I absolutely love this little article/blog post from routesmagazine.ca. In it, Mike talks candidly about the currently-stalled Wind Walk Project, which would be a sustainable community built to last that would produce more electricity than it used. Mike is relentless about changing the minimum code and building homes that don't mold, burn, or blow over. “It’s about doing the right thing, in the right place, at the right time," he states in the article. Doing it right is truly the heart of Holmes. But Mike talks more than just business in this article. He also talks about growing up as a wimpy kid who got beat up a lot, the up and coming "Mighty Mike" cartoon, and the sixth book he plans to write, entitled "Men are Easy."  (Are they really, Mike?)  "...I have always been drawn to write a book about love, life and sex," he says. Mike, I am eagerly awaiting this book. It should be a good one. And I really hope he's joking about buying an island and disappearing one day... unless he plans to take me with him. Wink ;)  PS- Dig the Knight in Shining Armor pictures. Super cute!

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At the Heart of Holmes

September 2, 2011

Photo by Neville Palmer at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Contrary to public opinion, Mike Holmes never believed he was destined to become a contractor, let alone a Canadian icon in the construction industry, but from the age of six, and by virtue of his father’s influence, he was constantly fixing or building something. Never at a loss for words or ideas, this natural born leader has always aspired to make the world a better place – beyond building homes that won’t burn, mould or rot. Now at 48, his drive to educate millions of people – all at once – is stronger than ever, and he has new goals on the horizon. But when his work is finished, don’t be surprised if Holmes disappears from the public eye – seeking seclusion on an island in hopes of regaining some well-deserved privacy.

By Mary Savage

Photos by Neville Palmer
Read more here about the photoshoot by Neville.

After spending an afternoon with Canada’s most trusted contractor it became apparent that Mike Holmes is even more personable than his “non-scripted” television demeanor depicts. Behind the piercing blue eyes and diamond-studded ears, the self-proclaimed workaholic is starting to realize the importance of enjoying life by stealing pockets of time amidst his breakneck schedule, his vision for change never sleeps.

“For whatever reason, we don’t think outside the box: we know it’s wrong, but we don’t change our approach to building better homes. It’s not about changing the minimum building codes, it’s about changing how we look at things,” says Holmes. “Things won’t change until we know better – by learning from our mistakes.”

He appears to be a knight in shining armour to the thousands of families he personally helps to ‘make it right’ when renovations go wrong, it’s no wonder he has a global following. “We’ve got to stop doing things because that’s the way we’ve always done them. We haven’t changed the minimum building codes for 30-odd years and they’re not working,” remarks Holmes. “Two of the fastest growing businesses are home inspections and mould abatement.” Because according to Holmes, every single house has mould – the question is how much.

“Imagine living in a house that won’t mould or burn, it won’t fall down or blow down. Imagine building a community that operates as ‘net-zero’, meaning it actually produces more electricity than it uses,” Holmes adds.

When Holmes forayed into the Wind Walk project, a sustainable community slated for development south of Okotoks, his vision of the Holmes Community was to build houses that would last for centuries (costing about 15 per cent more than the going rate). Three years later, the project sits before the provincial government awaiting its decision, and Holmes has no intention of giving up.

“Eventually, it will move forward because I’m not giving up, it’s the right thing do to. I picked Alberta because it’s progressive with respect to the environment,” explains Holmes. “It’s about doing the right thing, in the right place, at the right time.”

Holmes explains that the project’s greatest challenge has to do with water. “We want the water and sewer to be 100 per cent contained within the community. The water source comes from the aquifer: we’ll use it and clean it and return it to the aquifer. Everything in life is about that cycle: how can we move, how can we grow, how can we continue – for our kids and their future.”

As for other communities like Wind Walk, there’s one slated for Haiti. It’s being built near Port au Prince to house children who were left orphaned by the earthquake. His team has been down there several times and he will go down in November to begin the project.

And when it comes the next generation, Holmes has met with the prime minister on several occasions to talk about ‘green’ initiatives. “We’re all thinking green, we’re all talking green, but who’s teaching it? How do we move from the level we’re at now, building minimum code that’s literally not working, to designing differently?” he asks. Holmes Communities will hire local apprentices and teach them how to build these houses. It creates a brand new certification and will change the industry overnight.”

When it comes to building a better house, Holmes combines history with technology and a bit of common sense. “When you think about how we built years ago, we had canopies over our windows and they were positioned at perfect degrees. In the summer, it shaded us from the solar passive and kept the house cool, but in the winter, it still allowed the sunshine to heat the environment,” he says. “Why did we stop using canopies? Was it cheaper or did we just become stupid?”

His forward thinking, backed by his drive for action, has landed him in a league of his own where he is both respected and disliked. Regardless, Holmes has already made a tremendous difference and he attributes many of his traits – like them or not – to his father.

“My Dad was a real unique person and, among other things, he taught me respect and to think for myself,” Holmes says. “I grew up in a tough neighborhood and maybe that’s what made me strong. I was a wimpy kid and got beat up a lot. I was about 14 when I finally stood up for myself and realized I was strong enough to fight back.”

For the past five years, Holmes has been working on Mighty Mike a cartoon character to be launched in 2012. “It’s a version of me as a kid. It follows Mighty Mike’s activity with a crew of kids around him. It’s going to help teach kids integrity, kindness, respect, having a passion for what they do and, of course, how to become a contractor,” Holmes explains. “He’s going to be an icon for the next generation.”

Looking at Holmes’s bucket list, there appears to be a lot of checkmarks. “In the last 10 years, everything was planned, with one exception: the accident was going from Holmes Homes to Holmes Communities!” With four companies, a bi-monthly magazine and four books under the Holmes Group, he’s on a roll.

“I planned every book ahead of time and I’ve still got two more to go. The fifth one is about the environment and how we need to understand the changes that are necessary. The sixth book is called, Men are Easy, because I have always been drawn to write a book about love, life and sex,” he says with a grin.

“When I read the book, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, I was 30 and newly divorced. Afterwards, I said to myself, ‘It’s that easy?’ Then I called my ex-wife and apologized – for everything.”

Holmes looks at life as one continuous learning curve, turning mistakes into lessons and moving forward. “To me, there’s never a mistake in life. Everything is a lesson and that’s how we learn. I’ve never regretted anything that has helped me understand life better and helped me get to where I am today.”

Holmes admits he thought Wind Walk would have been better received, but like most things in life, he sees it as a learning opportunity. “There’s nothing negative about this project – we spent over a million dollars planning and testing it,” he says. “No matter what happens, after the first community has been built, I’ll have changed the industry.”

In a rare moment, when Holmes is not working, you’ll find him on his boat or travelling across the country on his new three-wheel motorcycle. “I calculate my time by what’s important to me. It’s important to finish what I’ve started and I speculate I’ve got about five years to go, but I doubt it will ever stop,” he adds. The next bucket list will take him to 60 and according to Holmes, it’s anybody’s guess what happens after that.

“I always said I’m going to buy an island and disappear and I’m probably going to do that, but then again, maybe I’ll build an underground house.”

Wind Walk at a Glance

• For the 1,000 – 1,200 Wind Walk residents, their community would be a compact, walkable neighborhood featuring Green™ and sustainable building solutions that include Holmes Homes, Holmes Approved Homes and high performance infrastructure. The concept, introduced in spring 2008, proposes development of a 145-acre parcel of land, located south of Highway 7 and the Cornerstone area, just outside the Okotoks city limits. The current plan promotes a mixed-used land plan:

• 457 single and multi-family homes
• 33 per cent of the land is comprised of open green spaces, allocating ten acres to public park use
• a full-sized soccer pitch
• over 80 plots designated for a community garden and farmers’ markets
• 7.5 acres for a school
• approximately 80,000 sq.ft. of retail space

The plan also includes technological integration to offer:

• district wide heating and electrical generation plan to be the first net-exporting energy subdivision in North America
• improved automation and home energy management
• renewable energy systems such as solar on every rooftop
• an integrated water management system retaining storm water on-site to pre-development rates and conservation standards
• improved broadband speed and capacity through fibre optic infrastructure
• full compost, recycle and waste management plan during and after construction
• district wide battery back-up storage to eliminate risk of power outages, surges and interruptions

Talking To Mike Holmes with Toro Magazine

An online Canada edition of the New York Times, Toro Magazine, sat down for an interesting interview with Mike Holmes in 2009. It's pretty much the standard Q & A we  usually get from a "candid" sit down with the big man himself. Long story short, Mike Holmes is a Canadian ninja, and he wants to take on a tornado. Good luck with that Mikey. Do be careful, and please let us know how it all turns out. :)

TALKING TO MIKE HOLMES
POSTED BY: Salvatore Difalco
April 7, 2009

To be canonized a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, an individual must enjoy, among other holy virtues and requirements, something referred to as "the Beatific Vision," and perform one or more miracles. I don´t know if Mike Holmes enjoys the Beatific Vision, or if he even believes in God, at least the Roman Catholic version of Him, but Holmes has certainly performed a bunch of miracles. And although he may never be assigned a feast day, and no parish church may ever be built in his honour (don’t count it out), it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to think of Holmes as a secular saint, and one of some considerable standing.

Mike Holmes, the affable, sturdy Canadian contractor made himself a household name with his television show Holmes on Homes, where he came to the rescue of homeowners stuck with renovations gone terribly wrong. His integrity, his technical knowledge and his unflagging and rigorous desire to make it right really struck a chord with the public. And not just in North America. Holmes on Homes is catching on across the English-speaking world. And his influence goes beyond simple reality-TV entertainment to educating an ignorant public and pressuring contractors and legislators alike to clean up their acts.

Last June, Holmes headed to New Orleans to face the toughest assignment of his professional life: in 10 weeks, make it right for one family whose home was destroyed three years earlier by Hurricane Katrina. The result is Holmes in New Orleans, a two-part special which begins Tuesday, April 7, at 9 p.m. ET on Global, and concludes the following night. Untangling the tragically stupid mistakes of several layers of government administration and doing it in the sweltering heat of a New Orleans summer proved daunting to say the least.

He did have some high-profile “assistance” from Brad Pitt, who had launched his own Make It Right campaign in New Orleans. When Holmes heard that Pitt had co-opted his trademarked expression, he made inquiries and got on board with the project, flying his all-Canadian crew down to build the first energy-efficient home in the still devastated Lower 9th Ward region. Holmes and his crew, which included his son Mike Jr. and daughters Amanda and Sherry, put in long, difficult days and nights to meet their August 29 deadline.

Whether or not he ever does get canonized, make no mistake, Mike Holmes is a much beloved figure these days, and it doesn’t seem like this will soon wane. Women swoon around him, children smile and most men find themselves simperingly beguiled. Maybe one day we will see a parish church go up in his honour, or at the very least a monument with his warm and smiling visage on it. And why not, the guy can do it all – he can do what most of us cannot. TORO caught up to Holmes during the production of his new series called Holmes Inspection, which profiles home inspections gone wrong.

Q: I remember as a kid in the ’60s watching a sitcom about these bumbling handymen called Mack & Myer for Hire. Some of the jobs you’ve been called in to fix look like their handiwork. Nightmare reno stories abound, but is it as bad as it seems out there or are you highlighting worst-case scenarios?
A: It’s worse than anybody really knows. And that is the bare-bottom truth, because I can prove it. You know, to receive 100,000 emails a year at Holmes on Homes to help 13 families – and out of that 100,000 there’s 60,000 for sure begging for the help because they’re in big trouble. Now these are the people brave enough to send in an email. Imagine how many are ashamed and don’t want to do anything.
Look at the world of construction and what is happening. We’re actually building no longer with knowledge, we’re building with education of how: minimum code is how it’s not why. So long as we build this way, we’re going to make mistakes. Now, add the factor that there’s a lot of people who really don’t give a shit about what they’re doing, like “mine over matter” – it’s not mine, so it doesn’t matter. And I hate these sayings, but the truth is there. We only have so many people with integrity that actually care about what they’re doing. Add that factor into a bare-minimum code, with no real knowledge of what they’re doing, and you really have a bad formula.

Q: Your motto is “make it right.” If there is virtue in doing a job right why do so many fail when it comes to doing home improvement – is it a lack of ethics or a lack of skills? A skill set that used to be widespread has waned. Trying to find someone competent and trustworthy to do the job isn’t easy.
A: That is the truth. I always say the good, the bad, the ugly – and that’s the good 20 per cent, the bad 70 per cent, the ugly 10 per cent, you know. Easily we can see the ugly because these are trained guys who rip you off. But that’s a low percentage. And the good 20 per cent, these guys know what they’re doing and they care, they have the integrity. It’s the bad. And that’s 70 per cent, and that’s because they just don’t know enough and they don’t care enough, and if you put those two together it’s just a recipe for disaster.

We need to make some sort of a change. And I don’t think it’s the licensing or the certification programs. I think it’s the education itself: stop teaching how and start teaching why. Let me give you some examples. We have mould-resistant drywall on the market, but it’s not in the stores. Okay. We have environmental wood which is made of aspen and poplar and it’s not in the stores. We have BluWood and it’s not in the stores, it’s custom order. So we have all these things and why aren’t they in the store? Minimum code says use green drywall if you’re going to tile. We know it moulds. We know it because I can put it up everywhere in the house possible, take it down and it’s all moulded. The reason that it’s not in the stores is because of demand. If we do not change the demand – which means people buying stuff that doesn’t work start demanding stuff that does – it won’t change. So, for example, no one should ever use anything but mould-resistant drywall, and it should be in the stores now.

Q: Holmes on Homes airs on HGTV Canada, BBC Canada, on the U.S. Discovery Channel, in New Zealand on The Living Channel, in Australia on The How To Channel, in the United Kingdom on Discovery Realtime ... Have I left any out?
A: Germany [chuckles].

Q: Germany! Well. Are you surprised by the show’s amazing success and reach – and your sudden iconic status? Everybody knows who you are, including my elderly Italian mother who admires you immensely.
A: [Laughs.] I had a feeling the show was going to do something, but I didn’t expect this whole thing – the whole country pretty well knowing who I am. It’s surreal to go to the store and hear, “Hey, Mike how you doing?” – and it doesn’t matter where I go. That’s something I didn’t expect. The interviews, the other television shows, the popular magazines, I just didn’t expect all that. I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking.

Q: A television show like yours wasn’t imaginable a few short years ago. Why did you think it would work, and how did you convince someone to take it on?
A: It was an accident. Actually, I met the executive producer of HGTV – he asked me to build him a custom home. And I got to know him and I really liked him. And one day I said to him, “I’ve got a show idea for you, just one guy to another.” I asked if he wanted to hear it and I blabbed off – long story short, he just started smiling and said he wanted a pilot right away. I laughed. “I’m a contractor. I’m giving you an idea, run with it.” And it took him a few months but he convinced me to shoot a pilot. And it was the way he said it to get me interested to do it: it wasn’t money or anything, it was education. And once I shot the pilot I got where he was going with it, and that’s how the show started.

Q: When I heard about the Holmes Foundation I thought that learning a trade or a useful and in-demand skill set had to be a lifesaver for some of these troubled kids. How has that project fared?
A: Well, I think they’re lost. They don’t know where they’re going and for whatever reason they’re lost, and to give them help, to steer them in the right direction so they’re back on course and give them a job in the skill trades – my God, this is a great opportunity, this is a great job. I think anybody, if they had the opportunity to be educated well in what they were doing, I think they would just thrive in it. How much better can it get to be able to stand back and look at your work and go, “This is awesome.”

Q: Talk about your work in New Orleans. I know it was a big concern of yours.
A: It was. I remember when Katrina first hit, I had watched it on television much like 9/11, and I said, “That’s it, we gotta go down there and help these people.” I think some people think I’m insane when I say these things. Why do we want to go down there? Because they’re going to build the same crap and it’s going to wash away again. I said we can help build better technologies, so all of a sudden, three years later, I’ve got so much work hanging out of my pants I can’t hold the mop [laughs].

Anyway, Brad Pitt started the Make It Right Foundation, and I love him for what he’s done. I kinda own Make It Right, and so we contacted him and I said, “I really love what you guys are doing and your intentions – and hey, by the way, why don’t I help you? Let’s make it right together.” And that’s exactly what happened. I went down there and we helped with all the technical part of the builds. I didn’t change the designs because they were done by 13 architects worldwide. But I’m responsible for the technical part and, really, the show. Throughout an emotional show, you’re going to see what happened after Katrina, what happened to the people and the stories that blow me away. In between all that you’re going to see the world’s best house being built.

Q: You have a new project in the works – Holmes Inspection. How will it differ from Holmes on Homes?
A: It was the next – obvious for me – the next obvious thing to do, because I think I’ve helped make a difference in the building industry with Holmes on Homes but it didn’t really change anything other than the education of homeowners and maybe some of the contractors, which I’m proud of, but we have big issues with the home inspections. And as it stands, it was the number one complaint on my website since Holmes on Homes started.

And I wrote a book about it, and in writing a book about it I went and inspected many homes and I got to talk to all the home inspectors, really, of Canada, or the great majority of them, and the organizations. And I said, “Look, you need to start making serious changes and introducing documents – it’s just not good enough now. You must create a documented report that goes with that house from homeowner to homeowner. Let’s do thermographic image reading, and air sampling, that’s all easy. Let’s find out if the permits were pulled on the house that the real estate agents are bragging about.”

So how I made a difference with a television show was doing just that: showing how I believe, or how I think, or what I’m actually doing (I opened the first Mike Holmes inspection company a couple of weeks ago) and how to change the home inspection industry. And I added an element of special effects to it that I think people are going to love. I put my money on it that it’ll get more viewers than Holmes on Homes.

Q: Do you hope that your work will lead to stiffer legislation and penalties when it comes to shoddy and often dangerous work, or do you think an educated public and perhaps a more ethical ethos among workers is enough?
A: You know, it’s a shame but I think we’re going to need both. More education is a definite – start teaching why and not just how – and I do think that for those that are ugly and the ones that don’t care enough there should be a penalty, because right now there is not a penalty and the truth is that these homeowners are left holding the bag. And that is wrong, and something should be done about it. I’m always the person who says you get what you give. So, if you really give it, you know, you deserve to get it. And that depends whether it’s good or bad that you’re giving – if you’re giving bad then you deserve bad, if you’re giving good you deserve good. So those who are really screwing people should have to pay a penalty.

Q: You’re probably the first man Ellen DeGeneres has every proposed to – but I can understand why. You perform miracles, and we all want you to come to our homes and make them shine. What’s next on your agenda?
A: [Laughs.] I like the idea of changing the building industry. I started the Holmes Homes, the Holmes Communities, the Holmes Approved Homes, which [together] is a whole new program, and that’s building the next generation of homes. And that’s also educating the next generation of builders with the skills to build the home – how to build them, creating a new system that easily educates, that easily gets them into the trades and starts the change that we should have been doing years ago. It’s about time somebody steps up and does it. I don’t care if it’s me or anyone but someone’s got to do it so I’m doing that.

I would also like to play a little more with the worldwide shows – I get the idea that I can go to Kansas City and piss off a tornado because it can’t tear the house down [laughs]. I like those ideas.