Renovation waste removal in the Junction

Having the waste removed from a renovation project in the Junction, can be daunting. Using a steel bin requires city approval if it is to be set on city property. Placing it on your property can destroy the lawn of the small front lots of  Junction houses.  For the small footprint options - using the Rhinobag and the U-BOX-IT are two options - the latter is now the most favored option by this author, simply because they have a low profile small fork lift devise that can easily scoot down our narrow lane-ways and up to small Junction front lots. It does not have the hoisting issues that the Rhinobag has. Such as not being able to pass over parked cars and overhead wire issues, both of which can leave a Rhinobag sitting for days at your location.

Junction reno runs vernacular architecture to polite architecture

Most of the housing stock in the Junction is vernacular architecture, yet every once and a while someone comes along and takes one these homes and creates a polite architecture house from the existing built house. Polite architecture which is characterised by stylistic elements of design intentionally incorporated for aesthetic purposes which go beyond a building's functional requirements.


This house on Annette St just east of Keele St, is a house which underwent this type of design calibration a number of years ago, as supposed by the age wear showing in the  materials  now. The design is forthright in it's effort  to provide a greater visual detail and depth of historical character  and somewhat adamantine.

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As today may be called wet basement day in the Junction with so many people having water in their basement, door  porticos, which shield both the doorway and the foundations of many of the old row houses in the Junction, come to mind.

Finding one to model a new one after or assist in planning a repair of an existing one is hard in the Junction. But this one on Hook Ave is a great find. Most of the materials seem to be of the correct era with timbers seemingly real 2 x 4 in dimension.  The turnings look right. about th eonly parts that would concern are the lattice work and and the roof decking (which has clearly been replaced.)

The people who own this house have did the community quite a favor by not removing it.

Updated electrical code requires new homes to have tamper-resistant receptacles

Baby-proofing your homes electrical outlets routinely consists of  placing plastic covers or inserts  over or into your electric socket plug inlets. Now the new sections of the electrical  code require new homes to have tamper-resistant receptacles, designed to prevent children from inserting objects into receptacles.

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Denyse Boxell of Safe Kids Canada says is this Canadian Press article [opens in new window] 

"The great thing is that finally we have some technology that's actually passive - it doesn't rely on the parent to actually make sure that there's any covers in place," 

However mandating that all receptacles to be installed in any residential home during new work or repair be tamper-resistant receptacles would be a greater and more complete solution for child safety.

How do they work?

Tamper-resistant receptacles have built-in shutter systems that prevent foreign objects from touching electrically live components when they're inserted into the slots

For a detaled overview of the issue see  this link at Electrical Construction & Maintenance (EC&M) magazine [opens in new window]