Eastside Rebuild gears up for grand opening

CASHMERE—Eastside Rebuild, Waste Loop’s reclaimed building material store, will hold a grand opening block party from 3 to 7 p.m. on Apr. 27. 

The block party, hosted in collaboration with Sidestreet Cashmere, will include grilling, yard games, and live music. During the event, Eastside Rebuild will open all three floors for tours, including at least one tour in Spanish.

Eastside Rebuild will have a store for reclaimed building materials and appliances a tool library, and will host educational workshops focused on building and repair in the future.

The top floor of the building will be a 4,000-square-foot showroom of reclaimed appliances, furniture, flooring, and lighting. Larger items such as lumber and sheet metal will be showcased in the basement warehouse, which has a loading dock. The items are sourced from salvaged commercial and residential spaces, donations, and junk hauler pickups.

“I'm excited to give people a chance to buy affordable building materials because the cost to repair and the cost to replace is very, very, very high right now. And we aim to sell materials at a third to a half the cost of what it would cost new,” said Eastside Rebuild Co-Manager Luke Dixon.

The main floor will serve as the tool library, which currently has 300 tools inventoried for checkout. Some of the inventory includes power tools, auto tools, a lawn mower, a wood chipper, and even a sewing machine. The library is looking to add shop vacs, snowblowers, and lawn care tools.

“The tools really span any type of tool. It's not just construction related,” said Dixon.

Access to the library is a sliding-scale membership system in which people pay what they can for a yearly membership. Based on availability, members can check out tools for a week at a time, as many and as often as they need.

As the store and library open, Eastside Rebuild plans to host educational workshops on construction and repair, starting with a Repair Cafe on May 1.

“We're in a position to give people the materials, knowledge, and tools to empower themselves to build and repair their own items. Whereas, building or repairing is often very intimidating for many, many people. Most of it is really not that complicated at its core, and it's just an issue of education and access,” said Dixon.

Eastside Rebuild is located at 101 Railroad Avenue in Cashmere and is the second door closest to Aplets Way. The shop is currently open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and plans to add three to four more days of operation after the grand opening. Information about donations, library membership, and materials offerings can be found at wasteloop.org/eastside-rebuild.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media