Join the Wreck Reno Build Club: You used to be able to make a living doing honest work. Carpentry and repairs. Tiling and electrical. Now you run around all day, burning gas, not earning enough to break even. If you continue down this road, you'll be ten years older and just as broke. Still a renter, still scrambling to make ends meet. Always looking for that one job that will finally pay off. The fact is, the ecosystems that used to supply all that good lumber are gone. Every 2 x 4 is now cut from a sapling. You can see it on the end grain. There's the core of the tree. Our forests are worn thin, but the bankers and money people keep escalating. They're the ones behind high house prices and low wages. There's a reason you're working like mad but just not making it. Looking for work, but just not making it on your own?

So this is not your usual wreck reno build deal. You'll be converting sheds into store rooms for food. You'll be building greenhouses with sustainable off-grid solar and water systems. Not just for a homeowner with money, but by making deals to split costs and the green produce with people who have as little money to spare as you. You'll be building cabins for kids who just bought an acreage as a group, and need help with building codes and permits. Your kids. You could make a deal like this: you get paid $20 an hour officially, but this summer you get $10 an hour - just enough to get by - but in the winter you get the other $10 as income. That makes it possible for the person hiring you to get it done, and it evens out your income later in the year. For that, you need a smart deal, written down and signed. Not something you usually do, but a smarter way to build your life and the lives of others. You might make a deal with a farmer to use a barn in trade for some work done. You might build bee hives for a cut of the honey sales, or use a corner of the land for growing vegetables. 

We need to go green and we need to do it fast. That means all sorts of new construction methods. Using ground heat to keep cool in summer and warm in winter. Energy and water systems. Solar and electric. Family farms everywhere are struggling, under attack. Reach out and make a deal: we call that Farm Assist. Plant an orchard in exchange for winter apple storage. Round up farmers and build a sales-outlet farm store. Make it a general store to Buy Bulk and sell. Renovate a barn for woodworking, supplemental income for you and the farmer. You might need a place to work. That's what we're talking about.

Another thing to think about. If you're in the same company, you don't have to pay each other. People in companies don't charge each other to use the printer. They use common buildings, offices, tools, accounting systems, forklifts and trucks. All you really need to do is to clarify in writing what the deal is. Who does what. Who pays for what. Who gets reimbursed. But to start, we recommend a club. That gives you time to work out how it's going to work best.

Comarketing. As a team, you can do far more than one person. Think about that.


Want in? Take a look at Greenhouses. That's a good start. Would you like to build one this summer? How about  20? Add your name here: