One Man’s Trash…

So, with the roof project finally completed, we were left with the task of cleaning up seven months of demo and construction mess. Wonder why things have been silent over here? Procrastination. It’s been a welcome break this past month, but it’s high time we got back to work.

As we prepped for a day of hauling load after load to the dump, Armand asked, “Is it worth putting all of this stuff up on craigs’s list?”. Yes, Armand. Yes it is. But would anyone want dry, brittle, tar-streaked wood, tiny rectangles of plywood, and – count ‘um – three – 30′x50′ tarps cut to tiny pieces?

Observe:

The plywood went right away. The takers are using it to make concrete forms to repair their dad’s foundation. The rest of the wood took three days to unload, but all of it will be put to good use. A set designer needs to create the inside of a barn for a two-person staged drama, an artist will be creating sculptures, and a gal will be repurposing it into some furniture. Perhaps the most exciting pickup for us was Jacqueline Sharp, a hot lady welder and woodworker who’s starting a business. Super talented, and couldn’t be nicer.

She’ll be creating steel frames and inlaying the wood after she runs each piece through a planer to freshen it up (and slough off the tar), much like this coffee table that I pinned on Pinterest (more on that later!).

We can’t wait to show you what these pieces of our house become!

I know, I know – you guys are saying “why didn’t you make something with all of that wood?”. Truth is, our plates are full and we just aren’t at the point of furnishing this house for realsies yet. We don’t know what we’ll want/need. But we did set aside the old redwood rafters. We have a feeling we’ll make something beautiful with them when the time comes.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about our latest foray into craigs’s list were the people interested in the cut up pieces of tarp. Twelve people were in competition for ‘um! They went to Bill, a nice man who was the first to come by. He works on bicycles and only needs small pieces to cover each bike.

So, now we’ve got a new policy – head to craig’s before we throw anything away. All in all we saved $250 dollars in dump fees and kept five Toyota Tacoma loads of stuff out of the landfill. Everybody wins.

And now, we finally resume Upper Yard construction!