Salvation

 There have been a few houses boarded up in Collegetown for a couple years awaiting demolition.  There is a very active re-use and salvage movement in Ithaca so I couldn't understand why they weren't doing anything with them.  It turns out they were negotiating.  Things finally got into gear in December as the demo permits had been granted and the call went out for volunteers to help. 

I was happy to jump in and take apart this chestnut window seat.  All the politicians and a couple film crews were on scene and I got interviewed while working and was asked why I thought it was important to contribute to this effort.  I responded with the history of the chestnut blight, modern tree-farming practices that harm the environment and some other mumble-jumble.  Then I told her that Kurt Vonnegut was sitting on that very seat when he found out he'd flunked out of Cornell.  When she asked me who told me that, I fessed up and admitted I made it up.  Who knows?

We want to add a dormer to our house, and this one was getting taken off intact, but it's bigger than our roof and the wrong pitch, so no go.  They cut this house up in sections and hauled them away on a flatbed truck so they'd have time to dismantle it as the demo schedule was too tight to wait.  Anyone interested in pulling nails for the next couple years should contact ithacareuse.org

 I was working in the yellow house, the other one is now in a warehouse ready to be taken apart piece-by-piece.