Deconstruction...

I took yesterday off of work to spend some time with my mother and sister. Shayna is visiting from Florida for the week and it just seemed like a great opportunity to do "girl" things. When I had told my coworkers that was the plan, I actually meant the term "girl" things rather loosely, not knowing what we would be doing, but we did end up at the nail salon so Shayna could get her acrylic nails fixed. I opted out of the manicures since I'll be elbow deep in yardwork on Saturday. (I really want to work on the front flower beds before the peonies get any bigger.) Instead I wandered over to the bookstore to look for a few books on my to read list before continuing on to a handful of other stores until Mom and Shayna were done. I was nearly suckered in by the animal rescue store. They had an adorable brownish-gold coated hound dog in there with the saddest eyes. I escaped before they could draw me too far in but it was a close call. A dog that size would wreak havoc in my house. Aside from that, the baying would drive me batty.


Anyhow, back to the reason for the post... During conversation, my mother mentioned that an aunt has a connection to getting some free windows for my brother's house. This aunt's boss (a lawyer) has a country home that was recently redone but that he believes he will actually tear down since it's never used. I immediately saw red flags flying everywhere. I'd just recently read an article about the amount of housing debris that comprises landfill contents (~64% of landfills) and thought I'd suggest she tell my aunt about using deconstruction to remove the materials instead of bulldozing everything. My aunt's boss could even call a Habitat for Humanity office about it and I'm sure he'd be overun with volunteers to deconstruct the house, who would then use the materials in future housing projects. He could even use the donation of materials as a tax break! Being a lawyer, I'm sure he'd jump on that opportunity...

It just seems a shame to waste perfectly good materials when to reuse them saves not only landfill space, but would help the community and conserve further unnecessary use of natural resources. Plus, if those volunteers included troubled teens (as some cities have already done), they would learn valuable skills that might help redirect their energies to more productive endeavors.