This is my idea for a HGTV show. A team of designers/builders have to either build a house from scratch or remodel one extensively with only items they get secondhand from Freecycle, Craig's List, Ebay, yard sales and thrift shops. They'll do one house each season. There would be a spending limit for the things they bought.
I'd love to see just how thriftily they could do it, wouldn't you?
I have seriously considered suggesting to the Habitat Restore in this area to have a contest where a purchase from the Restore is recycled into a lovely piece of useful furniture and have individuals compete and donate the recycled items to Restore also. That would be a great show on HGTV. I would be glued to the television on every show.
I saw an HGTV show -- can't remember which one, but it's been a year or two -- that featured a guy who does just that.
He's retired at a relatively young age and he builds houses from the ground up with recycled and found materials.
He finds a buyer, who is usually someone young or of limited income, and they have to help him build the house and be a part of the project.
The house I remember being featured looked something like a cottage from a fairy tale -- very charming in a sort of "Hansel and Gretel" kind of way -- only all new construction.
The roof tiles were all mismatched, but he staggered them so they looked attractive. The windows didn't match, but they looked customized and old fashioned, rather than just unmatched.
The buyer was a young woman who eventually paid a total of about $60,000 for the house, less than half what it would have cost to buy a comparable new house in her area.
But of course the house was extremely well constructed, possibly better than many houses built by profit-motivated builders.
The guy just does it as a sort of mission to make the world a better place, he doesn't take any profits from the project and the buyer pays all expenses.
I remember thinking I wish someone would do a show about him in which they followed him from beginning to end on every house he builds.
A program like that could be an inspiration to a lot of people about what is possible.
