(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

Dad can make good things happen, particularly when supplies are a mammoth pile of pizza boxes. In case you couldn’t tell, the first challenge of last week’s episode was sponsored by Pizza Pizza. The contestants were tasked with making furniture out of pizza boxes. Something must have been in the set water as all six contestants went with living room furniture.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

Packing tape came a-flying out and boxes were assembled and disassembled. Dad made a sturdy couch with shaping and comfort in mind. It was well proportioned to a tall person and Dad was one of two to take apart a box and get into a little sculpting.

At the end of the challenge Dan from Ontario was sent home. He was a great contestant throughout and a very smart and skilled handyman.

The second challenge of the episode was a task in precision and knowledge. The contestants were given two walls, wire and wallpaper to wire a three-way switch to a sconce and wallpaper the walls.

Dad has done a million three-way switches and installed lights, but never hung wallpaper. It was going to be good.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

The Pop-sicle was cool and collected, wiring the switch and the light was cinch. But Dad had an “aw sh!t” moment and accidentally installed the light box to the wrong side of a stud, and the light was too tight into the corner. And according to the judges his light was upside down. Any rural kid knows it keeps the bugs out that way. Dad wallpapered very well, his paper was well-aligned and cut cleanly. But Dad is a bit of a stickler for precision, and in his application may have squished out a lot of the glue.

Dad’s excellent wiring job and three-way switch saw him through to the Final Four.

Chris, the last other member from Team Toba, was the one who went home after this challenge. His light wouldn’t turn on, and unfortunately that was a fail in the eyes of the judges. Chris is another great contestant and has a lot of wonderful things ahead of him as he finishes his carpentry apprenticeship in Winnipeg.

Tonight’s episode of Canada’s Handyman Challenge is the finale. And the show is bringing in the big guns, Mike Holmes himself. Before you watch it at 10 pm eastern, go vote for my dad as fan favourite.

(Photo credit: Dad)

Last week’s episode of Canada’s Handyman Challenge was the most stressful yet! Watch the episode here.

The first challenge was actually three mini challenges, where the contestants were to first hang a door in half an hour, then brick and mortar a Roman arch in the next stage, and cut a negative relief of an positive image into a sheet of plywood exactly as they see it. The judges warned the contestants that a fail in one challenge could be alright, but a fail in two challenges could send them home.

Dad appeared to rock the socks off the first challenge. He aced hanging a door. He measured twice and cut once. But in the judging of Dad’s door, Brian Baeumler noted that his main door hole was chipped. Dad was rushed in his drilling and his bit ground out the hole on the way out. He also didn’t have time to install the security plate in the deadbolt, but these misses barely counted as a fail in this challenge.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

Growing up and working in a province where brick is not a common medium to work in within the construction industry, brick and mortaring a Roman arch was expected to be a tougher challenge for Dad. Think again! This was Dad’s best mini-challenge, and he was even one of the best contestants at it. His arch did not fail after the supports were pulled out, and did not collapse into rubble when Paul LaFrance karate chopped the keystone.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

The third challenge had a lot of intricate draftsman work that Dad is very familiar with. As a designer of a lot of his own projects, Dad is never scared of transferring an idea from one surface to another. Dad did a great job of superimposing the positive image of the H and C from the model board onto his board. But in the end, his negative relief board did not fit well onto the positive model Scott McGillivray designed.

According to the judges, Dad found himself in the bottom two for the challenge, and the fans of the #mbsilverfox found themselves in a state of utter disbelief. In the end, Kirk from Nova Scotia found himself going home.

The second half of the episode was a flashback to the Winnipeg Auditions for the remaining three from Team Toba. The contestants were given open rein to all of their previous projects in order to make a Judge-Mobile.

Pops jumped on the idea right away and put together a rickshaw. He used a section from his stairs for tiered seating for the judges, colourful backing to the seats from the billboard, and the negative relief of the puzzle challenge product placement on the back of the cart. But the limiting factor in all of the carts were the flimsy bicycle wheels that had to be used to move the carts along. Dad planned well, and boxed his wheels into his frame for extra support.

(Photo credit: Dad)

In the final part of the challenge, the contestants had to pull all three judges through an obstacle course on their chariots. Dad’s was flying until they hit the first curve. Then the wheels simply folded. This was not the worst showing of a cart, though, as other carts didn’t even make it out of the gate or fell apart before hitting the track.

Dad’s strategy of middle packing it went well in this episode, and kept him safe to make it through to the Top 6 episode tonight! But unfortunately it meant that Mark from Brandon went home, and the Team Toba contenders went down to two.

Watch tonight’s episode, and Vote for my Dad in the fan favourite poll.

Dad made it into the Top 10 of the TV contest that pits very well-skilled handy people from across Canada against each other in time- and material-defying feats of handyman prowess. This episode started out very well, in what fans of the #mbsilverfox are dubbing a dream team setup. Watch the episode online.

Dad was paired with Brent from British Columbia in a duo that the judges repeatedly referred to as the Elder Statesmen. They were tasked with completing a set of stairs that had toinclude a landing and were given the usual 2 hours to do it in.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

Dad took to the task right away, and had Brent on board with designing a set of stairs that are intuitive to walk. Dad’s theory is that you should never have to think about climbing stairs, you should just do it. And these two gents did it very well.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge

Even though a part of the expectations was to include a railing, they were more focussed on creating a sturdy, well designed and to-code structure than the finishing touches. The judges had us on the edge of our seats when they were making their eliminations, saying that because the two did not finish the project they could be eliminated. But, there were other teams that built unsafe stairs and even stairs that fell apart that kept Dad and Brent from elimination.

In the end, a show down happened between another Team Toba member, Chris from Winnipeg, and Maurice from Nova Scotia when the judges couldn’t decide on a team member to send home as their stairs performed the worst. The two handymen were challenged with replacing a single pane window and were given the supplies, and some extra, to do it. In the end Maurice went home over Chris because he neglected to use the glazing points that hold the glass in place.

The top 9 challenge had Dad facing something he has never done before: crown moulding. In preparation for the contest, Dad researched the heck out of a few things he figured could come up as a challenge, and he very intuitively watched a few videos on installing crown moulding.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

Dad worked his way through it, meticulously measuring his angles and making his cuts, getting a very clean finished project. Unfortunately in that dreaded countdown to put their tools down, Dad’s nail gun jammed and his neighbouring contest tossed him his air nailer just barely in the nick of time to fire a couple nails into the last piece of his moulding.

(Photo credit: Dad, #mbsilverfox)

The judges, in their judging of things, noticed right away that some of Dad’s boards were not firmly affixed and did their requisite tisking.

Again the editing of the show had us waiting with bated breath to see if Pops made it through to the Top 8. And of course he did! More on that episode later today.

Vote for your favourite contestant here.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

The group was split into two, and given a challenge to create a billboard for Canada’s Handyman Challenge. The catch: they could only work on their own panel.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

The teams designed their group board and broke off onto their own panels to create the letters in the show’s title using trim and a variety of angle cuts. Dad had the center panel, and followed the group’s plan. Unfortunately this left his “Y” in the center of the panel, as agreed upon by the group. Pops took some flack for his “Y,” but held his own on his mitre work in the “G.” Dad’s group won the challenge, and the other billboard’s team saw a member, Doug, go home.

(Photo credit: Dad)

The second challenge was soldering copper pipe through a maze of pre-drilled 2×4 studs, in the pouring rain.

(Photo credit: Dad)

Dad aced this challenge. There were a couple scorch marks on his boards, but nothing extreme. When the judges did the pressure test on Dad’s pipe maze, it passed.

But two other mazes did not. One maze had plenty of holes and misses in the soldering. Another had a geyser. Dan, Dad’s partner in the bridge challenge last episode, was on the chopping block for a big miss. Unfortunately for Laurier, he is the one that failed to complete the challenge altogether and went home.

Dad is in the top ten episode tonight! But don’t forget to vote for my Daddy as your fan favourite before, and after, the episode airs.

Contest number one was region based; the 16 were divided into four teams and told to create a backyard oasis that had to include an entrance, patio, fence and hammock with a catch. They only had two hours.

(Photo Credit: Dad)

Team ‘Peg did a great job. Their patio was well laid and was pretty even, but the screening and gravel were layered wrong. The gate was well hung but boring, the fence was alright but shakey, but man was that hammock sturdy! A little tight-strung, but it was not going anywhere.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

Right away when they said backyard oasis, I thought Dad was going for a pagoda, having just made a behemoth in his backyard. In my live texts with the old man, he said he wanted to do the hammock because he had never made one before, and he wanted a challenge. Dad is awesome.

Team ‘Peg ended up in the bottom two teams so one of the gents ended up going home. But as I was watching that elimination I knew it was not Dad going home. Team East Coast also was in the bottom two, and saw a member go home.

(Photo Credit: Dad)

Challenge two had the remaining 14 contestants test their brains in geometry and physics. They had to building a long bridge out of 1″x2″s and screws and were told to go long, and do it in two hours. What a horrible challenge! These building materials were prone to splitting, and somehow the judges were to walk out on the bridges. It was all so nerve-wracking to watch.

Dad was teamed up with Dan, and were dubbed the nerds, as they used loads of math and building principles to keep their bridge up. The relied on triangles and some upper supports with double bracing.

(Photo credit: Canada’s Handyman Challenge)

Of the seven teams of two, Team Geek did not fare the best, nor did they fare the worst. One bridge fell apart before the judges even walked on it. And there was one bridge where the judges were able to walk over half of its length!

Tonight’s episode is going to be another thriller, where the contestants’ skills and minds will be put through the wringer.

Don’t forget to tune in to watch the MBSilverFox compete against other highly skilled handyman from the Great White North. And then vote for Dad in the Fan Favourite Poll.

So this year, I decided to up my ante for what I do for friends on Valentine’s Day, and send along some love to my girls who moved away from me.

To my Darlings Sarah, Kim and Jasleen I sent along two packages, one to each house. After Kim and Jasleen got theirs, and opened it, I was sent a very excited text message from Kim. I could hear her Trinidadian accent shouting excitement at me with every syllable.

I sent along some homemade bunting, cinnamon hearts, cupcake liners, balloons, Laura Secord chocolate covered marshmallow hearts, paper straws. Vanessa included David’s Tea Tea Valentine’s, and I included Rifle Paper Co. Valentine’s cards I found at Coriander.

To my wonderful niece and sister, I also sent along a package. They should have received it by now. If not, then, oops Miffa! Surprise broken! Haha.

Natalie and Melissa got a lot of the same things as Kim and Sarah, but I also included some Valentine’s toothpicks.

The bunting were all made out of scrap fabric I had lying around, and some ribbon I picked up at a discount craft store. The cupcake paraphenalia and cinnamon hearts were found in a sweets induced frenzy at Dollarama. The balloons and straws were leftovers from my bridal shower and a baby shower I helped decorate.

I think my ladies enjoyed their packages. It feels good to send a little love to those you don’t see as often as you would like.

Thank you to all who supported my Pops by watching Canada’s Handyman Challenge last night. Wasn’t he fantastic? Not only did he blow the judges away by building a rocking horse using only wood and glue with a little rope for the mane, he propelled past the audition competition with his slingshot and then a go-cart style land canoe.

If you didn’t get a chance to see my old man in action, HGTV Canada has the episode available online.

I really enjoyed how the show edited Dad and his time on camera. They are doing a great job portraying him as the humble, thoughtful and really intelligent man that he is. Dad never tackles a project without a plan first.

That’s why as soon as the judges said that they would have to toss a bag of salt, I knew exactly what Dad would build: a wooden balloon launcher. Two sturdy supports, a lightweight cargo basket and a lot of spring in the bungees (also one of Dad’s favourite things, bungees are, along with long underwear) were a given in his design.

Dad is always thinking of safety first, and that has a lot to do with his history as a 4-H member and 4-H woodworking leader. He is always considering the safest way to make something and how to teach someone how to be safer at what they are doing. He cares a lot.

When he put together that land canoe, I knew Dad would have the safety of the judges in mind. I also knew he would pull on his shenanigans as a farm boy with Uncle Brad, Uncle Doug and his best friends Uncle Jim and Uncle Cliff. He definitely made a much safer version of what they would have put together out of farm scraps in their teens.

I think it helped solidify how awesome my dad is in their minds over how they could not break his land canoe. Yes, it had no steering, or brakes, but Dad told me how all of the judges tried to break it and just couldn’t do it.

I am excited to see what kind of projects and challenges Dad and the other final 16 contestants will have thrown at them in Toronto!

*All photos are from Canada’s Handyman Challenge

This past June, on Father’s Day (in fact the day after the Jack and Jill Shower in Manitoba), Dad packed up an audition piece made entirely out of one sheet of plywood and wood glue and drove into Winnipeg to audition for Canada’s Handyman Challenge.

Last week was the premiere of Season 3 for the show, and as exciting as it was, it wasn’t share-worthy because Dad was not on it.

But tonight, oh tonight, Dad will definitely be seen in the Winnipeg auditions for the show.

Image via Canada’s Handyman Challenge Facebook page

Canada’s Handyman Challenge airs at 10 pm Eastern, 9 pm Central, and 10 pm Mountain, 9 pm Pacific on HGTV Canada.

As Auntie DeeDee put it:  He is the tall dark haired man, lots of grey hair. He brings in a rocking horse.

Last week, I live texted with Dad my commentary on the show. Apparently I had some amusing musings on the Calgary auditions. I am tempted to venture into Twitter to Live Tweet it, but only if there is enough interest. It would be by the hashtag #mbsilverfox.

Some of my friends call Dad a silver fox. I just say “Ew, that’s my Dad.”

It was a packed evening of laughter, love, and food.

Family from Mom’s side, and Dad’s side, friends I’ve seen when I was out last, and friends I haven’t seen since high school all came together to shower Paul and I in love, well wishes, and confetti.

Mom and her sisters Darlene and Marina, or DeeDee and Mia.

My great-aunts Ollie and Sophie, and Auntie Teresa.

My cousin Leanne, Uncle Donny, Gramma and Grampa.

My friends from high school! LeAnne, Kim and Jen, it was great to see you ladies!

Dad and Chris, with some help from Cal, roasted a hog for supper from Danny’s Whole Hog. It was delicious!

After supper, we were surprised by a specialty cake that Kim and Cal coerced Dairy Queen into making. It was complete with some Star Wars figures, DQ sandwiches, and the middle layer was crushed ice cream sandwiches! We ate the last two pieces for second breakfast the next day.

Natalie ate a whole ice cream sandwich to herself! Auntie Mia had to help her out.

Paul handled his on his own.

We opened some very generous gifts, and thoughtful cards from those who could make it, and from some who could not. Paul was tasked with writing in the cards what the person gave us, to make the Thank You cards a little easier later. Well, we’ve started those thank you’s, and Paul’s code is confusing.

Out of the whole evening, the best moments were the little ones: a good laugh with old friends about things we used to get up to; Gramma already harassing us about babies; seeing the people I used to babysit for stop by; and cousin Magdalena taking credit for Paul crawling under the deck to get a card that slipped through a crack.

And other little moments that Mom captured. Natalie’s Super-Grampa adores her, and she adores him.

Thank you to everyone who came Saturday night! It was so great to see all of you! We really felt the love and support you have for us as we begin our lives together.

To those who were there is spirit: thank you for all of your support, and we are sorry you missed it.

But the big sis convocated yesterday!

Not much I’ve rounded up to share other than:

This adorable little boy who is really questioning what he is eating, and why.

A sweet pencil case.

A clever way to hold down a flowy dress while biking.

Post cards that are just howling to be framed and put in my room in the new house.

Some delicious jello shots I may have to make for a certain rehearsal dinner in two months.

ModCloth now has bedding! I am loving this duvet cover.

Have a good weekend!

P.S. The Pattern Pyramid giveaway winner is……. Clipped Curves. I will be emailing you shortly to gather your mailing information and send along the package!