Oh Canada

A surprising number of elements of my new house are made in Canada. Starting at the ground level and working up we have the bentonite clay foundation waterproofing system. Although I purchased it through Carlisle, a Texas company, the material itself comes from Canada.

Of course, the major portion of the house, the SIPs (structural insulated panels) were made by EnerGreen located in Aldergrove, British Columbia. But the panels themselves are sandwiched between OSB that was also made in Canada. In fact virtually all the OSB and plywood purchased for this project came from Canada.

For roofing underlayment and house wrap I'm using Tri-Flex from Ontario, Canada. The stainless steel, double-wall chimney from Selkirk, whose corporate address is 1301 W PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH HWY, Texas, nonetheless arrived with "Made in Canada" boldly stamped on all the boxes with 50% of the carton printed in French.

I decided to use a type of plastic plumbing tubing called PEX. Much to my surprise the tubing itself was, you guessed it, made in Canada.

Although my Mora wood cookstove is not made in Canada, the only distributor in North America is in Nelson, BC. I drove up there this year to pick it up.

I will need a water purification and filtering system. Thus far the two leading contenders are from Ontario.

Even the thistle in the field is Canadian, but I tell my neighbors that when I was growing up in Canada we called it "American thistle."