Driven by reality TV competitions, renovating has rarely been so popular. But it hasn't turned into cash for a well-loved recycling shed that's closing up after 25 years.
Coasties at Corrimal is one of those places that seems like it's been there forever. Some people claim they remember it being there 40 years ago. It hasn't - just 25 - but that gives a sense of loss some people feel at the news Coasties is closing.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
"Everyone wants shiny and new. And we don't do shiny and new," said Jules Little, whose love affair with Coasties Big Shed started like anyone any other one of the Collins Street establishment's thousands of customers - amid a hunt for materials.
The difference with Jules and husband Matt, however, was that they didn't find the weatherboards they were searching for - they bought the business.
For the pair of passionate renovators from Kiama, the opportunity to pursue recycling and re-using building materials as their occupation was too exciting to pass up.
"We were looking for something different to what we'd done before," Jules says.
"We loved building materials, loved renovating, so we made the leap."
Matt jumped in with a wry smile: "That's when our own renovations stopped."
But after five years the Littles have made the agonising decision to close their longstanding operation, saying they just haven't been able to sell enough materials to make the costs worthwhile.
Jules said that with banks tightening their home lending, and the construction market contracting, the difference at the register was plain to see.
"It's been a very tough battle, particularly the past 6-12 months," she said.
"It got to the point where we can't sustain it. It became a very hard decision-making process, and right to the end we were trying to work out other ways to make it work.
"In many ways the number of customers didn't drastically decrease, but what they spent did - you could see them just holding back.
"Everyone told us how much they loved us, and how much they loved what we have, but at the end of the day that didn't translate into sales."
"There are big things we couldn't really overcome, like location, the size of the shed, layout of the shed … it just became too difficult."
"We know people are struggling," Matt said. "There's plenty of others, people who are having a tough time too."
The news will be sad for those who like to search for diamonds on the rough - people who prefer recycling old quality materials to buying brand new particleboard and plastics from a big-box retailer.
Or those whose tastes - and budgets - run to sturdy louvre doors, lead light windows, salvaged hardwood benches and tiles embarking upon their second lives.
"A lot of people like new and shiny," Matt said. "We don't do new and shiny."
Jules agreed. "They don't necessarily appreciate that some of the things we have you cannot get anymore. Those that do know are our bedrock, are our regular customers. But we're constantly competing against that new and shiny."
New and shiny - and easily disposable. Their vantage point in the recycling yard has meant the Littles are well placed to identify trends, and the Coasties duo pointed to a new phenomenon - the disposable house.
"Our timbers, most of them were felled from virgin forest possible 100 plus years ago," Jules said.
"They don't warp, they don't twist, they don't do anything like that anymore. But the pine we get through is date stamped 10-15 years ago."
"It's from houses," adds Matt. "We had all the pine framing from a house come through here, and the pine was date-stamped 2012. And that's when it was cut - not even when it was put into the house."
Today even new houses may even be demolished within six or seven years, and built new again - a very different direction to those who want to re-use and recycle.
"People aren't building for the next generation, like they did in the 1930s, 50s, even 70s, when you'd build a house which you'd then give to your kids, and now it's completely different," Jules says.
"Look at our stadiums: 20 years then you pull them down," Matt added. "The government isn't even building things to last."
Sturdiness and longevity given way to aspiration and finish as the drivers of construction.
"The Government has, rightly, focused on the kerbside recycling, which has its own issues," Jules said.
"But there hasn't been a broader picture of the fact that everything we do needs to have responsibility.
"Until that happens, people like us are fighting an uphill battle because you don't have that intrinsic you must recycle with building materials.
"It's the second use, third use, fourth use," Matt said.
"We'd get people who are happy to donate goods to us, and that was great, that helped us to survive. But the reason was the tip fees. And they'd grumble about the tip fees, not understanding there was a reason for that, because it is just putting it into a hole in the ground. That's what happens when you pull a structure down and put it in skip bins."
Matt will continue his wood working business Broken Bits Enterprises, shifting to Oak Flats, so a lot of the timber will go with him.
But to avoid the landfill, they're having 50 per cent off everything on site until their final day - March 23.
"We have met some incredible people," Jules said.
"Characters, incredible talent and creativity, seeing things you would never imagine in a piece of timber, or a window, whatever.
"And the materials themselves as well - we've seen some pretty cool stuff."
"We had a 10m fishing trawler one day," Matt said.
"It didn't quite make it in the gate - it stayed out the front while we pulled it apart. You never knew what was going to come in the gate."