One of the program requirements for this project
was that the house be very environmentally-responsible,
and I am a very firm believer that not burying
materials and resources and throwing them away
is really the first step to being 
environmentally-responsible.
We moved here in 1950, from Mississippi.
Then we all grew up and moved away,
so my parents stayed here and grew older here.
I think the ability to reuse as much as possible
makes a heck of a lot of sense.
So we hired Piece By Piece
to work on taking it apart.
It didn't really drive the cost up, it just added a little time.
So while we could've taken this house down in one or two days with a machine,
we had to give Dave time, ahead of our work, to take it apart piece by piece.
If I had someone who was skeptical, I would
point out the financial gains of doing it that way.
And, the time issue isn't critical,
if you just build it into the schedule.
You still have to disconnect all the utilities,
get the signoff from the gas company, electric company,
the town, water.
So all of the same process you go through to
take down a house and demolish it, you
you go through to deconstruct it.
They found some asbestos floor tiles
which had to be removed by an asbestos company.
When reusable materials are removed
from a renovation project,
they come to our store, and are given a new life
in new homeowners' homes.
We save contractors disposal fees by picking up
reusable materials, so they don't go into a dumpster;
the contractor doesn't have to pay as much in 
 disposal fees.
The wood that was used fifty years ago
was much higher-quality wood than is used in construction today.
Really it was The Auberndale Builders, Donald Gross,
the people that we talked to first, that had the idea.
Not us; we just liked the idea.
We're looking to use deconstruction on any project 
 we can, now.
