This past few weeks, I have been working for a friend, Gustavo Ocoro, helping him with his deconstruction business.
I met Gustavo a couple years ago, at Reuse Conex, the US's First National Conferenece and Expo of Reuse, held in Raleigh. I was presenting my Reptire artwork there, as part of the Reuse Exhibit, but also attended the conference, at the organizers behest.
I am glad that I did, because there, at an impromptu meeting, forming a local chapter of the Reuse Alliance, who organized the event, as we went around and introduced ourselves, I was suprised to learn that the person sitting to my left was struggling to launch a reused building supplies store in none other than Siler City!
In our discussions afterwards, he shared a little of the quagmire of regulations the he had run into there.
It is a shame that hard working entrepreneur such as this got caught up in what appears to have been a quite unwelcoming debacle in Chatham County. The upshot of this is that I recently learned that the Chatham County Economic Development Corporation, which was established in part to help bring new business to the county, has learned much from the plight of Gustavo, and perhaps other earnest entrepreneurs, and worked hard to create a system by which entrepreneurs can get all of the necessary officials in one room together. This, to my mind, was an act of practical Brilliance on the part of the EDC. They got down to the heart of the matter, asked what needed be done, and did it! I love it, and my hat is off.
Unfortunately, for Gustavo, AND for Siler City, this proactive measure came to late.
But the upshot is, Fortunately for Gustavo, and Durham, he has found a partner, and perhaps a more receptive audience, and probably a better market, at the the Cordoba Center for the Arts, also the new home of The Scrap Exchange.
And thus, Gustavo's business, and the Scrap Exchange are now neighbors together, and it seems like his business is doing well! I ran into him there one weekend, and he asked if I would like to help, as we have discussed this since.
Last week, we scraped out 2 upstairs bathrooms, down to their bare framing, for a remodel in Forest Hills.
Now this was no pretty task. It involved cutting and gingerly extracting hulking sections of both wall tile, and a beautiful white floor tile. Under the skilled hands of Gustavo and Bob, these came out like the gems that they are.
The cloud of dust was almost unbearable, and the sharp metal lathing on the back of the chunks of wall tile made it truly unpleasant to haul down two flights of stairs to the truck. However, we gleaned some really nice pieces.
Also there for the gleaning was two large cast iron bathtubs, each weighing, they estimated 250-300 lbs!....
When I learned that that they wanted me to help carry these down two flights of stairs in this mansion, I thought they had to be kidding. They weren't. There was NO WAY I thought. Here am I, have just showed up on this job/site, working for $10 / hr, and I am probably going to ending up surfing on this thing, down this flight of stairs, and punching a hole the size of a truck in the wall below it. And more likely, the tub is going to end up surfing on me! I don't think so! I told Gustavo, that I really did feel at all sure that I could safely get this thing down his client's flight of stairs.
He said he had a harness that would make it possible (a shoulder dolly, which I had never encountered). So I agreed to try out the weight, and see how it felt, on the condition that if I didn't think I could do it, we'd make other plans. Well I was completely amazed to find that with this device transfering all of the weight to my legs and hips, it was actually a bearable load!
And thus, step by careful step, we walked this massive tubs down these polished stairs, out the door, across the lawn and onto the trailer! Twice! Afterwards, I felt the particular rush of a survivor, who has, by being careful, and using the right tools, escaped the jaws of death or debt, and even accomplished something that I didn't think was possible. Somewhat how I felt after the reception for the Reclamation exhibition. What can I say, it feels great to not be dead!
This week, we were extracting hardwood flooring from a house about to be demolished. It is a beautiful old house, and the bathtub has this beautiful white tile surround. Like the last house, it is going to be difficult for me, who once aspired to lay tile, to destroy an artisans perfectly completed and functional work. However, the reality of the situation is, that what we don't extract, the bulldozer will destroy.
And so we plow forward, with more nimble hands, preserving what we can.
I met Gustavo a couple years ago, at Reuse Conex, the US's First National Conferenece and Expo of Reuse, held in Raleigh. I was presenting my Reptire artwork there, as part of the Reuse Exhibit, but also attended the conference, at the organizers behest.
I am glad that I did, because there, at an impromptu meeting, forming a local chapter of the Reuse Alliance, who organized the event, as we went around and introduced ourselves, I was suprised to learn that the person sitting to my left was struggling to launch a reused building supplies store in none other than Siler City!
In our discussions afterwards, he shared a little of the quagmire of regulations the he had run into there.
It is a shame that hard working entrepreneur such as this got caught up in what appears to have been a quite unwelcoming debacle in Chatham County. The upshot of this is that I recently learned that the Chatham County Economic Development Corporation, which was established in part to help bring new business to the county, has learned much from the plight of Gustavo, and perhaps other earnest entrepreneurs, and worked hard to create a system by which entrepreneurs can get all of the necessary officials in one room together. This, to my mind, was an act of practical Brilliance on the part of the EDC. They got down to the heart of the matter, asked what needed be done, and did it! I love it, and my hat is off.
Unfortunately, for Gustavo, AND for Siler City, this proactive measure came to late.
But the upshot is, Fortunately for Gustavo, and Durham, he has found a partner, and perhaps a more receptive audience, and probably a better market, at the the Cordoba Center for the Arts, also the new home of The Scrap Exchange.
And thus, Gustavo's business, and the Scrap Exchange are now neighbors together, and it seems like his business is doing well! I ran into him there one weekend, and he asked if I would like to help, as we have discussed this since.
Last week, we scraped out 2 upstairs bathrooms, down to their bare framing, for a remodel in Forest Hills.
Now this was no pretty task. It involved cutting and gingerly extracting hulking sections of both wall tile, and a beautiful white floor tile. Under the skilled hands of Gustavo and Bob, these came out like the gems that they are.
The cloud of dust was almost unbearable, and the sharp metal lathing on the back of the chunks of wall tile made it truly unpleasant to haul down two flights of stairs to the truck. However, we gleaned some really nice pieces.
Also there for the gleaning was two large cast iron bathtubs, each weighing, they estimated 250-300 lbs!....
When I learned that that they wanted me to help carry these down two flights of stairs in this mansion, I thought they had to be kidding. They weren't. There was NO WAY I thought. Here am I, have just showed up on this job/site, working for $10 / hr, and I am probably going to ending up surfing on this thing, down this flight of stairs, and punching a hole the size of a truck in the wall below it. And more likely, the tub is going to end up surfing on me! I don't think so! I told Gustavo, that I really did feel at all sure that I could safely get this thing down his client's flight of stairs.
He said he had a harness that would make it possible (a shoulder dolly, which I had never encountered). So I agreed to try out the weight, and see how it felt, on the condition that if I didn't think I could do it, we'd make other plans. Well I was completely amazed to find that with this device transfering all of the weight to my legs and hips, it was actually a bearable load!
And thus, step by careful step, we walked this massive tubs down these polished stairs, out the door, across the lawn and onto the trailer! Twice! Afterwards, I felt the particular rush of a survivor, who has, by being careful, and using the right tools, escaped the jaws of death or debt, and even accomplished something that I didn't think was possible. Somewhat how I felt after the reception for the Reclamation exhibition. What can I say, it feels great to not be dead!
This week, we were extracting hardwood flooring from a house about to be demolished. It is a beautiful old house, and the bathtub has this beautiful white tile surround. Like the last house, it is going to be difficult for me, who once aspired to lay tile, to destroy an artisans perfectly completed and functional work. However, the reality of the situation is, that what we don't extract, the bulldozer will destroy.
And so we plow forward, with more nimble hands, preserving what we can.
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