One person’s trash…Store offers Wood River Valley, ID construction cast-offs – Fancy yourself with Bruce Willis’s toilet?

Imagine what people would say when you point to your refrigerator and say, "That used to be Adam West’s — you know, Batman!"

At the Building Materials Thrift Store, you can find ceiling fans and sinks Willis threw out when he remodeled his home near Hailey.

By Karen Bossick
Times-News correspondent

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/localstate/index.asp?StoryID=7421

You can find a 600-foot chain-link fence that once enclosed the Ironwood Tennis Court. You can find a new pellet stove some Wood River Valley homeowner decided he no longer wanted even before he installed it.

Heck, you can even find a 10-foot neon sign lighting up the word "Pooch’s" that a former restaurant owner brought with him from California.

And what you buy will help the Wood River Land Trust conserve open space and protect view corridors in and around the Sun Valley area.

The nonprofit Building Materials Thrift Store located on Hailey’s south side is the brainchild of Bruce Tidwell, a former building contractor who decided there must be a way to put to good use all the perfectly good windows, doors, shutters and other materials he saw people throwing out when they remodeled their kitchens or entryways.

Photo by KAREN BOSSICK/The Times-News

He wondered: Why not resell the used building materials, saving landfill space in the process? And why not put the proceeds toward supporting local land protection?

Tidwell opened the store in 1999, unsure whether the concept would catch on.

Now, a mere four years later, he knows the answer is a resounding yes.

His store has been able to contribute more than $200,000 from sales to the Wood River Land Trust to aid it in buying land easements. And he has saved 25 homes from being torn down by owners who wanted to build their own houses on the sites by auctioning them off and getting them moved.

That’s a lot of garbage staying out of the landfill, if you figure the average 2,000-square-foot house contains 75,000 pounds of material, Tidwell estimated.

Over the years, Tidwell and his assistants have collected fireplaces, whirlpool bathtubs, granite and travertine marble countertops, wood stoves, plumbing, carpeting, nuts and bolts and even a $4,000 AeroTrim — a ride of sorts in which a person is strapped in and then sent spinning.

An herb farmer bought a portable clothes washer to wash herbs in the field to make his operation more cost-efficient.

Hailey resident Ron Moore used materials he picked up at the Building Materials Thrift Store to build his two-story octagonal-shaped home.

"We spent tens of thousands of dollars there, and I’m pretty sure my neighbor did too," he said. "It fit our budget, and it fit our philosophy of waste not, want not. So many people change doors and windows every few years because it might not be the right color for them. Rather than let it go to the landfill, I’d rather recycle it."

Buyers who know what they’re looking for can get some good deals, noted Dan Gilmore of the Wood River Land Trust. Doors that might cost $50 at Home Depot go for $13 at the thrift store. Mirrored sliding doors that might cost $100 elsewhere go for $20.

Appliances come with a 30-day warranty. Electrical components are tested before they’re put up for sale. And the thrift store is planning to build a new warehouse where it will be able to test other facets, as well.

"In addition, there’s a wish list," Gilmore said. "Tell them what you need — a window of such and such size, for instance — and they’ll call you when something comes in."

In addition to making donations to the land trust, Tidwell has donated carpeting to the Boy Scouts, beds to a domestic violence shelter and building materials to the local animal shelter. When a retired couple donated a jungle gym, he arranged for the gym to go to Fairfield, which had no playground equipment.

"There’s not too many things we can’t find a home for," he said.

The Building Materials Thrift Store is located at 3990 Woodside Blvd. across from Power Engineers.
Hours are 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Phone number: 788-0014.