An L.A. contractor with a sixth sense for roadside relics rebuilds his red-flagged house

Al Teman has a penchant for salvage, but his Silver Lake home in no way resembles a salvage yard. Old doors are neatly stacked in storage. Antique books, magazines and other ephemera are painstakingly sorted by genre, with labels such as "Communism," "Scientology," "Old Menus" and "Crazy Headlines From Newspapers." Teman, a contractor, may have clients who want new granite countertops and pristine custom cabinetry, but his own home reflects an obsession with repurposing the old.

The front gate features recycled window shutters and a found sculpture. “Everything in the house is found,” Teman says of the goods he has discovered in the trash or along the side of the road. “The stuff is there for free everywhere. You just have to find it.”