Salvage Challenge from This Old House

This Old House is looking for your stories on what you have done with Salvage. Click here to learn more. Below is an excerpt from the site.

See yourself in This Old House Magazine! Send us your ideas, tips, and photos of your projects for a chance to be published in our special June 2008 reader-generated issue.

Rescued Railing
I purchased a 1917 foursquare fixer-upper. One of the previous owners had turned it into a duplex, putting in a second front door, tearing the stair railin... more – Posted by Jean J.

Show us the creative things you've made with salvaged materials, and tell us how you did it.

Cliquot Club Extra Dry Ginger Ale

We were at a house the other day and the great thing about it was there were all these crawl spaces and attics all over the place. In the attic above the garage we found these two old bottles from Cliquot Club. One is Root Beer and the other is Ginger Ale. I found quite a bit of information on the web about the company. It is finding things like this that is one of parts I love best about what we do. A glimpse into popular culture and business history. As for how two empty bottles of soda came to be up in the attic above the garage, I can only guess but I like to think that this was the secret hiding place of some young boy or girl and they spent many hours with friends up there drinking soda and playing games.

The following ad from a 1920 Ladies Home Journal matches the label on these two bottles.

Founded in 1881 in Millis, Massachusetts, the beverage company was built by Henry Millis from money he had received from his father Lansing Millis. The company produced mainly sparkling cider for the first few years but later on Millis would experiment in other flavors as well. The sparkling cider was soon dropped and the company began focusing mainly on ginger ale. In 1885 the town of Millis, MA was founded in his family name. During this time the soda company hired a significant amount of the town's residents and would continue to do so for years to come. Millis continued to improve upon his beverages through his philosophy of making the drinks as though he were making them for his own friends. He imported high-quality exotic ingredients including Jamaican ginger, and Cuban pure refined sugar. These two were the key ingredients to his ginger ale making the company stand out in this field.

Found this article on http://www.cooltownstudios.com/












Ani DiFranco and her church-turned-concert hall
Monday, November 05, 2007

Ani DiFranco and her church-turned-concert hall
Recording artist Ani DiFranco wanted to energize the downtown of her hometown of Buffalo with some creative spirit. So she did what any other person would have done - transforming a doomed 19th century church into a 21st century destination that houses a concert hall (pictured), a record studio, an art gallery and bar/lounge.
The city slated the 1871-built church for demolition in 1995, and within a year DiFranco and her record company president launched a community-wide effort to save it, ultimately purchasing the building three years later. The renovated church reopened in spring 2006.
Known as The Church (aka Babeville), the building features:- The concert venue, Asbury Hall, which hosts banquets of 300 to live performances with crowds of 1000.- The gallery and screening room, which belong to Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, whose mission is to bring the newest and most challenging work in the contemporary arts to the interested public.- Righteous Babe Records, Ani's own indie rock label.
"I think it will be a really dynamic place that will have a momentum of its own once all the creative people are in there, and there is music happening at night, and art hanging on the walls and crazy cinema in the basement. I think that the collective energy of all those people coming together will emanate out through the neighborhood. The space itself has a soul - it's vibe-y, it's cool and it's beautiful." Ani DiFranco

I just love Ani's music and now I know why!
Tab

Salvage Fest 2007

We just returned from Salvage Fest 2007 in NYC! This was the first ever salvage festival put together by Jon Butler of Brownstoner.com. (I pulled the "about" info from Jon's site below. It's a great site. Check it out!)

Brownstoner.com is a site about Brooklyn real estate and renovation, and all the tangential topics that impact life inside and outside the home in Brooklyn. Launched in October 2004 by Jonathan Butler, the site currently has about 100,000 unique visitors per month.

Liz and I had set out on Thursday to Long Island (Liz's home) and drove straight through getting in late Thursday evening. Salvage Fest was on Saturday in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. A fabulous section of what seemed to me to be late 19th century brownstones. The fest was held at a public school (PS11). The vibe was good and everyone from the exhibitors to the shoppers were excited about the turnout and the enthusiasm for a strictly salvage show. Rich Ellis from Architectural Salvage News was there. I forgot to ask but it seemed like people were going crazy for the first ever architectural salvage directory. Even though I've written for Architectural Salvage News and talk over the phone with Rich often, it was the first time we'd met in person. We took a photo to share with all of you which I'll post later (forgot the USB cord).

We met Fred Shapiro and Camille Gibeau of Silver Fox Enterprises out of Albany, NY. They had great salvage from that area. We purchased a couple of light fixtures.

Lisa with "This Old House" was there as well taking photos and interviewing exhibitors for an upcoming article.

All in all it was a great experience. Thanks go out to Jon for coming up with this format and hopefully we'll do this again next year!

Tab

Adaptive Reuse (thisoldhouse.com article)

I came across this article on This Old House.com and thought it had some really creative and ingenius ideas and designs for renovating and reusing material and buildings for new living spaces. http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20052183,00.html

"If only I'd thought about it" Clawfoot Tub

Yesterday was a funny kind of day. Check out the last post and you will see that we got a lot of terra cotta. We worked all afternoon bringing it in. We weren't expecting it so you will also notice that Tab is not wearing proper footwear for this kind of thing. Anyway I remembered recently seeing a sneaker in the back of cab of the truck and went to go them for her. Well what I found was one sneaker and one sock. To which Tab said "That seems about right for you". All that got me thinking about some of the less than stellar moments and I guess it is time to face up and share some of the 'well that wasn't too bright" I have been reluctant to do so since most of them belong to me.

Anyway here goes. We had gotten this fantastic 4 1/2 foot clawfoot tub in great condition. We went to pick it up with my pick-up truck, promptly put in the bed and drove away, happy with our lovely new find. I got a 30 feet and stopped for a stop sign, the next thing I know I am covered in glass and the tub is practically in the passenger seat. Nothing was hurt but the window and my forehead from smacking it "stupid, stupid, stupid" The window has since been replaced and we learned our lesson. Always put the flat side of the tub in first.

Liz

Whenever we first go into a house to salvage we never know quite what we are going to find. A lot of the time, in addition to some great architectural elements we find other little treasures that give us history or insight into the lives of the people who have lived their throughout the years. This takes the form of letters, postcards, photographs. We have found old bottles behind walls or fireplace mantles. For this entry it is an old newspaper and an old Better Homes and Garden Magazine. These are just fun to look through the advertisements and new products, recipes etc.. Here are some pictures from both. The magazine is from 1958 and the newspaper is from 1965.

My First Salvage Experience

A few weeks ago I was visiting my parents and decided to get into all the old photo albums they had. Well somewhere between laughing at all the funny clothes, haircuts, countless camping trips, birthday parties etc.. I found this little gem. I think somehow this experience must have been tucked away in my memory sub-consciously driving me to this ultimate endeavor. Circa 1974.

Architectural Salvage News

All,
The latest issue of Architectural Salvage News just hit the streets! I love this paper not just because I have a story in this months issue but because it provides the most up to date information for the salvage industry here in the U.S. There is an online issue at www.architecturalsalvagenews.com for all to see. It's truly a worthwhile read for both the industry and people that love salvage. Check it out!

Rich Ellis (the editor and owner) has also painstakingly put together the most comprehensive list of salvage companies in the U.S. and that can be found at: www.architecturalsalvagedirectory.com

Happy surfing!
Tab

The Story

In 2003 I was laid off from a telecommunications company along with my boss, my direct report and a peer. It wasn't the first time that we all found ourselves in this position and so it became a mission to take back some control over our own destiny. I had always wanted to be self-employed, an entrepreneur, a business owner! But what would we do?

At the time I was restoring a 1926 Cotswold home. I would complain to anyone that would listen to me about the trouble I was having locating similar original accents and details that had long been discarded from my home. I scoured salvage yards and antique stores on the weekends, ever weekend. After my husband became absolutely bored with my search I convinced my co-workers to join me.

We'd plan out farm auctions and demolition sales we wanted to attend during the week and set out on the weekends for the goods.

After a while we were all picking up things that we liked but didn't necessarily need because we couldn't pass up the price or rarity of a piece. This turned into obsession for a couple of us and subconsciously we had started our future businesses inventory. When we started hearing the rumblings of layoffs, Island Girl Salvage was born.

Immediately after the layoff Liz and I signed up at the WBDC (Women's Business Development Center) in Chicago. If anyone out there is looking for a inspirational, supportive, back-breaking, stimulating, empowering and rewarding crash course on building a business you need to visit www.wbdc.org

The WBDC taught us how to write a business plan, where to get financing, how to market our business, and the sometimes cruel reality of owning your own business but also the joy in the creation and the appreciation of the experience. The program we went through was called "Jump Start Your Business" and I can tell you they kicked our butts week after week but we needed it and we carry with us many of the lessons learned to this day.

The name Island Girl Salvage was created by my mom. We were searching for something catchy and off kilter. Island Girl was a nickname of mine. My grandparents have lived in Kauai, Hawaii my whole life. As a fair haired haole (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haole for meaning) , the Island Girl nickname was a play on words. As it turned out both Liz and Jim were from Long Island, New York. So the island theme stuck.

Today, the original four are now two. Liz and I are the owners of Island Girl Salvage. Jim decided to pursue his life long dream of teaching college history. He's accomplished that and continues to teach but he wasn't able to stay away from Island Girl Salvage. He now helps us out in the store several days a week. There was one more original partner, Duncan Taylor. Duncan passed away unexpectedly just prior to us signing a lease on our first location. We all miss him dearly.