Photos by John Rennison, The Hamilton Spectator

In Homestead, Bill Caton rolls fridges and furniture out the front door of his used goods shop every morning.

Caton has run the shop since buying a building there in 1988.  It burned down the year after he bought it, but Caton stuck around to re-build.

A framed news article on Caton’s wall talks about the fire and shows Bill watching his place burn from across the street.

Today, the sign on the front window of the shop asks “why buy new when used will do?”

Bill’s Furniture, as it’s called, has everything.  A huge wooden bear out front weights 600 pounds. Heads and horns are mounted everywhere. On a chair in the middle of it all sits Caton’s dog, Toto, in his own little world.

Caton has been in Homestead since the late 80s, but has occasionally ventured north to Canada.“I shot that up there,” he says as he hooks his thumb over his right shoulder at a bear skin mounted on the wall.