Today was our 1st full day in Austin and our 1st day working at Habitat for Humanity. Down here, they have deconstruction going on 4 days/week as well as construction on W, F and Sat and the Re-store.
For deconstruction, Habitat puts in bids on demolition projects all over the greater Austin area. Deconstruction is MUCH slower with them than with competing companies because Habitat workers try to salvage as much of the appliances, furniture and building materials as they can. Then they sell everything in the Re-store and the profits go back into building houses. The benefit to the customer is that they get a tax break on everything salvaged. The benefit to the environment (and our children’s children) is that 60-80% of the old building stays OUT of the landfills. Pretty cool system!
For deconstruction, Habitat puts in bids on demolition projects all over the greater Austin area. Deconstruction is MUCH slower with them than with competing companies because Habitat workers try to salvage as much of the appliances, furniture and building materials as they can. Then they sell everything in the Re-store and the profits go back into building houses. The benefit to the customer is that they get a tax break on everything salvaged. The benefit to the environment (and our children’s children) is that 60-80% of the old building stays OUT of the landfills. Pretty cool system!
We decided to do Habitat down here because we’d worked a bit with the team in Monroe in December and really liked it. We quickly discovered that tearing down a house can be a lot more dangerous and exhausting than caulking and painting! From 8am-3pm, we were either up on the roof, tearing off boards and kicking in sheetrock or down on the ground cleaning up the giant heaps of lumber. Luckily, there was a team of 8-10 college-aged AmeriCorps volunteers there to help out. Great to see kids using their powers for good, instead of wasting their energy dancing and partying ‘til dawn (although, I did that and I turned out ok)!
The home we were demolishing was in a uber-well-to-do neighborhood on the west side of Austin with amazing views of the city. We were demo-ing it for the neighbor who bought the lot to expand his mansion. I quipped that we were like Robin Hood - taking from the rich to give to the poor (only, with crow bars and permits)! In fact, we later found out that the house being demolished belonged to President LBJ's wife, Lady Bird Johnson, in the last years of her life. Maybe we'll look harder for historical artifacts when we're there next week!
So, after working on the roof all day, I’m beginning to think that Josh’s fear of heights is 1) all a big lie or 2) cured. I wouldn’t call him ‘agile’ on the rafters, but he didn’t fall through the ceiling or burst into tears once! My theory is that all the stunts I’ve pushed him into since we’ve been married have helped him conquer his fear. In the business (of behavior analysis), we call this type of treatment ‘flooding’ – where you inundate the patient with the particular object/experience they are afraid of until the fear response no longer occurs. So, forcing Josh to do crazy things like zip-lining, snowboarding and roofing doesn’t make me a bad wife. Instead, it makes me a GOOD behavior analyst! Someday I am sure he will thank me for it… ;)
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