Recycle

Renew:
The former home brew store / modern furniture shop / skateboard shop on North Loop (53rd Street) is now a fancy cafe. Foreign and Domestic, Food and Drinks. Very South Congress-y. I tried to stop by for lunch today, but they are closed Sundays and Mondays. Based on the owners' pedigrees, I'm very hopeful regarding their food quality.



Reuse:
I've had this 25th Anniversary Specialized StumpJumper for a while now - the StumpJumper was the first production mountain bike, debuting in 1981. Mine's just a rolling chassis at this point. This limited edition remake was originally outfitted with a mix of modern and retro components, but the modern stuff never looked right. I've been wanting to find an era-correct set of parts to put on it, and I think I've finally hit the jackpot. Check it out - a Shimano Deore XT "deer head" group from 1983. Now, I'm just missing a Biopace crank to complete the transformation.



Refuse:
I hate rehab projects that lack imagination. Case in point, this house near Avenue H and North Loop. It lacked character before, it lacks character now. Except now it's probably somewhere north of $300K. Come on - if you're going to completely gut a house and spend all that money to rebuild from the ground up - add at least one interesting feature. Oh wait, they did increase the roof pitch, so they could add a master suite upstairs. Very subtle. And clever. It might even pass the Historical Commission guidelines. The original architects would be proud.