Tiles and Extra Miles at the Reuse Center
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Tiles and Extra Miles at the Reuse Center
One morning last February, Dan Adolfson entered the finished basement of his Milton home and found that the water heater had broken, leaving an inch of water covering the floor. Dan had planned to replace the floor in the spring, but the flood forced the issue earlier than expected. Fortunately, he knew where to go to find affordable material to get the job done.
“My biggest savings occurred with these really beautiful Italian porcelain tiles, 12 x 24 tiles,” Dan said. “They had 23 boxes of them, which was what I needed to do 350 square feet of basement floor.” The same linen-texture tiles were being sold online from a flooring center for $7 per foot, which would have added up to more than $2,400 for his project. Dan’s total cost was just $450.
The tile was one of many good deals Dan has found over the past four years as a Reuse center member. “As a result of my relationship with the Reuse Center, I have saved at least $10,000 on the projects that I have undertaken,” he says.
The kitchenette in Dan’s cozy basement apartment features cabinets from the Reuse Center. “They had been serving as somebody’s wet bar in their house. They donated it, and I got the whole thing, five cabinets, for $165—and that included the sink!”
To finish off the kitchenette, Dan picked up some decorative orange tiles to add some trim along the floor and backsplash, “just to make the kitchen area a little bit different.” When he found that he was a dozen tiles short, he reached out to Reuse Center manager Lindsay Tourijigian, who had just sold the last box to another customer. “She said, ‘I’ll call the person who bought them to see if they used them all, and if they have any left over. They might be willing to let you have them.’ And that’s exactly what happened. I could complete the whole project.”
Dan first met the Reuse Center staff when he responded to an ad on Craigslist for a bathroom sink. That sink is one of many Reuse Center items he has installed in his bathroom. Other finds include towel bars, soap dish, shower arm, and shower enclosure, which was originally a triangular enclosure. “What I needed was just some panels. I think I paid $80 or something like that for all of this, three panes of tempered glass.”
Dan recommends the Reuse Center to anyone who is trying to renovate something on a tight budget. “They have a big collection of electrical fittings, doors, windows, plumbing fixtures, kitchen and bathroom, utilities and cabinets, all of that. It’s really just a great way for people to get what they want done, done, at a price that people can actually afford.”