For more than 25 years, you’ve been sharing your best building know-how with us, letting us know how you make your projects look so great. You’ve also been taking us behind the scenes to let us know about those days when not everything went quite as planned.

“Great Moments in Building History” has been a longtime back-page favorite. Now, you can access an archive of these stories—most humorous, but some thoughtful and touching—online at FineHomebuilding.com. Click here to browse the archive.

In addition to catching up with this vault of wonderfully written stories, you can also enjoy the artful illustrations that have long accompanied these stories, drawn by Jackie Rogers.

When putting together this collection, I asked Chris Hoelk, the editor of this department, to suggest some favorites. He replied: “I had hesitated to specify any stories because it’s tough to pick favorites. Still, two that stand out for very different reasons are the quiet, elegantly moving “Why I Work Wood” by Andrew Schultz (FHB #109) and the highly amusing “Trimming the Tree” by Justin Fink (FHB #200).”

Having never read this column until embarking on this archive project, my recommendation is start with the one with the best headline. Whichever one you choose, you won’t be disappointed.

Click here to browse the archive.

Fine Homebuilding Recommended Products

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Affordable IR Camera

This camera is super useful for tracking down air leaks in buildings. The one-hand pistol grip arrangement frees your other hand for steadying yourself while maneuvering tricky job sites.

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8067 All-Weather Flashing Tape

Available in 2- to 12-in. widths, this is a good general-purpose flashing tape that sticks well to most things. It features a two-piece release paper, water-shedding layers, and good UV resistance.

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Handy Heat Gun

This heat gun is great for drying joint compound, primer and paint when patching drywall and plaster walls. Plus it can soften adhesive, get a very cold small engine to start, and shrink heat-shrink tubing.

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