After seeing Scott Phillips mention what a good buy he got on things at his local Restore on his show, I had to pay a visit. While I didn't find a lot of anything I did find a piece of red oak. It was a glued up panel wit poor grain matching and some snipe in a couple of the boars...20" x60x3/4", with no price. I carried it up to the register and asked how ...the cashier fumbled in a price book for a minute and said "one twenty four". I looked at her a little puzzled, and she repeated "$1.24". I bought even though I don't use red oak...figured for that price I'd find something. Heck, for that price I would filled the truck up.

I stop a our Restore every week.  It is very close so it is not out of my way.  I find some buys pretty often.

I stop whenever I'm in Lafayette time permitting. Inventory seems to rotate so you never know what you might find. I've found some pretty good buys plus it helps a great cause.

When I remodeled my daughters bathroom & kitchen a few years ago, all of the floor tile, most of the wall tile, grout and some of the cabinets were purchased at a H4H Restore. She saved ~66%+ off of retail.

Fred thanks for opening this topic!  I donate all the time to Goodwill (they are part of the charity network that includes Habitat, altho when we redid the interior of the house, we called out H4H direct), but had no idea there was such a thing as ReStore.  Got one just a few miles from here. 

And thanks to the gang that maintains this site!  Gems like this are terrific finds (the ideas, but also the Stuff!).

Don't know if we have a Restore, but we have a Habitat for Humanity  repurpose store fairly close.

Good place for doors and door hardware, and to spend the day browsing to get out of the rain. Even saw a steel suit of armor there. Wasn't my size tho, way too small, those knights must have been smaller in the old days.

Herb

37 minutes ago, Dadio said:

Don't know if we have a Restore, but we have a Habitat for Humanity  repurpose store fairly close.

Isn't that the same thing? Our nearest Restore is about 20 miles, and since they don't open until 10:00 I'm not usualyy able to stop in. My errands are run fairly early, and I'm generally home by 10:00 AM. This one that I went to was 40 miles away, but it was still an interesting trip.

Edited April 13, 20188 yr by Fred W. Hargis Jr

I didn't know that it was the same, so we do have a Restore. It is around 20 mi. away too.

Herb

There is a Habitat within 20 miles of me but no restore. There used to be one but I think it closed 5-6 years ago.

So what does a Habitat sell?

Herb

Donated building goods, furniture, lots of household stuff,  but it's all donated. I've donated a lot of stuff there like 1/2 full buckets of paint, driveway sealer, some furniture pieces, leftover drain tile, TVs and other electronic stuff, cases of nails, toilets I replaced at our house, you name it. They sell it and the proceeds are used for their mission; building houses. I've bought damaged sheets of plastic laminate, solid core doors for bench tops, even some furniture for our grandson and his girlfriend when they moved. I've also picked up file cabinets for the shop, and some rusty tools like a Disston D8 crosscut saw.

1 hour ago, Dadio said:

So what does a Habitat sell?

Herb

Besides the tile, grout, cabinets and miscellaneous items when remodeling my daughter's house, like Fred, I've purchased some doors for bench tops, various plumbing or assorted hardware items, and numerous "tool treasures."

 

Depending on location, there sometimes new cabinets that may have been Show Room models donated by some of the local Big Boxes, new but slightly damaged units or maybe wrong special order items. Hardware can be discontinued items, damaged packaging or old packaging but the product is new. One store I was in had modeling, trim, vinyl siding and even roofing material...all new. 

 

 

When I moved here there was a lot of home construction going on. The sales office featured cabinets, counters, etc. As I drove by on a Sunday, I saw that they were in the process of tearing down the office. I looked across the road I could see a huge dumpster with wood sticking out the top. I did some dumpster diving and got lots of counter tops, drawers with hardware, cabinet doors with hardware, etc.  I used most of it to make a nice work area for my son in law. It came out real nice with good quality everything.

The Restores are all local to their area (usually county) and each Habitat and Restore is independent of all the others.   I have (sadly) bought less stuff since i've been volunteering at ours than I used to find and buy before (and yes, i still have a path through the garage; erm, barely )   Some of the stores (like ours) are all volunteer and we're only open to the public on Saturday (8-4) while others in the nearby counties are open multiple days of the week and have some paid personnel.   Most of our new stuff is priced around 50% or less of retail and used things are SWAGed  out; especially if the person "stocking" doesn't really know what it is or what it's worth.   Like every other store, there are things that we take; and things we generally don't take.

 

I'm not in charge of anything: just as SWMBO.