of the stadium were several miniature model homes that featured many products that were being exhibited elsewhere in the building.  The public was invited to walk through.

Of course the real reason that I was there was to meet the Canadian master builder himself, Mike Holmes. I've been a fan of his shows for many years, and I made it one of my goals for 2015 to see him and have him autograph my copy of his Holmes Inspection book.  I couldn't help but be awestruck when I shook his hand, and to my embarrassment had to ask him to repeat his initial question to me: "Do you build stuff?"
(The stuff I build generally involves Lego.)

But I quickly recovered and I had a brief chat with him, after which he signed my book and stood with me for a picture.  He's a kind, down-to-earth man who puts his heart into everything.  I look forward to seeing his new project in which he's working with his son Mike Jr.

All in all, definitely worth the trip.