Starting the collection

In any large project like this, with so many unknowns, there comes a moment when you look at each other and think "yup, we're actually going to do this" and commit yourselves. Kyle and I moved fairly quickly from "hey, other people are building their own houses out of dirt" to "we can build our own house out of dirt" without much fanfare. However, about two months ago we first started sinking actual money into collecting materials we might need for the build, rather than just thinking about 'someday'.

We'd like to make as much of the house as possible out of recycled and repurposed materials. The nature of such a goal is that planning becomes difficult - you never know quite what you've got to work with. We figure the solution to this is to start collecting early, and work what we find into our plans. We already love visiting the local tip shop and the Salvo's, this just expanded what we looked at when we went there. The first thing we found were these curly door handles, about 8 sets complete with working innards for $15 (no idea what we'll do with the bolt but I'm sure it'll come in handy, rust spot not withstanding).

Kyle's a little more strategic about interior decorating, being an ex-painter/decorator, but I figure if I keep buying things I like I'll end up with an overall look and feel that I like. Both of us have some clear ideas about structural gems to look out for, rather than just decorative ones. Yesterday we found one!

The glass bricks may count as both structural and decorative. We think this quantity would be worth about $800 new (I could only find one site that gave direct quotes for comparison), we paid $200 for the bricks, pallet, and the stack of (mostly) hardwood offcuts. I'm going to chalk the glass up in the budget as $180 as I don't think the guy who quoted it thought the wood was worth much.

A good start to a stockpile!