The residents of Bellingham, Washington are passionate about using the most of what one has, while having less of an impact on the environment around them. Paul Haskins and Alaine Borgias, owners of the successful Adventures NW magazine, know firsthand about choosing options that conserve both resources and money. These native Bellingham folk live in a Victorian-style home, so more contemporary home accessories were not an option for them.
Paul and Alaine ran into a predicament when they realized they needed a set of doors that would allow them to grill outside more easily, but these doors needed to match the look of their older home. Haskins explains, “We were big on cooking outside, but did not have an easy way to access the barbecue without going through three doors or through rooms, which we didn’t want to be bringing food through. And it couldn’t be just any old door, as we wanted to keep in line with our Victorian home’s design.”
Haskins said how his wife, Alaine, found an “almost perfect set of doors with frame and hardware at The RE Store,” where there is a large selection of used doors in a variety of styles, some of which match the older homes in the neighborhoods surrounding the store. The two talked and eventually figured that the set was perfect for their home – the only flaw was they did not have enough room to store the doors in the garage because of too many finds already from The RE Store in there. This project had to be put on, as what Haskins called it, “fast track.”
Thanks to their hard work, now Paul and Alaine are able to enjoy barbecuing year-round with a set of doors that fits in with the look of their Victorian home. Paul recalls that “it’s been a sort of joke how family or people who have been to the house regularly have walked past them numerous times before they finally say, ‘Oh my god, you have doors!’ We couldn’t have done it without The RE Store!”
Haskins figures that he ended up spending more money on just the trim of the doors than the actual doors. It pays to be green and use sustainable building products while keeping with the design elements of historic homes.