Bernadette standing among stacks of her handiwork

On her background:

“Born in East Baltimore. 51 years old. Eight children, one deceased, seven boys and one girl. I grew up in a rough neighborhood, I hustled and got locked up. I got clean in 2009 and have been clean ever since. It had been hard to find jobs, I had odd jobs. I started going to Turnaround Tuesday at the church and that’s how I ran across this job site, going to the church.”

On deconstruction vs traditional demolition:

“I love it. I used to do it, not legally, but getting paid going out with people working, doing houses, cleaning and everything. I helped my sister when she got her house, built from the ground up. We were just throwing everything away, and here we’re saving stuff. I didn’t even think they would do that- I thought when they would knock down a house they would just throw everything away. I learned that it’s different here: we save the bricks, the flooring, everything.”

On her favorite part of deconstruction so far:

“The bricks! I don’t mind cleaning them all day long, stacking them, cleaning them, getting them, I don’t mind. When we first started, we were inside the house knocking everything down and denailing, I chose the bricks instead of denailing.  It seemed like it was easier, but it’s more fun!”