They say one man's trash is another man's treasure and Sherry Galan is on a mission to prove it's true. The Edmontonian has embarked on a unique construction project, alongside her husband, David Bruns, to build a family home, plus six tiny cabins, using entirely reclaimed building materials.
Ms. Galan's ambition is to open a retreat on the couple's idyllic 150 acres outside the community of Darwell on Lake Isle Road, an hour west of Edmonton.
The couple, who own Home Reusables – a reclaimed-building-materials store in the city – embarked on their project at the start of the summer. So far, they have their own home and one tiny, 200-square-feet cabin well under way; both should be complete by spring of 2018.
Ms. Galan hopes to prefabricate the remaining tiny cabins in their yard over winter in order to have her retreat up and running by next summer. They hope their project will inspire others to consider using reclaimed building materials for their own construction and renovation projects.
"Everything we're using to build these homes is perfectly good and viable, it's just that people don't know what to do with it," Ms. Galan says. "So far, apart from a couple of pieces of plywood here and there, everything we've used has been reclaimed and recycled."
So far, the couple have their own home and one small cabin under way, both of which should be finished by spring of next year.
The couple have been operating Home Reusables for 10 years and in that time, they've expanded from 1,500 square feet to more than 35,000 square feet. Each week, they receive tonnes of building materials, from antique to nearly new, which they buy and resell to the public. The business provides the couple with a constant supply of new material for their own project.
"We acquired the walls for the first tiny cabin because someone had ordered them for a SIP [structural insulated panels] house, but the project fell through and he was left with these eight-inch-thick polystyrene wall panels," Ms. Galan says. "He tried to sell them but nobody knew what to do with them – so I got them for an incredibly cheap price. The insulation value is incredible and they've been really easy to work with."
"We also had these prebuilt trusses, which were left over from a construction site in the yard, so we paired them up with the walls and I got this beautiful, weathered sitka-cedar siding for the exterior, which came in from an old garage clearance," she says. "Being flexible and willing to design around items as they become available is really essential for making the most of these materials. Have a vision of what you want to do – but be open to changing your plans."
It's an approach that has served the couple well in the construction of their own home, a 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom cabin on stilts that, like their tiny cabins, is being built entirely from the materials available.
The couple planned their own home, which sits on a slope, around 50-foot beams they sourced from a builder.
"For one thing, it's turned out a lot larger than we'd planned because we got these 50-foot beams from a builder and my husband just couldn't bear to cut them," Ms. Galan says, laughing. "So we're building the house around these beams and, because the site is on a slope, the front sits up on screw piles 16 feet in the air. It's quite spectacular."
The rest of their recycled home is a smorgasbord of reclaimed pieces spanning more than a century.
"We have a set of doors which are from the Sylvancroft Manor; they were made in Scotland and shipped here in 1912. We also have these beautiful fir beams for the porch flooring, which came from the Jasper Block building. Those are probably going to be the oldest thing in the house; they're from 1901. We have barn beams on the roofline from a farm from 1918, which was the last farm within the city limits of Edmonton and it's recently been sold to a developer," Ms. Galan says.
"But not everything is super old. A lot of our windows came out of a home from the 1970s and I have a kitchen that just came out of a house which is probably from some time in the nineties. The railings around the deck are fairly recent; they're from a restaurant in town," she adds.
Not all the materials in the couple’s home is old – a lot of the windows came from a 1970s house.
The couple also have a 1970s fibreglass and plastic Venturo House in storage which they unexpectedly obtained from a hotel clearance. Designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen, Venturo Homes were once predicted as the next big trend in modern housing, until the oil crisis in the seventies sent the price of plastic soaring. Ms. Galan says she has no idea how one ended up in Edmonton but the couple jumped at the chance to take it and intend to renovate it and install it on their woodland site at some point in the future.
While being flexible with their vision has allowed the couple to take advantage of the materials which have become available to them, one aspect Ms. Galan isn't flexible on is cost. The former banker is working to a strict budget for her tiny cabins to prove how far a budget can stretch when you source second-hand materials.
"I'm working to a budget of under $5,000 per tiny cabin including any labour costs and I'm finding I can do that pretty easily," she says. "Even if I was paying our selling price for these materials, I'd still manage to keep under that figure."
While Ms. Galan reaps the financial benefits of being her own supplier, she says others can still save substantial sums by shopping in reclamation yards such as theirs.
"People can expect to save between 60 to 75 per cent. We generally price things at a quarter of a price of new, so toilets sell for around $50, for example," she says. "But often, the bigger the ticket, the bigger the savings. We had a brand-new kitchen in here a couple of months ago because the owner bought it and then decided it wasn't their style. We costed up the kitchen and the granite counters at over $30,000 and we sold it for $4,100."
The recycling enthusiast admits the only drawback with using reclaimed materials is that they can be trickier to work with than new.
"A lot of contractors don't want to use reusable materials because it can require a little more work and it can be a slower process to get what you want. For example, we're putting antique multipane windows into the home we're building for ourselves and we don't have the frames for those, because they were all custom built in those days. So we have to take the time to build our frames rather than just buying the window insert," she explains. "Some people might consider that a lot of work but for me, it's worth it because we end up with something unique at the end of the day."
"It can also take a little longer for items to come into stock. I'd say you'll wait three to six months if you're looking for something specific. But if you're willing to be patient, you can get some awesome materials," she says. "We just got a huge delivery of lumber in our yard, so right now, you could frame an entire house with that material for a quarter the price of new. But things like that sell fast, too."
For Ms. Galan, the benefits of reclaimed materials far outweigh the drawbacks.
"Using reclaimed materials saves a lot of money and it's environmentally the right thing to do, but it can also bring a really unique warmth and character to a home. When you open a set of incredible old doors or walk across beautiful flooring beams that have been walked on for a hundred years or more, it's almost like you can feel the history and the stories they hold. You can't put a price on that."