From DIYinfo.org
[edit] Who Am I to Give DIY and Home Improvement Help?
Well, in a nutshell, I have been doing DIY, home improvement, renovation, extensions and building houses since I was 16 years old. I am now 65 years old. So yes, I think I could provide a bit of help for newcomers to the game. (That is if I can remember anything! Hang on....... I've lost my mouse. :-)
My name is Bill Bradley and I live in Darwin, the capital city of the NorthernThose were the days! Territory of Australia.
I was born and raised in Northern England and emigrated to Australia as a "ten quid tourist" when I was twenty three.
I served my time (5 years) as a bound apprentice to a small building company, that did one off houses and had it's own joinery shop. I duly received my "City and Guilds of London Institutes" certificates in the trade of Carpentry and Joinery. I picked up a couple of other building construction qualifications after I was out of my apprenticeship.
In England when I came out of my time, I worked as a journeyman carpenter for a timber engineering company, (large laminated roof trusses) and on concrete formwork. A spell sub-contract roofing gave me spare cash for my trip to Aus. Timber frame cottage work (houses) in NSW, high rise in Brisbane, houses again in Darwin where I got married and settled down. By then I had to stop working for experience and start working for money. With a couple of partners we built our first house in 1968. Contract price $9,000. (It's still there, and worth half a million now :-)
My wife and I formed our own building company in 1974 and were members of the NT Master Builder's Association - Territory Construction Association for 20 years. In the early 80's (the recession we had to have) after years of doing government contracts for concrete work and civil work, we went back to house building, renovations and extensions.
I bought one of the first Mac computers, and by 1982 I had my first CAD drawing approved for construction. I have probably averaged about three drawings a year since then, Most of them have been design and build, mainly houses and house extensions, with a couple of unit blocks (apartments) along the way.
As you can see most of my experience has been in the top end of Australia, we survived Cyclone Tracy in '74 and were involved in the huge rebuilding effort and the incredible changes in engineering standards and construction methods.
Obviously some of the examples I give here may not be quite how you do it in your neck of the woods, but I hope you will be able to get some value out of my ramblings.
[edit] Other Interests
Here is a pen and ink sketch that I did in early 2006 of the Mekong river, looking downstream from a small town in Northern Laos
It combines three of my current interests, boating, travel and drawing. I did it on a calm and magic evening, before joining about 200 young backpackers on a two day boat trip trip to Louang Prabang. It was less calm but still an unforgetable travel experience.
Here is a link to more drawings and how I got into drawing for pleasure in the first place.
Here is my web site for DIY and home improvement help.
