James Taylor has been with The RE Store’s Seattle field crew for over a decade now, helping to fill the stores with artfully removed and carefully preserved salvaged materials. But as a self-avowed packrat (in recovery) and homeowner, he also has many pieces that have gone home with him – many still waiting to become projects too someday. His side yard is one of those projects that will perhaps constantly evolve as he finds new treasures to add, but it a such a great spot of salvage inspiration and creativity – that we just had to share.
Literally almost every element of this eclectic and tranquil garden is salvage material. As you can imagine, James does get a first look at almost all the materials that come into the store via our free salvage pick up services – and over time this has culminated in a garden full of treasures. The pathway and edging (above, left) was created from Seattle brick and cobble stones – even the sand used for setting the brick was salvaged from a former concrete-counter maker neighbor of The RE Store, Dog Paw. The weather vane (above, right) was taken from a job we did with King County removing houses in a floodplain.
The planters are all components that have had former lives as wash basin or a mop sink (above left and right) – items that were dropped off at the store from folks that had already used these items as something other than their original tasks – giving them 3 or more lives at least (now that is the kind of re-use commitment we like to see!). And a stone whose former role was as an address marker, turned on its side (above, center) makes for a perfect seat in the center of this garden to take it all in.
Every last detail has a salvaged past – from the hose stand-offs made out of andirons (that someone made out of railroad track – not pictured) and homemade targets (above, left) to a bench created from sandstone pulled from a retaining wall in the Denny Regrade, piled with bocce balls and shot-puts salvaged from a high school job.
A creative fellow for sure – he has recently added the title of Designer/Builder for our Seattle REvision Division to his role – giving him the license to create the objects for places beyond just his yard as he plucks material from the jaws of the landfill. Come check out some of his recent creations!