Treasure Hunt: Part 2

About 10 years ago, a friend asked me to help set up an architectural salvage non-profit. We got the non-profit status pretty quickly and then spent the next year or two gathering inventory. We’d go into buildings that were about to be torn down and take the interesting elements out of them. We opened to the public on a dismal February morning and had more than 600 people come through our warehouses.

When I returned from the UK, the philosophy of the place had changed dramatically, so I severed all ties to it, and I haven’t been back. Until yesterday. Since it’s just a few blocks from Housewerks, we headed over to Second Chance to check it out. About a quarter of the space is dedicated to architectural salvage and hardware, while the rest is consigned furniture, artwork, lighting, china, glass and window treatments. Some things are very nice, but others are quite hideous. We had to laugh to see these faux painted sinks and counters. There were several of these scattered around the warehouse. There are several warehouses in this compound, including one with kitchen and bathroom components. You could spend an entire day walking through the warehouses and still not see everything.  

This is an old fireplace surround rescued from a local university’s renovation job.I love the nautilus shell back of this iron garden furniture.There are shelves of claw feet from old bathtubs. We would flip these and mount them on a wall as candle sconces.This was from one of the first big jobs we did. It was the cornerstone of an arch over a large decorative door. We used here as our logo on all of our early marketing materials. She was my girl.