Re-purposing and some good news
The plans for the greenhouse are still a work in progress and this weekend they had a big boost in possibilities. The city and county that I live in is just beginning a pretty large project to widen the main road that leads out to where we live. In the process they have "imminent domained" the whole North side of the road. For the purposes of this commentary I'm not going to go into the whole imminent domain issue but rather I'll leave it at this. I generally don't agree with it. There are times when I do feel it is warranted, but I'm not sure if this is one of those times or not.
The up-side to the whole thing, if there is one, is that I have been able to gain from the process. I drove by the abandoned homes for the last couple of weeks looking at them as closely as I could for windows. I just knew that one of the ten or so homes would have some windows that might be able to be salvaged before the wrecker showed up. Last week I spied them.
They were in the back of the first house on the row. The previous owners had built a sun room of sorts as an add-on and there were these beautiful 5'x5' double pane windows in there. I was hardly able to see it from the street, but once I got a look at them I decided to park and confirm. I've talked before about visualizing the things that you need or want from life and this is the perfect example of it. There's a particular reason that it works and it's not some metaphysical mumbo-jumbo or anything. (If your interested I'll go into it, just let me know, but it's the same thing that makes you start noticing all the red cars in the world when your looking for a red car.)
I grabbed my 13 yr old, a couple of hammers and a pry bar and headed over. I should mention at this point that I made a few phone calls about getting permission to scavenge these windows before taking it upon myself to do it. The project manager informed me that they could not give me permission to take the windows because that would, by default, make them liable for any injury I might sustain getting them. She also, however, informed me that they would not be salvaging any of the windows and that they "wouldn't miss them if they weren't there". (wink wink...nod nod...) So, as I was saying, my son and I headed over to the home and got to tearing into it. Here's a peak from the inside.
So after a couple of hours and two trips, one to loose them and one to pick them up. Plus a trip to the docs because my son found a nail with his foot... we finally got them home. Total there are four 5x5 ft straight glass (no seams) and two 47 x [34] inch double hung windows. probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-700.00 worth of windows.
I've modified the layout of the greenhouse to incorporate the glass, which I am going to take apart into individual panes and then have cut to the specific sizes that I need, but I haven't yet re-drawn the plans. As soon as I do I will get them up here. I've been thinking about incorporating the chicken coop into the design as well; any thoughts on that from anyone?
As for the good news, A~ got a job and started today! Ironic isn't it how I was just talking about how we had decided to have her stay at home to raise the boys while they were young? The thing is that the job pays very well, is for the same company that I work for, is only four hours a day and best of all the hours are flexible so She will drop the kids off to school and then go to work. She'll be off before they get out, even on short days, and will pick them up just like now. In fact, our youngest boy B~, said this afternoon when he heard us talking about her first day, "Oh, yeaaahhh....I forgot you were working today..." That's a good sign to us that the schedule will not impact them at all. Besides, their not little boys anymore, the youngest is 11, and the extra $$ sure won't hurt at all.
I wish you all the very best...
till tomorrow.
Paul~
The up-side to the whole thing, if there is one, is that I have been able to gain from the process. I drove by the abandoned homes for the last couple of weeks looking at them as closely as I could for windows. I just knew that one of the ten or so homes would have some windows that might be able to be salvaged before the wrecker showed up. Last week I spied them.
They were in the back of the first house on the row. The previous owners had built a sun room of sorts as an add-on and there were these beautiful 5'x5' double pane windows in there. I was hardly able to see it from the street, but once I got a look at them I decided to park and confirm. I've talked before about visualizing the things that you need or want from life and this is the perfect example of it. There's a particular reason that it works and it's not some metaphysical mumbo-jumbo or anything. (If your interested I'll go into it, just let me know, but it's the same thing that makes you start noticing all the red cars in the world when your looking for a red car.)
I grabbed my 13 yr old, a couple of hammers and a pry bar and headed over. I should mention at this point that I made a few phone calls about getting permission to scavenge these windows before taking it upon myself to do it. The project manager informed me that they could not give me permission to take the windows because that would, by default, make them liable for any injury I might sustain getting them. She also, however, informed me that they would not be salvaging any of the windows and that they "wouldn't miss them if they weren't there". (wink wink...nod nod...) So, as I was saying, my son and I headed over to the home and got to tearing into it. Here's a peak from the inside.
So after a couple of hours and two trips, one to loose them and one to pick them up. Plus a trip to the docs because my son found a nail with his foot... we finally got them home. Total there are four 5x5 ft straight glass (no seams) and two 47 x [34] inch double hung windows. probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-700.00 worth of windows.
I've modified the layout of the greenhouse to incorporate the glass, which I am going to take apart into individual panes and then have cut to the specific sizes that I need, but I haven't yet re-drawn the plans. As soon as I do I will get them up here. I've been thinking about incorporating the chicken coop into the design as well; any thoughts on that from anyone?As for the good news, A~ got a job and started today! Ironic isn't it how I was just talking about how we had decided to have her stay at home to raise the boys while they were young? The thing is that the job pays very well, is for the same company that I work for, is only four hours a day and best of all the hours are flexible so She will drop the kids off to school and then go to work. She'll be off before they get out, even on short days, and will pick them up just like now. In fact, our youngest boy B~, said this afternoon when he heard us talking about her first day, "Oh, yeaaahhh....I forgot you were working today..." That's a good sign to us that the schedule will not impact them at all. Besides, their not little boys anymore, the youngest is 11, and the extra $$ sure won't hurt at all.
I wish you all the very best...
till tomorrow.
Paul~
9 comments:
Great find Paul. They will make a fine greenhouse.
Gav
Congrats to you p on the windows and CONGRATS to A! Is there anything that woman can't do?!! :)
Very well done, with the windows and ya just can't beat free and repurposing!! It seems A~'s job is the right situation in still allowing ya'll to be focusing on your family!! An interesting thing, i talked with my mom about havin a few things put back *in case of* and now she says she hears more about being prepared. Before she never thought about it, now she pick up on it more. Like you were saying about the red cars and noticing more if your thinkin about red cars!!!God Bless you and yours-tp
Excellent scavenging work! I think it's really important, when designing/planning a construction project, to remain as flexible as possible for as long as possible, so as to be able to incorporate finds such as these. Those windows ought to make a nice start on a greenhouse.
Harvey Ussery incorporates his chickens on very deep bedding into his unheated hoophouses. I believe he also has a built in cement pit in one corner for vermiculture. The chickens stay warmer and so require less feed through the winter. They contribute a small but measurable amount of warming to the hoophouse. Their bedding remains pathogen free and unsmelly, because they're given enough room (5 square feet per chook). In the spring that bedding is more than halfway to beautiful compost. And when the worm populations get large, the worms are a feed supplement for the chooks.
You'd better believe I'd love to have a set up like that. If I were building a hoophouse or greenhouse, that's what I'd aim for. I might even leave room to incorporate Salatin style rabbit cages above the chooks.
-Kate
jackpot!
if you think thats crazy use of I.D. they invoked it in my area so they could build a mall. thats right, a mall. they claim it will boost the local economy, as if we needed more crappy retail jobs. Now they are greenwashing the whole thing. I don't trust the project any farther than I can throw it, which given its likely weight of several million tons, is not very far at all.
anyway, thats an awesome find. And here I though I was hot stuff for salvaging the two front windows that came out when we put the sunroom in.
How exciting. I have a bunch of old divided light windows salvaged from an old home that I want to use to build a cute country-style greenhouse. Now if I could only get Mr Chiots away from the computer.
Good find!!!! And good work getting them. Sad about the nail though - but that's what makes it life I suppose! :)
Wow! What a find! I'm excited to see what you do with these.
Congratulations to your wife on the new job!
I need to develop some of your visualization skills. You are an inspiration.
Huge congrats to your wife for the new job.
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