Recycled & Redeemed
Written by Charles Agar
At the very confluence of vintage and modern stands Norma Garvey, the self-styled “Fred Sanford of New Braunfels,” and her army of “junk-tique” vendors at her downtown shop, Max’s Haus Mercantile.
On a recent customer appreciation night, Garvey strolled easily through the maze of furniture, tools and trinkets out front of the busy shop. A bathtub sat in a flowerbed nearby and a chipped statue of Mary looked on as in one breath Garvey chatted with a vendor, in the next quoted a price to a customer, always taking time for a hug and a kind word.
“I know that this is what I’m supposed to be doing,” she said in the middle of it all.
A Houston native, Garvey was a competitive surfer as a teenager, which took her from Galveston to South Padre and on to Florida and California.
She majored in psychology at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio. After graduation, she opened restaurants in Austin and San Antonio.
Marriage led her to Jefferson Texas where she opened Auntie Skinner’s Riverfront Club. A later divorce sent her to New Braunfels where she would make her home and raise her son, Max, now 20.
“My life has been about redemption and overcoming,” said a soulful Garvey. And being a single mother made her “strong and wise” over time. Necessity made her enterprising.
In the early 1990s, Garvey started “Max’s Salsa Sabrosa,” a line of salsas she dedicated to her young son and the first of the businesses that would bear Max’s name, including “Max’s Hot Cocoa Mix.”
In October of 2002, Garvey drove by a historic downtown Craftsman home on Seguin Avenue in disrepair, the yard choked with weeds.
“I don’t know what made me do it, but I just whipped in and got the building,” she said.
Starting with less than $500 and no business plan, Garvey set out to breathe life back into the house and rehab old treasures.
In just two months, she had a full slate of vendors, and today she has a waiting list for space.
Like her other ventures, Garvey named the place Max’s Haus after her son and was amazed one day to find an inscription in the concrete out front dating back to 1945 reading: “Max Haas.”
“It just made me cry,” she said. “It’s all tied together.”
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The original owner, Max Haas, had a little liquor store out in front, and Garvey displays a 1950s-era photo of the proud owner standing in front of the business.
Today the old house attracts a band of like-minded people, Garvey said — gypsies with the same passion for people and creativity.
“It’s just such a unique, eclectic collection of items and vendors,” said Katinka Pinka, one of Garvey’s vendors out of Austin. “But somehow it all meshes.”
Pinka sells handmade jewelry, clothing and recycled objects. She’s been a “junker” since childhood, she said, and for her “vintage” is about the rich patina that comes from rust and chipped paint.
“I like something with an obvious history,” Pinka said.
Meghan Glasper of New Braunfels works alongside Garvey in the shop, and the two can be found most mornings scouring sales and flea markets for treasures.
“Norma’s been like a mentor to me,” Glasper said. “She’s just allowed me the freedom to use my creativity.”
Another vendor, Shawn Balmos of New Braunfels, set up shop in the old washhouse out back, tacking a “rehab” sign over the door.
Balmos often cleans out old garages or barns for people, carting away refuse in exchange for a few choice items to fill the bed of his lime green 1974 Ford F100.
“It’s just been a pure blessing,” he said. “This is like my therapy.”
“It’s just so much more than selling people stuff,” Garvey said, adding that Max’s Haus is about reclaiming and recycling old treasures, but comes down to people connecting one to one.
Garvey holds a popular customer appreciation night on the first Friday of each month – a great time to stop by, listen to some live music and experience it for yourself.
For more information about Max’s Haus Mercantile, visit them at 653 South Seguin Ave., or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Charles Agar is a freelance writer and videographer in New Braunfels. Contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
