During the school day, he assists and educates his students with arithmetic. With his extra   free time, he re-purposes and resells vintage and mid-century modern pieces. Charles Cowey, an algebra 2 teacher, is known as a Central Texas Picker.

“I visit garage sales, auctions, estate sales, and junk yards,” Cowey said. “I find items that other people don’t really know the value of what they have, so I purchase it and resell it.”

Cowey has been participating in these activities for around two years now. He’s made birdhouses from old toy parts, hosted city wide garage sales, and participated in Fredericksburg trade shows.

“I like finding old rusty treasures and making them shine. It’s a lot of fun,” Cowey said. “I started off building different kinds of birdhouses and re-purposing different types of furniture.”

While partaking in these weekend activities, Charles’ wife, Louisa Cowey, tends to tag along with him. They have different tastes from each other when it comes to picking out furniture, but it adds variety to his garage sales.

“We usually go shopping together,” Louisa said. “Sometimes I pick stuff out, sometimes he picks stuff out. I don’t really help out with re-purposing items though.”

Charles has purchased furniture and antiques from multiple places, such as the Austin Motel on South Congress. He usually sells the items on craigslist, sometimes within only a few hours.

“I’ve sold every piece that I’ve gotten from the Austin Motel within three days,” Charles said. “I also sold a SXSW bud light guitar for $385. I only had it for thirty-six hours.”

Although his wife and daughter try to pressure him into keeping every piece he has re-purposed, Charles tries to not get too attached to them. He does keep a few pieces for himself though.

“I love his creativity and ingenuity,” Cowey’s daughter, Christina Sheridan said. “He has a gift for finding the best deals and selections!”