Silverlake Architectural Salvage was founded in 2005 by former school teacher and self proclaimed dumpster diver, Bruce Baker. After years of collecting vintage architectural wonders, Bruce finally ran out of a room to store it all, but refused to stop diving dumpsters or scavenging at yard sales across southern California. His solution: open a store where people could come and look at his things while he told myriad a tale of and offered up the history of each item.
But people complained.
They didn't want to just come and look. They actually wanted to (he will say insisted on) buying these items and taking them home to reuse in their own homes.
But he refused.
They wanted to hand him green pieces of paper, plastic little cards inscribed with numbers and names in exchange for items he'd found on the side of the road.
What were they thinking? His doors and windows, red roof tiles and tables had value, history and honor.
He couldn't part with his treasures that easily.
But then, once again, he ran out of room. The building got crowded---the door wouldn't open---you had to walk on top of tables, scale over bookshelves and built ins.
What to do?
You couldn't even see the front door any more and people kept knocking on it wanting to come in. What to do? What to do? What to do?
Join us next week when we see if Bruce finds an answer sitting atop a bounty of bouegouis treasures. |
