Today's Adventures
Mar. 13th, 2026 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithToday we went to the Home and Garden Expo at the Otto Center. The parking lot was so full, we had to go all the way in the back to find a space -- there's a whole extra lot back there that we'd never even seen before.
This time, we asked for bags up front, and we got cards for their scavenger hunt.
They had the kitchen open in buffet mode. :D We got the chicken tenders, curly fries, and apple cobbler. Everything was quite good.
We saw lots of vendors. The side and back extensions were open ad full. We found many useful resources. I picked up some great swag. I was more selective this year, since I already have plenty of pencils and stuff.
Ace Handyman Services is among the coolest businesses. It's the first time we've seen them. I love their business model: you give them a list of necessary repairs and they do it. Patch drywall, replace light sockets, unjam doors, whatever. Someone at Ace Hardware noticed that fewer people were buying supplies to fix things themselves, and more were asking who they could hire to do it. (I blame the loss of Shop Class and Home Economics.) They have a variety of workers with different skills who they match to job requests.
I picked up a flyer, a couple of the business card-magnets (one for here, one for Dad's place), a keychain with a measuring tape and level, and a pen. I didn't realize until I got home that the pen is also a surprisingly powerful flashlight! Clever.
Coach House Garages builds a variety of garages and similar buildings. They do removal as well as construction. They had measuring tape keychains.
Iconic Insulation offers spray foam and blow-in fiber insulation. They were handing out nice heavy clips with a magnet on the back.
The maple folks from Golden Ridge Farms were there, so it's our one-year anniversary seeing them. :D We picked up a jug of maple syrup as well as the maple root beer this time. They also had honey. I was tempted by that too.
Gutter Buddy was one of several gutter services present. Their covers are smooth and flat on top, with holes down the front. I'll admit that's unlikely to clog. But it relies entirely on adhesion to direct rain into those front holes; there's no raised edge. So with a steep roof or heavy rain, it's liable to shoot off the roof and form a waterfall into the yard. I'm not finding a card from the booth that had a better design -- screen or perforated metal top with a raised lip -- so my partner Doug probably has that in his bag.
Graber's Greenhouse offered an assortment of houseplants and garden items. I picked up two tiny houseplants: a fern and a green-and-gold ivy. I need to move some of my housplants to larger pots ... in my copious spare time. Their pen is pink with red roses.
GDS Enterprises had their 2-wheel tractors, so we got to explore those. The one that has a electric start is pretty big, and the prices are high. Like, I'm pretty sure we could buy a whole small snowblower for less than the attachment costs, let alone the tractor. I still love the concept, but I'm not sure the execution would meet our needs.
Farmstead Fabrics and Variety had not brought their fabric, but had some other equipment like sewing machines and ironing boards. That's a place I definitely want to check out. I picked up a very nice pen from them, red with copper trim. Copper's more popular this year; I saw a lot of it.
Miller's Storage Buildings had a variety of furniture and other things on display. Among the things they build are greenhouses. We're going to talk with them about assembling the greenhouse kit that we have -- they're potentially interested but need more information, and we've got the electronic manual for it. Last year they had one of their greenhouses hooked up to the Otto Center.
This year what they brought was a tiny house. I thought it would be an efficiency as most are. It was a whole 1-bedroom cottage! :D Coming in the back door, the living room is on the right, L-shaped kitchen to the left, with a dinette between them. It's a full-size kitchen with plenty of cabinets, a double sink, dishwasher, stove, microwave, and refrigerator-freezer. Above the sink is a spice cabinet, rather than a window, since it's against an interior wall. There is a large front porch accessed through a sliding door. Above that is a row of clerestory windows: clever because those let in more light, while allowing the porch roof to shade both the porch and its glass door. Also very efficient, there is only one wet wall between the kitchen (serving the sink) and the bathroom. So further left of the kitchen is the little hall that leads to the washer-dryer and the full bathroom, then a pretty good-sized bedroom. There is no bedroom closet; the equipment closet is in there. My one real quibble is the above-counter bathroom sink; currently "fashionable" but a nightmare to clean among other drawbacks. On the whole, it is a very compact, functional, well-designed home with a lot more features than typical for a tiny home or auxiliary dwelling unit. I asked, and they can custom build different things -- they even have a 2-bedroom model. They also make sheds and agricultural things like chicken houses. Note that Amish construction is consistently solid, unlike a lot of the commercial prefab stuff sold elsewhere. Their pen is gray with copper trim, quite heavy and sturdy.
Miller Building Systems LLC had a very clever tool, the TrussLox. Imagine something like a giant wrench. When you're erecting a set of rafters, you put the fixed end of the tool over the first rafter, then as you push the next one upright, the curved end of the tool catches and holds it in place at the proper spacing. This makes constructing things like sheds a lot easier with fewer hands, without needing to nail on temporary bracing boards.
Swag
Seamless Exterior Solutions LLC wins my award for best swag with a first aid kit in a small tin. It's about twice the size of an Altoids tin with an assortment of bandaids, antiseptic, and first aid cream. There's plenty of room to add more stuff too. This business offers both roofing and siding options in a wide range of colors. They also had the coolest business card: stamped metal with a herringbone pattern on the upper half. You never know when you'll stumble across tiny art. Their pen is black with copper trim, triangular at the base, with grip strips.
First Neighbor Bank had a card-style paper cutter. The blade is about an inch long, but fully recessed on both sides so it won't cut anything except what you slide into the slot. They offer a range of financial services. Last year they tipped us to some that proved quite useful.
Graber Building Supply was one of a couple places that had glow-in-the-dark cubes with popper dots as a stress relief toy. They also had the heavy-duty clips with magnet.
Legacy Building Supply had ribbon lanyards with clips, useful for carrying various things. Their pen is black with copper trim, triangular at the base, with grip strips. They offer a variety of buildings as well as roofs, doors, etc.
Midwest Roofing had both spongy baseball type stress balls and plastic light-up bouncy balls.
Otto's Canvas LLC provided 7-inch rulers in assorted colors. I grabbed a clear one, because sometimes it's useful to see what's underneath. This business does awnings, blinds, and such.
Owens Corning had carpenter pencils in hot pink.
Parkview Vinyl Fencing & Decks had nice pens, red with silver trim.
Pinnacle Point Graphics had a pen with a gray barrel, black trim, and a rubbery grip at the base.
Power Plus Equipment gave out little screwdrivers with a valve tool on the other end. I ought to put this in the all-purpose cleaning kit that I'm assembling; the booth dude pointed out that it also makes an excellent pick.
Trimmed Up Trees offered carabiner keychains, always useful.
This has been a fun and productive day.
This time, we asked for bags up front, and we got cards for their scavenger hunt.
They had the kitchen open in buffet mode. :D We got the chicken tenders, curly fries, and apple cobbler. Everything was quite good.
We saw lots of vendors. The side and back extensions were open ad full. We found many useful resources. I picked up some great swag. I was more selective this year, since I already have plenty of pencils and stuff.
Ace Handyman Services is among the coolest businesses. It's the first time we've seen them. I love their business model: you give them a list of necessary repairs and they do it. Patch drywall, replace light sockets, unjam doors, whatever. Someone at Ace Hardware noticed that fewer people were buying supplies to fix things themselves, and more were asking who they could hire to do it. (I blame the loss of Shop Class and Home Economics.) They have a variety of workers with different skills who they match to job requests.
I picked up a flyer, a couple of the business card-magnets (one for here, one for Dad's place), a keychain with a measuring tape and level, and a pen. I didn't realize until I got home that the pen is also a surprisingly powerful flashlight! Clever.
Coach House Garages builds a variety of garages and similar buildings. They do removal as well as construction. They had measuring tape keychains.
Iconic Insulation offers spray foam and blow-in fiber insulation. They were handing out nice heavy clips with a magnet on the back.
The maple folks from Golden Ridge Farms were there, so it's our one-year anniversary seeing them. :D We picked up a jug of maple syrup as well as the maple root beer this time. They also had honey. I was tempted by that too.
Gutter Buddy was one of several gutter services present. Their covers are smooth and flat on top, with holes down the front. I'll admit that's unlikely to clog. But it relies entirely on adhesion to direct rain into those front holes; there's no raised edge. So with a steep roof or heavy rain, it's liable to shoot off the roof and form a waterfall into the yard. I'm not finding a card from the booth that had a better design -- screen or perforated metal top with a raised lip -- so my partner Doug probably has that in his bag.
Graber's Greenhouse offered an assortment of houseplants and garden items. I picked up two tiny houseplants: a fern and a green-and-gold ivy. I need to move some of my housplants to larger pots ... in my copious spare time. Their pen is pink with red roses.
GDS Enterprises had their 2-wheel tractors, so we got to explore those. The one that has a electric start is pretty big, and the prices are high. Like, I'm pretty sure we could buy a whole small snowblower for less than the attachment costs, let alone the tractor. I still love the concept, but I'm not sure the execution would meet our needs.
Farmstead Fabrics and Variety had not brought their fabric, but had some other equipment like sewing machines and ironing boards. That's a place I definitely want to check out. I picked up a very nice pen from them, red with copper trim. Copper's more popular this year; I saw a lot of it.
Miller's Storage Buildings had a variety of furniture and other things on display. Among the things they build are greenhouses. We're going to talk with them about assembling the greenhouse kit that we have -- they're potentially interested but need more information, and we've got the electronic manual for it. Last year they had one of their greenhouses hooked up to the Otto Center.
This year what they brought was a tiny house. I thought it would be an efficiency as most are. It was a whole 1-bedroom cottage! :D Coming in the back door, the living room is on the right, L-shaped kitchen to the left, with a dinette between them. It's a full-size kitchen with plenty of cabinets, a double sink, dishwasher, stove, microwave, and refrigerator-freezer. Above the sink is a spice cabinet, rather than a window, since it's against an interior wall. There is a large front porch accessed through a sliding door. Above that is a row of clerestory windows: clever because those let in more light, while allowing the porch roof to shade both the porch and its glass door. Also very efficient, there is only one wet wall between the kitchen (serving the sink) and the bathroom. So further left of the kitchen is the little hall that leads to the washer-dryer and the full bathroom, then a pretty good-sized bedroom. There is no bedroom closet; the equipment closet is in there. My one real quibble is the above-counter bathroom sink; currently "fashionable" but a nightmare to clean among other drawbacks. On the whole, it is a very compact, functional, well-designed home with a lot more features than typical for a tiny home or auxiliary dwelling unit. I asked, and they can custom build different things -- they even have a 2-bedroom model. They also make sheds and agricultural things like chicken houses. Note that Amish construction is consistently solid, unlike a lot of the commercial prefab stuff sold elsewhere. Their pen is gray with copper trim, quite heavy and sturdy.
Miller Building Systems LLC had a very clever tool, the TrussLox. Imagine something like a giant wrench. When you're erecting a set of rafters, you put the fixed end of the tool over the first rafter, then as you push the next one upright, the curved end of the tool catches and holds it in place at the proper spacing. This makes constructing things like sheds a lot easier with fewer hands, without needing to nail on temporary bracing boards.
Swag
Seamless Exterior Solutions LLC wins my award for best swag with a first aid kit in a small tin. It's about twice the size of an Altoids tin with an assortment of bandaids, antiseptic, and first aid cream. There's plenty of room to add more stuff too. This business offers both roofing and siding options in a wide range of colors. They also had the coolest business card: stamped metal with a herringbone pattern on the upper half. You never know when you'll stumble across tiny art. Their pen is black with copper trim, triangular at the base, with grip strips.
First Neighbor Bank had a card-style paper cutter. The blade is about an inch long, but fully recessed on both sides so it won't cut anything except what you slide into the slot. They offer a range of financial services. Last year they tipped us to some that proved quite useful.
Graber Building Supply was one of a couple places that had glow-in-the-dark cubes with popper dots as a stress relief toy. They also had the heavy-duty clips with magnet.
Legacy Building Supply had ribbon lanyards with clips, useful for carrying various things. Their pen is black with copper trim, triangular at the base, with grip strips. They offer a variety of buildings as well as roofs, doors, etc.
Midwest Roofing had both spongy baseball type stress balls and plastic light-up bouncy balls.
Otto's Canvas LLC provided 7-inch rulers in assorted colors. I grabbed a clear one, because sometimes it's useful to see what's underneath. This business does awnings, blinds, and such.
Owens Corning had carpenter pencils in hot pink.
Parkview Vinyl Fencing & Decks had nice pens, red with silver trim.
Pinnacle Point Graphics had a pen with a gray barrel, black trim, and a rubbery grip at the base.
Power Plus Equipment gave out little screwdrivers with a valve tool on the other end. I ought to put this in the all-purpose cleaning kit that I'm assembling; the booth dude pointed out that it also makes an excellent pick.
Trimmed Up Trees offered carabiner keychains, always useful.
This has been a fun and productive day.
(no subject)
Date: 2026-03-14 03:54 am (UTC)O_O
Date: 2026-03-14 04:23 am (UTC)