Salvaging building materials

Anyone who works in the building trades is aware of how much materials gets wasted because it is not financially realistic to pay someone to carefully take apart a building. In modern homes, new windows, doors, and a number of other items can, thankfully, get sent to the Habitat for Humanity store. However, old hand-built homes are one of the causalities of modernity, and far to often a stunningly beautiful house or barn gets  demolished or burned. Sometimes, this is inevitable, because it is too dangerous, or the materials are no good. But, all too often, it is just a lack of time, and people are forced to treat a soulful, sturdy old hand-built home like a problem, instead of a resource.
We have been fortunate to have access to some lovely old homes and barns that were slated for demolition, and take some of the usable materials out. Old boards with deep wonderful saw marks; boards upwards of 20 inches wide; nicely seasoned, dry thick beams for trusses; high quality hardwood flooring - these are some of the things that we have salvaged from these old buildings.  The weather worn house below  is one that we used for salvaged materials. It stood overlooking the ocean for a long-time.

It seems like an important thing to look at the timbers in a house, and remember that the house was a place that children where born, food was made, people lived and died there, long, long before your were here. It a reminder that we are not owners of anything, but caretakers of the precious resources that we are blessed with.