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toomuchglass

I visited the HFH Re-Store

toomuchglass
16 years ago

( Habitat for humanity ) WOW ! All I can say is WOW !!

Thank you so much for telling me about that , Emagineer.

This one is HUGE ........ ( It used to be an old Sam's club. ) They have everything you could ever need or want for building. ( for pennies on the dollar !! ) I might have to sneak back there when DH isn't with me ... I saw a couple "interesting" things ..... (future projects ). LOL

If you have one in your area - I HIGHLY recommend it.

Comments (11)

  • rosebush
    16 years ago

    Sounds great! I love the Re-store here. Always fun to stop in and browse the back room . . .Will be there a lot when I begin construction in the spring. :)

  • rosesr4me
    16 years ago

    Yep, the HFH in my area is awesome. Great finds. I found a 1890's Eastlake table for $10!

  • brutuses
    16 years ago

    toomuch, thanks for reminding me that DH and I absolutely have to go to ours next Saturday. Post some photo's of your finds if you can so we can drool!!

  • marilyn_c
    16 years ago

    The one in my area had some skinny french doors for $20 apiece. Together they equal the size of a regular door. I wish I had bought them. I have two sets of doors like that and they take up so little space when they are open and the doors folded back. Bet they are gone now.

  • brutuses
    16 years ago

    I decided to take a ride yesterday to go check our out and it was a big dissappointment. They didn't have hardly anything to pick from. At least nothing I needed. They had lots of doors, banister spindles, $400 mahogany mantels, but no light fixtures or things of that sort that I was interested in. I'm going to check back after the beginning of the year when they'll most probably be getting a lot of donations from individuals as well as retailers.

  • breenthumb
    16 years ago

    DD is refurbing her house, and I told her about them. Seems she's already been there and unfortunately the local ones, at least the ones she went to (there are 5 in area), are expensive. Bummer. Sandy

  • emagineer
    16 years ago

    Am so glad your store is a great one TooMuch.

    The stores vary as to their stock and pricing. I'm not sure why pricing would be off for new items as there is a standard for pricing. We use catalogs and usually cut the price more than 50%. Other items can vary depending upon whether we think they will sell immediately, one of a kind/unique or the condition. I thought it was interesting that cabinets are priced by the number of drawers/doors/addons. There is also the volunteer aspect and mistakes can be made, usually each store only has 2 paid employees. Everyone else working there is a volunteer.

    Our store is the largest in the state and have heard the two others cannot compare to our stock. Three stores here within an hour drive of each other. We have people who actually stop at this one to buy when traveling through from other states. If you don't like a store near you, check to see where the other's are.

    Stock is dependant upon location though and if the store is one receiving donations from Lowes/HD. My store gets tons of stock from them during the first of the year when they are changing over to new trends, displays and return items. We also get stock from contractor overruns, mistakes on special orders and business closings. An example is a double entry door with cut glass inserts....900 bucks...a special order and orginal price was 2800.

    If you see something and want it, don't wait. It will be gone. I just built a butcher block top island from a double cabinet and used the top from a table that came in. Paid 150 for the solid maple cabinet which was never used and had all types of storage add-ons inside, 40 for the top. May sound expensive, but matched my kitchen and couldn't even come close to buying either for the price.

    Even though I volunteer and see all coming in, if I don't jump on an item it will not be there the next day. Also, we put items out immediately which we know will be sold fast to keep inventory moving. Tis akin to garage sales, keep going, you'll start seeing all kinds of things.

    I was thinking the other day the HGTV should have a show on people who remodel using Restore. I love the customers, their ideas and excitement over finds. Some great stuff walks out those doors. They would need to keep from doing their long introductions and just get to the job at hand. Show people how to re-cycle on a budget. And, I need to keep my budget under control as well as bringing anything home that doesn't need to be here.

  • marilyn_c
    16 years ago

    Went today and they had an antique oak door with a square beveled glass in it for $100. I didn't hesitate today...I bought it and will bring it home tomorrow. I also couldn't resist an avacado green commode for $25. :))

    We are going to build a little shotgun house to live in while working on adding on to our other house. Eventually it will be a guest house...couldn't resist the green toilet for it. Have a jadite green one (called "mint green") to go in the other house.

    Looking now for a colored gas stove to go in the kitchen...will take avacado, but would like pink or turquoise. Have a vintage Maytag stove for the house and can't spend the big bucks to buy a colored one at a vintage stove shop...but I'm looking around for one at a reasonable price.

  • emagineer
    16 years ago

    Keep checking on your stores. It is interesting how different they are from one to another with stock and supplies.

    March will see lots of new stuff with turn over from last years trends. We are a bit slow right now due to winter and not a lot of remodeling going on. I'm a bit floored recently by entire kitchen/cabinets coming in. Obvious pulls from people redoing their kitchen. But they are beautiful and hard to imagine my doing this just to change a look or layout. To our advantage and I have to ignore them or would be buying.

    Your green toilet sounds great. We had dozens of pink, teal, greens (mint/avacado/wild) and yellow. Also sinks and bathtubs to match. One of the plumbing suppliers decided to clear out their storage.

    Keep looking for the stove. They show up once in a while on Craigs list. My daughter has a huge pink one from the 60s and it still works great, even without being restored it looks perfect. I have no clue how they got it into the house, an old victorian with teeny doorways.

  • johnmari
    16 years ago

    Has anyone been to the Portland, ME ReStore? It's a long hike for me, ~3hr RT (my usual max is half that), so I don't want to waste the time, gas and energy to go all the way up there if it's one of the sucky ones.

  • msjay2u
    16 years ago

    I have one restore about an hour from me that is small BUT the lady who runs the store is a charm. She also negiotiates the prices. Problem is there is not a lot of stock. Then there is one 25 minutes from here, has tons of stuff and is extremly expensive. I thought the rule for used items is supposed to be 20%. Anyway I do buy a lot of stuff but I go to HD or Lowes and write the prices down and compare when I get to the Restore. Sometimes the prices are not good deals. The big store will NOT budge on the price.

    I personally go to the store because I am getting killed on remodeling prices even though I am doing the work myself. I wish the prices were better in the Restore. Yes they are bargains but I feel they can be better bargains.

    Now I do have to admit I did get a great new 9" cabinet with no top, door or drawer front made by Schuler and it looks to be made of good wood. This lady told me it was a great bargain at $25. I saw it the previous trip and it was marked down to $15 but someone removed that tag. The $25 tag had the date of 12/15/2006 on it. I tried and tried to get the guy to go back down to $15 but he would not budge and I brought it anyway.

    Anyway I am rambling on and on. Restore has good bargains but I wish they were a little cheaper!

    well thanks for letting me vent. I just *had* to share.

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