By Ryan Hanrahan, NBC Hartford
Jeff Bradley knows what it means to "go green." Several months ago I toured his unusual 10,000 square foot workspace in Clinton, CT to get a glimpse at how he works to preserve the past and preserve future.
Bradley is an exceptionally talented woodworker who has merged his love for woodworking with his strong belief in preservation. His company, New England Outbuildings, works tirelessly to rescue antique barns that are slated for demolition. Piece by piece, he takes apart barns that have dotted the landscape of rural New England for the past few centuries. After bringing the salvaged lumber back to his warehouse he begins the painstaking task of reassembling it by hand.
The end result is magnificent pieces of furniture, small sheds, or even entirely new barns. Without Bradley's work, dozens of barns would be stuffed into dumpsters and clogging landfills. Now, those barns have been resurrected, in a sense, and transformed into any number of items. Every creation has a story to tell about the past, and a lesson for the future.
Walking around the warehouse you get a sense of just how much work goes into one of these projects. Everything Bradley does is by hand. Instead of a power saw he uses a handsaw. In place of a drills and nails he uses mallets and wooden pegs. At any given time, each corner of his massive warehouse is taken up by any number of projects. From a dining room table, to a small barn, to a children's toy set, every piece of salvaged lumber is used. Nothing goes to waste.
Ryan Hanrahan
NBC Hartford
http://nbc30.com/goinggreenblog/
This is a wonderful example of heritage maintenance, renewal and reuse.
I wonder what the costs for start up might be.
This is an industrial region with manufacturing as its base, therefore I have several thousand people here that would love to commit the remainder of their working lives to this green type of project.
We are in Ontario and would not compete for Jeff Bradleys costomers or resources.
Len Carter
Kitchener, Ontario