As I learn the past history of the plane, I’ll add it here:

• The owner previous to the gentleman we purchased it from had an incident with a gascolator that caused a small fire.  The fire looked worse than it was (fabric planes don’t look so good after even a small fire).  The gentleman I bought it from was able to buy it back from the insurance company for a reasonable price, and he went to work cleaning it all up.  The repair became a matter of stripping off the old ruined fabric from the forward fuselage, and simply wiping the soot and residue off of the tubing.  Recovering ensued and the errant gascolator was removed.  The plane was discovered to have not ever done the 25 hrs flown off, so he promptly did this to get everything straight with Transport Canada.
• As I understand it, the original builder/owner of the plane was diagnosed with lung cancer and some friends finished up the plane while he was in the hospital.  Rumor has it that they snuck him out of the hospital for a flight when it was finished.  Sadly he passed away and the plane was sold.  I want to deeply thank the original builder, as the plane is built very well, and we look forward to many years flying it.