Cohousing-L Mailing List: Building our Workshop

[pattymara (pattymara]

Dear List,
At Tierra Nueva (Oceano, Central CA coast) we are finally getting ready
to build our workshop (wood, metal, auto, crafts and multipurpose room)
after nearly 3 years of living here.   The most exciting aspect of it for
me is the fact that we are using recycled, salvaged building materials
for as much of the shop as possible.  

Habitat for Humanity recently opened an outlet called ReStore which sells
salvaged and donated building materials to support their ongoing projects
in the area.  I recently learned that there is a ReStore in the Palo
Alto, CA area as well, so there may be others nationally. 

I can't tell you how gratifying it is to go to the ReStore on Saturday
mornings and pick out windows, doors, sinks, cupboards, fixtures, etc.  
When we were designing our homes and common house back in the early days,
we were discouraged to find out most of the "green" building practices
were too expensive.  Now, with the workshop, the scale is much smaller
and our contractor is willing to be flexible enough to use what we can
come up with.   

Last week we watched a truck pull up from a commercial door & window
store to unload new donations.  With our plans unrolled we checked sizes
and selected what we need or whatever will work.  So far we've purchased
two gorgeous, old 12 pane french doors for the entrance to the
multi-purpose room, and several still-in-the-box dual pane Milgard
windows.  We plan to camp out at the ReStore every Saturday morning to
see what comes in.  (They are only open on Saturdays).

After being on the Workshop Committee for over 5 years, this is a dream
come true.
With the savings in materials (50 - 70% off),  we may be able to offset
the cost of solar roof panels to generate electricity back to the grid.  
Still a dream, but we're getting good at dreaming.  

coheartedly,
Patty Mara Gourley
Tierra Nueva Cohousing
Central California Coast 

  
________________________________________________________________
GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO!
Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less!
Join Juno today!  For your FREE software, visit:
http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.
_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l