Who is… the Jonno?

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by

Hey, As your friendly neighbourhood Jonno, there are a few things you or your bank/lawyer might want to know about me.

  • Carpenter1/Builder2.
  • Quantity Surveyor3.
  • Masters degree4 (commerce, Otago.)
  • Master Inspectors Association NZ (MIANZ) Member
  • Insured.

My very first pre purchase building inspection was in 2008. Hard to track exactly across the many systems I have run since, but I have inspected over 7000 houses since then. I am VERY good at what I do, and understanding the people who trust me to serve them – I have personally built very good systems and automations to help serve you efficiently and reliably, but as a human I roll with all the administrative grace of a locomotive hurling itself into a viper pit full of peanut butter, watermelon flavoured hokey pokey and pop rocks.

I started building last century (dang!) 1999, as a willing part of the slave labour force building a large tilt slab building at what was then Lifeway bible college in Snells Beach.

Progressed to making early carpentry mistakes helping a huge refurbishment and renovation program at Paremoremo village. Became chief estimator for a painting firm specialising in lead safe paint removal before worksafe grizzled at people who didn’t. Abandoned that post then started a carpentry apprenticeship with Naylor Love in Auckland. After a few years and scars, I made my way into the shiny bums world as a Junior Quantity Surveyor.

That got me active in site management, project planning and that world of scarily massive budgets, multiple stakeholders, liquidated damages, contractually obligated smoko donuts and large workforce engagement.

A period as a fulltime NZSBK racer lead back to a renovations business in Hamilton, then a house fire sent my family south to University. I studied Health Sciences, before jumping off into the commerce world.

I have since started and sold a few businesses, typically with a technical and technological bent. 3d Laser scanning. Electric Excavation. Emissions free section care. Reporting automation. Insurance costings and calculations.

Aotearoa Workplace Support – board member/trustee since 2016 – we are a nationwide charity providing Employee Assistance Programs, Counselling, and our unique Onsite Model – which supports people in the workplace to reduce the incidence and impact of the really bad things in life, which sometimes touch us all.

These days I like to:

  • grizzle about things we do as humans that don’t have the expected outcome.
  • fervently promote passivhaus as a wonderdrug gold standard.
  • consult on small business, automation and digitization, real estate, strategy.
  • read, ponder and critique copious science and medical papers.
  • pretend to be an economist.
  • bemoan so many of the things I was taught wrong (see blog posts/quora).
  • try not to hurt myself snowboarding.
  • brag about landing my first flip at 41 years old.
  • go runsies ideally in the bush or mountains.
  • do random things that I can win at with any number of my 7 kids.
  • congratulate my wife for thriving with 7 offspring/8 kids.
  • ruminate on the implications of ADHD.
  1. A carpenter is the guy or gal who nails bits of sticks together in an attempt to provide warm and dry accommodations for humans, cars, horses etc. ↩︎
  2. A builder is the same as a carpenter, but they take the financial responsibility for their erections. ↩︎
  3. A quantity surveyor has extensively studied the fine art of measuring, calculating and producing remarkably incorrect materials and task schedules, which misinform costings and construction programmes for building projects, clients and contractors alike. ↩︎
  4. A very expensive bit of paper, which begs the question “how can someone so qualified and capable be so sporadically daft?” ↩︎