creative reuse

No one reads this, do they?

Well, if you are reading, and you're in the Pittsburgh area, and you are bored [don't tell me that never happens], I encourage you to check out two places; Construction Junction and Creative Reuse Pittsburgh, [214 North Lexington Street, Pittsburgh, PA] both fantastic resources for ... well, what ever. "But I'm not creative," you say. "I failed art in school." You know what? I barely passed math in the seventh and ninth grades. Who told you you couldn't?

Climbing down off that soapbox... Many of us are attempting to live green lives, so here's a test of how dedicated to being green you really are. Check out Construction Junction and Creative Reuse Pittsburgh! "What are they?" you ask? Construction Junction is a warehouse full of reclaimed building materials, most all of them donated. "Like what?" Says you? Like:

Pianos, pews, desk chairs, kitchen cabinets, windows, storm doors, screen doors, banisters, door knobs, mortis locks, claw foot bath tubs, lighting fixtures, exterior and interior paint, kitchen sinks... are you starting to get the picture? It's amazingness in several hundred square feet of the most unlikely location in Pittsburgh. I don't have a house to fix up, but I love wandering around and planning my bucket list tree house [Not the kids I will doubtless have someday. Me.]

Located in Construction Junction's attic is Creative Reuse Pittsburgh. Currently open Wednesdays from 12-5 or by appointment, CRP takes donations of any kind, like paperclips, lab equipment, picture frames, sample carpet and fabric swatches and books from decorators, binder clips, papers - wall, drawing, specialty, small quantities of paint, leather in several colors, treatments and sizes that can be purchassed by the pound, and many things in quantity that would otherwise go to a landfill and take hundreds or thousands of years to decompose. What did I find there? Several 100% cotton swatches from a designer in a stellar theme with stars and moons and planets that I will turn into nauseating baby blanket adorableness. And the thread to sew them together with.

Don't go there if you don't actually like being green. I won't say don't go there if you don't like to be creative. It's impossible to see something there and not visualize it repurposed. Say, for example, in your own tree house... with a Craftsman door... and a 1950's wall sconse over your favorite chair situated between the mahogany built-ins [yeah, I said mahogany built-ins, 30 linear feet of them] We're grown up. That doesn't mean we have to stop imagining.