The Globe and Mail

Wilf Mahood stares up at the barroom ceiling of Kincardine's historic Walker House and shakes his head disapprovingly. The Ontario Building Code says the original 12-inch-wide, two-inch-thick hemlock joists must be reinforced with a steel beam. "Only been there 150 years and never sagged," the 84-year-old grumbles. "You'd think they'd never built buildings before." For five years, Mr. Mahood has been a key figure in a massive volunteer effort to restore Walker House, a 154-year old clapboard inn by the harbour of the Lake Huron town, and the oldest structure of its kind in Bruce County. In his sprawling workshop, Mr. Mahood has used 200-year-old woodworking tools to do much of the carpentry by hand in the wood-frame building, which was badly damaged by fire in 1995.