THUNDER BAY -- Jon Eakes says sometimes the hands-on approach is the easiest way to learn.
It’s especially true when it comes to building houses.
Eakes, a home renovation television pioneer, spent time this week in Thunder Bay at the 13th annual First Nations Northern Housing Conference, teaching people from Aboriginal communities a variety of techniques in building staircases and decks.
He stressed the importance of paying attention to details.
“On these seminars I like to get down to the little details that most people slide over or say they’re not important. Those are the details that means the corner board on a deck rots out, or falls down or comes loose,” said the handyman, whose TV show Just Ask Jon Eakes ran from 1997 to 2004.
“Like the use of a wrong screw. There are very specific nails or screws and deck fasteners. It’s driving home the point that just not anything is going to work, even though it looks good when I put it in.”
Over the years, said Eakes, a regular at the conference, he’s seen his teachings take hold. He related the tale of a window competition he once presided over, training Aboriginal trades-people to install correctly.
The message sunk in, he said.
“About two years later I got some feedback from contractors who actually work on reserves. They said, ‘Hey, these guys are doing it better than we do.’”
Charles Baxter, the housing manager at Constance Lake First Nation, said the demonstrations are challenging, but positive.
“It’s a learning process,” Baxter said, noting there are constant changes in the building code.
“When you participate hands on, you see the vision physically because you’re present and you know what you’re doing,” Baxter said.
“That way you know your mistakes. And then you teach that knowledge to young entrepreneurs that come to the housing programs (on reserve). You carry that practice in the learning experience and it goes forward.”
The First Nations Northern Housing Conference wraps up on Thursday.
