John Inglis has been handcrafting customized windows and doors at Lothlorien Woodworking in Frontenac since 1978. He left the big city and found a beautiful place to live, a supportive community, and a more meaningful pace of work. Here's John's story in his own words:
On moving to Frontenac from Toronto.
It's funny - I had this fantastic job at Hydro, I was this young engineer with this amazing salary and yet I used to get bored. I'd be sitting in my office, in my cubicle and I was bored. I would have to go down to the Danish tea shop and get a muffin or something. Don't get me wrong, there are certain challenges about living in Frontenac, but I've never been bored. Being bored is horrible. I hate it.
I think just being constrained in an air conditioned office up on the 15th floor on the corner of Bay and Bloor... it just didn't feel right somehow. I remember clearly in 1972 feeling that it was important to breathe cleaner air. At the same time my marriage was breaking up after seven years. I quit a great job in Toronto, broke up a marriage, had no money and borrowed to buy into a strange idea on a large and remote property. It helped to be young and idealistic.
I moved to Frontenac in response to strong 'back-to-the-land' values of the time. A group of nine of us got together and started looking in Frontenac because one of us knew Oskar Graf (the famous guitar maker who lives in Frontenac) and Oskar had said "well there's cheap land available in Eastern Ontario". We had this desire to get involved in something very different where you had a relationship with the land and it was permanent and secure and you didn't think about the value of the property.
The original members of Lothlorien Farm purchased 700 acres of land in North Frontenac Township. The group has changed only slightly since the beginning, and everything is done on a consensus basis. The result of that is that not much gets done, which is good because things kinda stay the same. The fact that it is an intentional community is totally integral to the existence of my business and the reason I'm here.
On the quality of life in Frontenac.
It's quiet, secure. Beautiful. The quiet is underrated I think. The quality of quiet here is... it's pretty unique. I think it's pretty important too.
I would encourage certain kinds of businesses to come to this area, if their primary interest is lifestyle. You can export stuff from here, the road system is really good. You can get deliveries here. All the couriers come here all the time. It's a 12 month secure road system and it's become that in the last 25 years. You can get to New York from here in 12 hours, you can get to Toronto in 4 hours, you can get to Ottawa in 2 hours. It's an amazing location and it's kinda special that it's so remote and yet it's so near. It's always amazed me that way.
It's further to hospitals, it's further to shopping and there's nothing to do at night. You can't go walking down the street and walk into a restaurant like in Toronto, so you have to value certain other things. And you have to get used to the bugs.
It comes back to the quiet and the beauty. It's a beautiful place to live. And I have found a community of people around me who are very supportive.
On getting into the custom woodworking business.
A friend from Toronto had a shop - he was a cabinet maker - he was actually a Draft Dodger. That was a neat time. During the Vietnam War, Americans... generally very talented, thoughtful, well-educated Americans... were coming across the border to Canada and doing things. Mike came across the border with his young daughter and helped start a daycare centre at the University of Toronto and he took up woodworking.
So I wanted to build this house and I had very little money and I couldn't afford to buy windows so I thought, 'oh I'll just build my own'. I had no idea that it would turn into anything. Mike helped me. He had a shop down in Toronto on Front Street. We built the windows there and didn't have a clue what we were doing. It was learning from scratch, except Mike had some woodworking skills. I remember dragging them up the hill on a toboggan. I've still got some of those windows in the house, not many. They were pretty strong, kinda crude. All but two have been replaced. Anything that opens has been replaced because I couldn't figure out how to build an opening window then.
On small, niche, and innovation.
My business satisfies a small niche market. A lot of my market in this business has been heritage windows. A good portion is people who come to me because we can copy an old style window. Heritage values are important to me. Especially in architecture. I think we have to look back into the past to find anything of aesthetic worth, really.
I've had up to four employees during the busiest years. We're in a slowing down phase now. What keeps it interesting for me is the relationship with customers, the design process, and the constant effort to keep quality high.
I like to think this kind of environment is ideal for fostering small, innovative businesses. I mean what I've done here is not high-tech but it's high value added. I take lumber and I produce a really expensive product. And I ship most of it to other markets... Kingston, Ottawa... I used to go to the States all the time. I'm not the only small, high-end manufacturer in Frontenac - Back Forty is similar. They create a niche, very expensive cheese and they sell it in the city. And why are they doing it here? It'd be cheaper for them if they were in Scarborough or somewhere, but they're here for other reasons. And I think there's lots of opportunity for more small, niche businesses like that #inFrontenac.
Swing by our Business Directory to get all of John's contact information.
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