It's a busy Thursday here while we work to get out our September newsletter and coupon offers (you can sign up in that box in the upper right corner), so this time we'll inspire you and send you on your way to local salvage shops.

Recently, a Martha Stewart email caught our eye with this crafty repurposing of window shutters as an entryway organizer. Salvage stores always have oodles of weathered, sunbeaten old shutters which would look great for this project. Secure the slider and screw them to the wall, then slip cards and notes in. Vintage hooks could be affixed to the bottom to hold keys. I plan to use an even number of shutters to create a trompe l'oeil style window in my windowless entryway. Below are your local salvage shops and coupons, including a free online coupon for paint! More...

Sitting in the Urban Grind Coffeehouse talking about natural building with Lydia Doleman, owner of the Portland-based natural building company Flyer Hammer Productions, I could feel my jealousy of her job coalescing. I had just completed her class An Introduction to Carpentry for Women, which I’d taken through The Rebuilding Center, and was ready to trade in my computer – my current primary tool – for a table saw. Inspired and empowered by the possibilities that my new skill presented, I was compelled to find out what it’s like to be a woman in a (stereo)typically male profession and to understand the spin that natural building puts on the construction trade.

  More...