# Project: Scavenge



## ezekiel (Nov 4, 2007)

*Dated 8-4-2009*

So as I stated in my first post, this year's Halloween display is going incorporate all the elements from last year and new elements created mainly from what I have around the house and from other free sources. About a month ago I really started keeping an eye out when driving around town looking for things people where discarding that I might be able to use.

My first score was finding someone who was throwing out 4 sheets of 4'x8' pink foam. When I spotted these things curbside I spun the van around as quickly as possible and shifted the kids in their seats and loaded them up. The are a bit thinner than I would like, measuring a touch under 3/4", maybe 5/8", but at the price of FREE I can not complain. Just the other day I was strolling through Home Depot and noticed the unreal prices for foam sheets. They wanted about $13 for the same sized T&G version of my freebies. Their 2" version that would be great for tombstone building is about $28 per 4'x8' sheet. I don't remember the prices being quite so high last year; but maybe I never really paid attention?

My second score was through my wife's Uncle. He works on the local military base as a contractor at a supply issue facility. The supplies come in large shipping crates (about 2'x2'x7') made out of 1/2" plywood, 2x4's, and 2x6's. When they get cracked or beyond quick repair they have no need for them and send them to the landfill to be shredded down to mulch. They also have pallets that come in quite regularly that are not quite the right size or get that end up with broken boards on them. They toss these items out too. So I asked him if he I could have any of these items before they head to the shredder and his boss said sure, get them outta here. Great!









So a couple weeks ago I arm barred my mother-in-law to driving us on base with her truck to pick up these things. Man I just wish we had more room. I was only able to get 2 of the shipping crates and 5 pallets and several assorted pieces from other pallets. It is great to get this kind of free material, but I'm really dreading the breaking down of these things. Anyone who has ever done any kind of remodeling that involved reusing as much material as possible knows what I'm talking about. It is easy to knock a wall down and throw it into the trash container but to actually dismantle the wall, stud by stud, then remove all the nails, staples, screws and framing braces; well it is very labor intensive. Sweat equity is what some call it. These props will be very laden with sweat equity, that is for sure.

This last week I spied some lumber laying curbside at a house on my way home. So I quickly made a u-turn and began looking over the possible find. There were several pieces of lumber from a dismantled pergola, 3 cinder blocks and a some 5/4 decking boards. I think in all their were 6 8' overhead 2x6's, another half dozen 2x2's and dozen or so lattice strips. Everything was pressure treated which is a good and bad thing. Good being because it is resistant to rot and decay; bad because it makes the material extremely heavy especially before it has thou roughly dried out. There were also some long decking boards, maybe 14' or 15' long and a same sized 2x6 that served as an overhead rim joist I think because it still had plant hangars attached to it. The good thing about this find is that is very little screw/staple removal required. Definite plus!

I've also found a few small odds and ends from around the neighborhood such as a coffee table top, decorative chair, tall metal stool, lamp, wooden chair, several bits of packing styrofoam.

Also during a walk one afternoon there is a stretch where quite a bit of brush overhangs the sidewalk where someone had come through and cut all the brush back leaving several smaller tree limbs and trunks laying about. When we were done with the walk we went back with our little red radio flyer wagon and loaded up several pieces. The next day I trimmed all the branches off and cleaned them up. I think these large sticks will go well with my witch's shack. Depending on how big the structure ends up being they may serve as the roof?

Speaking of witches shack I have several landscape timbers that I stowed under the back deck when we moved into our current house. These timbers were edging for the previous owner's playground which was moved to the grandparents house to make way for the kid's playhouse that was brought from our previous residence. I think I have about 13 or 14 of these timbers which will go a long way to building the post structure of the witch's shack which will resemble an open woodshed with a sloping roof. That is as long as the timbers are rotted and decayed beyond being structurally sound. Over the next week I'll be pulling them out to take a look at them.

Overall I have a good amount of raw materials to get started building the frames of the structures I want to build. But before I can build I have to break everything down and remove the metal fasteners. That is going to fun!

Yeah! Tetanus shot here I come!


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## ezekiel (Nov 4, 2007)

Ezekiel's Wife says, "'Great Job Zeke you're doing a real bang up job!!"


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