Dutch Bakfiets - Colorado Scrapfiets

I've been drooling over a Dutch bakfiet style bike for some time. The Dutch manage to carry more in their bicycles than the average American carries in their SUV.

This is a traditional Dutch bakfiet.



There are some small American companies building these, but at a pretty high price tag.

My favorite is the Cetma Cargo, it however costs $3200. A price that I believe to be a good value. It's one man shop and everything is made by hand. I'd pay it happily if I could.





Another company, Organic Engines, builds a similar bike for $1750. I have to believe that this two man shop isn't making very much money off of their bikes and are only doing it as a fun side job. This bike lacks a bit of the style of the Cetma, but would certainly haul stuff around just as well and last just as long for almost half as much. Sadly I also can't afford one.



So instead I decided to build one. My current job in the warehouse gets a little boring so for the past couple weeks I've been looking forward to working on it. It's built almost entirely from scrap materials with only about $50 invested in materials so far. In keeping with the scrap theme the box is going to be made from an old plywood real estate sign that I "aquired" after the company fired a friend of mine a week after promising her 20% more a year.

I got to take it for a ride for the first time today. The steering is a bit loose right now, so I have some more work to do, but it rides nice and smooth and tracks well in a straight line.

My New Job

I started a new job yesterday. I'm working for a huge food bank in Colorado Springs called Care and Share. We don't distribute any food to individuals, instead we act as more of a shipping depot distributing food to smaller organizations all over the southern half of Colorado.

My official title is "order picker." I think its a bit like the manly version of being a personal shopper. I'm in a huge warehouse and a get an order sheet, aka shopping list. I walk through the warehouse with either a shopping cart, and large platform cart, or a pallet on a pallet jack depending on the size of the order. I pick the items off the shelves, and put them into the cart, or stack them on a pallet. I label the order and "stage it" for pick up. That just means I put it in a certain area to indicate that it's ready for pickup. My co-workers have described the job with words like "mindless" or repeatedly saying "it's not rocket science." They're right, it doesn't take much, but I really think I'm going to enjoy it. I like working for non-profits. No one is trying to steal someone else's sales to make more money. We all play a role, and get our pay, if there is more work to be done, it gets spread evenly, and no one makes more for it. If there is less work to do, we all try to stay busy, and no one loses money because of it. There's a greater sense of teamwork at a non-profit, there's a greater sense of community, and there is a greater cause to our work than our paychecks.

In addition I think non-profits value their employees more, or atleast tell them more often. I'm starting as part time and even at 20 hours a week I get paid holidays, sick pay, and vacation time.

It's not something I want to do forever, but I'm glad to be there, and wouldn't mind staying there for a while.

Our New Apartment and Craigslist/Garage Sale Finds

So we found our place. It's great. I get a garage with heat and electricity, the apartment is the whole second floor of a 3 car garage. It's really affordable plus we get brand new carpet and fresh paint. Theres a great porch on the corner and its got a lot of character.

So both of us moved long distances to work at the Dale House where we lived in furnished apartments. I still live at The Dale House, and she has roomates who own most of the furniture. All this to say we need furniture. I set a goal of not paying more than $20 for any one piece of furniture. This means a single table needs to be less than $20. If we bought a table with 4 chairs I'd be willing to go as high as $100. I've been coming in under budget so far.

We got this couch for $10 off of Craigslist. Vicky already has a nice dark chocolate colored couch cover that will go on the couch. It's actually quite comfy and clean, most of the dirt you see will brush off and is just from the back of my truck. It's not anything great, but I find most upholstery to be quite bland anyway.


This is my find of the day its an old entertainment hutch with space for records and stereo equipment. I'm not sure exactly how we will use it yet. It's actually two cabinets that are menat to stack. I'm thinking I might turn it into two seperate cabinets resulting in a low and medium height credenzas. I payed $35 for it at a garage sale, but got a car stereo thrown into the deal as mine recently quit working. I figure it counts as two pieces so I'm well under budget.

I really wanted a round table and like the shape of this base. I'll probably paint the base and just clean the top really well. I might put new laminate on the top if I can find something I like for a good deal. It was $20 off of Craigslist. I would have haggled more but the lady was obviously in a hurry and she was also pregnant and sounded like she was single so I figured she's better off with the extra $5 than I am.


I found this on Craiglist and she just asked for somone to make an offer. I offered to take it off her hands for free. She agreed. I think a nice cream paint on the legs and edges of the table and leave the walnut formica on top.


I got two of these old wood folding chairs for $5 each at a garage sale. I hate the typical metal folding chairs and figured these would be nice to have around.


This table badly needs to be refinished. I was planning on painting it, but then I saw that it was made in Grand Rapids by Widdicomb furniture and this piece really deserves to be properly refinished. I'll see what I can do, it might be too badly worn to properly refinish it in which case it will probably be painted a nice rich, warm dark brown.

I prefer to make coffee in a French press, unless its really early in the morning in which case it's nice to be able to set a timer on an automatic drip machine. I have a large, 32oz press that I got from an REI garage sale for $4. This one is only 8-12oz but it was only $2 so I decided it was worth it. The large one is great but only if you're making atleast 16oz.


This last purchase was most definately not necessary, but it popped up on Craigslist for $10 so I immeadiately emailed the guy selling it to ask when I could pick it up. It's my size and in remarkably good condition considering that it was made in 1983. I got a new tire for it and I'm going to switch the handlebars and I'll start riding it.


So overall we now have a couch, one large or two small credenzas, two folding chairs, an end table, a coffee table, a dining table, a nice small french press, and I got another bike. At the end of the day we're only out $90. We also have two other chairs from a thrift store that I don't have pictures of yet, but they were only $10 for the pair. I think we also have a queen matress and boxspring for free.

Christmas Gifts

I have a really cool girlfriend who found me a really cool Christmas gift.

Theres an artist near Colorado Springs who makes the coolest concert posters. Posters start at about $50, but he makes small 8 x 10 digital prints of the posters and you can get 3 of them for $20. The plan was to buy me three of those. His shipment of mini prints came in and were messed up and he had to send them back. Vicky had been in there 4 or 5 times now and he felt bad that she still couldn't get what she wanted. I told him which posters I liked and he agreed to sell us one of them for $20. While he was wrapping up my Arcade Fire poster, he asked if I liked Mars Volta. I love Mars Volta. He said he had an extra print floating around and that he would go ahead and roll that one up with the other poster. I'm excited to get back to Colorado and make frames for my new posters so I can display them instead of leaving them rolled up in a tube.

I managed to find both of them online, so you can all see how awesome Vicky's gift is.


I'm back in Michigan for a while, in Grand Rapids right now. I've been bouncing around the state and will be continuing to do so for the next few days before I settle down at my parents house for a little bit.

It's been a while.

I haven't written in a while, mostly because the past month or so was really tough. I wasn't in the mood to write anything positive, and I really didn't feel like writing a long whiny post.

A few great things have happened recently.

I took a few guys from the house to a Habitat for Humanity build site. We all had a good time. I've wanted to volunteer for habitat for a long time, but it never fit into my schedule before now.

On Monday one of my guys paroled. He seems to be doing well on his own so far. Last night he introduced me to a friend of his as "The Man that made it happen." I reminded him that he made it happen and I just helped. It was nice to hear that the kids I'm working with realize that I'm trying to help them even though so often the staff and residents seem to be battling each other.

I've had some great interactions with kids lately, showing me that I'm not as useless as I often feel. It's almost impossible to judge the progress that our kids are making, and even harder to feel like my efforts make a difference. I've found out lately that maybe I am helping, and I'm alright with maybe.

Yesterday

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2166570 <--- Yesterday

My legs were sore this morning. To fix them, I got on my bike and rode. I'm enjoying it greatly.

Some Random Thoughts From The Last Few Days

The drive out to Colorado was incredibly significant for me. It was important for me to spend that time alone and deal with any challenges involved.

If God promises not to give us more than we can handle, why is it that people choose to give up on life?

Why are young people presented with challenges that seem impossible?

How is it that we can feel so distant from those closest to us and distant from God?

Why did I get so much, and others get so little?