Reusable Building Materials can be Used to Build a New Home in One Day

If we were accounting for weeks on a Euro calendar, last week (ending on Sunday, April 13) would have been a very good week. Mid week Charles told me he had been putting out the “vibe” into the Los Angeles Basin and inquiries about deconstruction were on the rise for us.

Despite the positive “vibe” Charles had been generating, I still found room for a bit of doom and gloom. After talking to a couple of confidants late in the week, I think I managed to identify the source of my negativism and had begun to turn the tide on my “tude.” But for me, having an ebbing “tude” (which could be a double-negative and is unlike an ebb tide) probably only gets me to a place of slack.

Ok. I'll stop with the double talk and word-smithing. Slack, meaning I rarely allow myself the luxury of getting too pumped up or confident. So despite the vibe Charles was putting out and many other good things that were happening, I managed to reduce my expectations when going to the Corazon 30th Anniversary Picnic on Sunday in Irvine. I even told my new friend Erin (a Corazon "Blue Shirt" volunteer leader) when arriving at the picnic that I was probably going about my approach to Corazon leaders in the wrong way. Oh, the self doubt!
My wish since starting the ReUse Network about a year ago, was that working together with other complimentary non-profits (and for-profits) we could achieve more tangible results with the tons of rough lumber we would ultimately reclaim through the deconstruction process in Southern California.

Corazon builds homes in Mexico and runs six community centers between Tijuana and Tecate where they teach construction classes, along with computer, sewing, bike repair, welding and gardening classes. If they could incorporate some or all of the lumber from our deconstruction projects into their programs, whether it was in framing or used as blocking, or into home repair or room additions, or their construction training classes...it would be huge!

So yesterday was big for me and was a reminder that prayer works, and that I should pray and be thankful more often. But I had reduced my expectations before the picnic in order to protect myself, thinking of the many reasons the lumber would be a burden to Corazon's operation and they would not want it. Fortunantly, they didn't see things that way. Quite the opposite, actually; Tery Mackprang (Corazon President) was very entusiastic about all the things they could do with the lumber. Among other things, Terry said they could begin to catch up on some of the 50 or so room additions they were behind on. He said they have great access for tractor-trailers at at least on of their Tijuana facilities, and they also have ideal places to store the lumber in fenced and secured areas at several of their community centers and that they'd borrow or buy a forklift.

Needless to say I could not have been more pleased and more blown away by their enthusiasm.

So - it was a good day, and a good week.

Helping others. Just another great reason to keep thinking outside the roll-off!

(There are more pictures from Corazon build on March 29th posted on the Re-Use Network website, where you can see what the organization does nearly every weekend)