As the demolition of the old house was approaching, I began to feel really guilty about sending so much stuff to the landfill. But what to do with it? We contemplated a yard sale/craigslist sale, but the hassle factor seemed just too much to handle. There are services that you can pay to come and dismantle and recycle a house, but my investigation of those outfits made me suspicious that they are a rip-off. And then. . .

I stumbled across Habitat for Humanity’s web site, and discovered that they do demolition and dismantling FOR FREE. As long as you have a certain amount of stuff that they can re-sell in their ReStore or re-use in a Habitat project, they will send out a crew to take apart your stuff, load it on their truck, and take it away. I get a tax deduction for the contribution of the stuff they took, I save money on demolition costs, and I support a good cause. Everyone wins!

The crew came out earlier this week, and they could not have been nicer. And they were amazingly efficient – it’s unbelievable how much they accomplished in a morning. Here are some shots of the team and their handiwork:

Salvaging an old wall AC/heater unit —

The ReStore truck —

Getting ready to pull out some re-usable vinyl windows —

Not much to look at anymore —

Next step – taking the rest of that old house down!