A couple days ago I stopped by a neat warehouse in downtown Baltimore called Second Chance. The motto of the place is “Retrain, Reclaim, Renew!” Essentially the idea is to deconstruct buildings instead of demolishing them. This saves materials, valuable resources, and money. After deconstructing a building Second Chance takes building materials as well as furniture, cabinets, sinks, toilets, vanities, counter-tops, statues, mirrors, etc. and sells them in this warehouse. If you need to buy building material or need a hard to-find part, say a doorknob or handle, Second Chance most likely has it.
There is a lot of really cool and interesting things that Second Chance carries in it's 200,000 sq. foot warehouse. However, the most interesting item that this Auto Journalist and Blogger found there was a 4-wheeled vehicle, of course. That was the above pictured 19th Century Romanian Wagon that was up for sale. For a cool $4,500 you could take it home. Unfortunately I don't have that kind of money or space to store a wagon, but if you do I recommend going down to Second Chance to check it out!
The Romanian Wagon made me think about how far modern society has come since the horse-drawn carriage days and how automobiles have changed the way people get around. Imagine having to operate this wagon with a horse? People complain a lot of about maintaining cars, fueling them up, and washing then, etc. Think how they have made transportation so much easier and more efficient. (Funny thing is some farmers and people in many parts of the world still use these types of horse drawn carriages to till soil and to get around.)
The wagon is representative of Second Chance as a whole in my opinion. Just because something is old, worn, or isn't cutting edge technology doesn't mean it doesn't have value or can't be used by someone. However, I am glad I didn't have to use the wagon to get to and from Second Chance.
For more pictures of the wagon check out my Flickr Photo Set.