Category: Sources

  • I’m Staring at The Ceiling

    Working on the Blackthorn project. More sound mitigation attempts. The small basement bedroom is where the electrical panel is. It was updated in 2018. New circuits required the drywall ceiling be torn down. Now, 6 years later the ceiling is going back in The green board is a new product for me: Sonopan II https://www.mslfibre.com/…

  • Nothing holds like a rusty nail.

    Part 2 of this bathroom redo. Here’s the link to the first part with some before pictures: https://www.thomashepburn.ca/2018/02/peelandstick/ The problem is not all the nails are rusty. This old style plank subfloor was nailed down without glue. The trouble is that you get nail pop which leads to squeaky floors. It’s unusual to see diagonal…

  • Statistics Canada

    I took a short-term contract with Statistics Canada working on the national census that is carried out every 5 years.  I thought I’d do my part by syndicating on of their videos that they produce to educate Canadians on what the census data is used for.  I gotta say that the back-drop for the video…

  • Getting Paid On Time

    In case you haven’t heard, there’s a slump in the oil prices around my neck of the woods. Alberta, Canada that is. Frankly I haven’t a clue what the prices are doing around the world. It’s been quite a while since I was working directly in the oil patch. My go-to source was “The DOB”,…

  • Alberta First Nations and Law

    I thought I’d do my part for a friend who is putting together a lecture for the benefit of anyone interested in law, first nations studies, and Alberta Heritage. Ruth Gorman is the person-of-interest in this lecture.  A book about her work with First Nations has been published: Behind the Man: John Laurie, Ruth Gorman,…

  • Dull Tools Are Dangerous

    I’m quite a fan of having sharp tools. They get dull too quickly, which I tried to solve by not using them. This only made work go very slowly. The next thing I tried was developing a way to sharpen dull tools quickly, at the job-site. My favorite is the diamond plates from princessauto.com. They…