Hello to All

Mikel here from the Vancouver, BC area. Gender Male.
Make my living building homes. Presently on #95,96 and 97 right now.

Served apprenticeship with Canwest Interiors where we did large scale renovations and in house cabinets.
Then it was on to Fineart Woodworking where we build literally anything and everything.
We build furniture, manufactured mill-work, timber frame structures, restored wooden boats, build curved and elliptical doors, mantels, cabinets and many other items.
Everything was done in house and we had to see the project through from start to finish.
But due to severe allergies I had to look at getting out of the shop. Can remember the 18' sliding door being open just a few inches and
the sun's rays beaming in and seeing all of the saw dust airborne.
An opportunity arose and was able to get out of the shop and started doing millwork and cabinet installation on sites.  
One of the builders for whom I was doing a cabinet installation (Poggenpohl) coaxed me to leave the installation of cabinets business and join
him in the building of homes.
 
Was skeptical at first but had nothing to loose. This gave me an opportunity to put my skills as a cabinetmaker
and the days of Canwest to use in building homes.
25 years later and I still love building homes. Went on my own 19 years ago.
Second best decision that I have ever made, building peoples dream homes.
Building the best possible product and spending their money doing so.
The homes that we build typically take between 1.5 years to 4 years to build.

Oh yeah, best decision was marrying my Wife, the boss.....

Found out about Festool after hiring a German carpenter many years ago who used this brand almost exclusively.
Back then no one sold Festool in Canada, luckily now there are several dealers and now own several of their tools.

Hands on for me now is for my own place and on an Island retreat that is ongoing.
Am a tool junkie, love great quality tools and Festool fits the bill and love the dust collection feature.

In my world I have a saying that I still use to this day that I got from my boss at Fineart.

"Never enough time to do the job right but always enough time to do the job twice"

Words I live by.

Take care,

Mikel

Thank you Seth
Forgot to post that FOG is a daily site that I visit. It's an addiction... and a good one.
Love to read about new ideas, the videos are very helpful and there is always something to learn.
Take care.

I took a look at the poll and to me it looked like the voting was locked somehow.  Try again.  If you don't see any check boxes to the left but do see remove vote to the right then you have already voted.  In that case you can click remove vote and then choose the options again that best describe you.

Hope that this helps.

Peter