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eye e ouse, t By sue Johnston ~~30/ 11,ropped up on railroad ties, Expositor Lifestyles Editor without benefit of hydro or run- When Robert and Belinda ning water. Sero tell you they've built their Once the foundation was home from scratch, believe it poured, the house was moved "If ever there was a recycled over and months of hard work house, this is it," Mrs. Sero said followed. in an interview, as she and her Since the couple had decided husband described how they they wanted a larger home than came to be homeowners. the one they had bought, the The two have bought or tom foundation actually measured 30 down old buildings that nobody feet by 50 feet, whereas the else wanted, scrounged garage house was only 20 feet by 30 feet. and store sales, and driven a In keeping with their inten- hard bargain with whoever tion to save money and make use would listen as they literally of items no one else wanted, they pieced together their home. built an addition along one side The house situated on Sour and across the back of the ex- Springs Road just inside the isting home using wood and even boundaries of the Six Nations the nails from another aban- Reserve, sits on a parcel of 50 doned house in Brantford. And acres of farmland owned by Mr. this time they didn't even have Sero's father, Norman. to pay for the house. It's not much to look at just "They told us we could have yet, but the Seros are confident it as long as we were willing to that when the remaining struc- tear it down ourselves," Mrs. tural work is completed, and the Sero ~d, describing the 8.>year- house is fully furnished and dee- old, bnck, two-storey house that orated to their liking, they will was l?Cated beside the Harvey have a comfortable, good-sized C. Smith Drug Store. home for about one-third of the Accepted the deal cost of b~Hcµng ~ brand new The Seros gladly accepted the house of similar size and style. deal and began dismantling the Over the p~t couple of years, house. the Seros estim~te ~E:Y'v~ spei:it From it they got most of the about $45,000 bwl~i?g their wood that was used in construct- home. They expect it II cos~ a i~ the addition. They also sal- f'urther $5,000 to $7,000 to firush vaged a set of French doors and it of'!, az:id their ~urance agt:nt took up the hardwood floors has i~dicated they 11 have to m- board by board, which they in- su~e it for.about $150,000 - the tend to incorporate into their price ~~ d have to pay to re- new home. place it with a new home. "We even sold the bricks from Adverse conditions the house and made $1,200," It's been a long, slow process, noted Mrs. Sero. and the Seros have been forced Other steps they've taken to to live under some pretty ad- build their home at rock-bottom verse conditions. But they're cost include: proud of their accomplishments O Buying drywall from a and they hope others might be trailer manufacturer at a frac- able to learn a thing or two from tion of the cost of regular dry- their experience. wall. The pieces are smaller Mrs. Sero explained that the than sheets of standard drywall, couple lived in an apartment, meaning extra work to. put it to- but when they were given notice gether, but that didn't concern to vacate they decided they the Seros. wanted to build a home. D Purchasing lighting and "We didn't have much money bathroom fixtures for less than to work with .. .so we had to im- 50 per cent of retail cost, by provise," said Mr. Sero, who scrounging store sales. works at a foundry in Brantford. D Buying 22 panes of glass at They started by buying a tiny a garage sale for only $10. New, house on Charing Cross Street the glass would have cost about for a mere $2,500. They then $1,100. The Seros plan to use the spent $4,000 to have the five- glass in a large bay window room, all-wood house trans- across the front of the house. ported to the lot on the reserve O Hiring a backhoe over the owned by the elder Mr. Sero. Christmas holidays at half-price. That was in May of 1988, and O Installing - temporarily - for the next six weeks, the couple carpeting that was being ripped lived in the house which was out of another house and w destined for the garbage befo~ the Seros laid claim to it. · "Whatever we could dd cheaply, or to save money, or tQ find an angle, we did," said Mrs; Sero with a chuckle. "There's not very much new in this house~ Even the nails are used. W ~ pulled them out of the boards from. the house we tore down; straightened them and used them again." i Of course another big savin& is that they didn't need to hir~ a contractor or tradespeople. : Most of the construction worK has been done by Mr. Sero'~ father, who is a carpenter. Re~ markably, the elder Mr. Sero ha$ done all this work at the ripe old age of 78. : And he's had help. In addition to the work done by his son ori weeknights and weekends, M~ Sero's friend, Lloyd Birdsell;· who is 74, has also helped out immensely. • Throughout the construction; the Seros, who each have child; ren from previous marriages bul none of whom lives with them; have had to live in cramped;. often dirty and somewhat Ullt comfortable conditions. • Moved around They first lived in the front part of the house as the additioti was constructed; now they're squeezed into a few small rooms at the back of the house while they work on the front. "I think the hardest thing for me has been that I'm a really fussy person and I like to be clean and neat all the time," said Mrs. Sero. "So I was not a happy person when we started this. - "But you get used to it Now it doesn't even bother me to be· caked in dirt or mud at times.'; The Seros haven't set them- selves a target date for complet- ing the house. "It depends on money," said Mr. Sero. · In addition · to finishing thj? house, which will encompass 1,500 square feet of living space all on one level, the Seros are planning to build a garage an~ a barn - both with lumber, nails, etc. salvaged from othei- old buildings they've tom down. Ob~ning used materials tp build a home hasn't been that difficult, said Mr. Sero. · "A lot of people are tearing down buildings and just thro~- ing stuff out," he said. "A lot of that stuff can be reused. You just have to use your head and ft~ · tr