His helpful impulse has now come home to roost.
When Cunha's was gutted by fire May 21, firefighters were able to douse those flames before the entire building went up. As a result, a large, solid-redwood portion of the building's north wall remained standing, if a little charred.
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Hoffman built birdhouses out of wood from that wall, and he will sell or raffle them, and turn the money over to help in rebuilding the beloved general store.
Three birdhouses are now on display at Feed & Fuel for raffle. The largest of the three is about 18 by 18 inches, and was painted by Feed & Fuel employee Lisa O'Neill to look like a mini-Cunha's store.
There is also a medium-size one, painted in a design with little hearts. And there's a small one, which looks a little more rugged with bits of the natural redwood still showing.
Raffle tickets are $5 apiece. The winners will be drawn on Saturday, Aug. 30, beginning at noon.
In the meantime, Hoffman won't be idle. He had salvaged enough wood to construct a regular fleet of birdhouses - and that's just what he has been doing.
"He's been busy," chuckled O'Neill. "His whole workshop is full of pink birdhouses."
He is building sets of 13 small birdhouses, each about four inches square. Hoffman plans to have local artists paint the little houses, and to that end, he said he planned to approach local artists Rebecca Holland, Sharon Scott and January Hooker.
Of each set of 13, one will go to the artist and the rest will be up for donation, sale or raffle.
All of them have one thing in common: They're made with a part of Cunha's.
"Everything is 100 percent out of the north wall," declared Hoffman, adding that only the nails he used to make them are new.
And, he added, he anticipates that wall yielding some 60 birdhouses, when all is said and done.
Proceeds will go directly into a fund for rebuilding the store. Between insurance and fund-raisers held since the fire, Cunha's employees are pretty well taken care of, he said.
Feed & Fuel is located near the Tin Palace on the east side of Main Street, just south of the bridge.
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