Condo Blues: Habitat Restore Treasure Hunt

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Habitat Restore Treasure Hunt

One of my favorite places to shop (and donate) materials for my creative reuse projects is the Habitat Restore. Several readers have asked me. “What’s the Habitat Restore?” The Restore is a thrift store that helps fund Habitat for Humanity so they can build houses for low income people. But this is no ordinary thrift store my friends, oh no! The Restore is a thrift store of home improvement supplies. I put on my Big Game Bargain Huntress pith helmet, grabbed the bathroom fan I replaced and wanted to donate, and hopped on down to my local Restore to poke a round. Here’s what I found.

The first thing to greet me when I walked in the door where these big silver Christmas trees. Love. They are shiny, would look perfect flanking my porch in two groups of three, and remind me of drag queens. Probably donated by the Limited Brands, Gap or some other store that’s based in Columbus. I want!

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Sadly storage is an issue. Maybe I could go with the baby ones? Instead of drag queen trees, I suppose that makes these little gems drag princesses?

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Or Daleks. All they are missing is the eyestalk. And the desire to exterminate humanity.

Hello gorgeous! I almost stubbed my toe on two huge crates of travertine marble for 5 dollars a square foot/bundle. Easy craft project. Just glue some felt to the bottom of these babies and instant coaster!

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Of course, with this much marble, a kitchen backsplash wouldn’t be out of the question. Just don’t clean travertine marble with vinegar. It’s such a soft stone, that it will react and fizz away. Boo hoo.

The best bargain in the place has to be on kitchen cabinets. If you’re replacing all of your kitchen cabinets, our Restore will pick up an entire set for you. Then they sell them for roughly $500 a set, and you get the tax deduction. Nice.
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These aren’t too bad but I’d change the knobs. I’m not fond of the white against the dark wood. And by "not fond of" I mean bleach!

Personally, I’m in the market for some cabinets to use as a work bench in my garage. These would do nicely for upper cabinets. For some reason I’m digging the yellow.

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For the top of my workbench to be, I’ll probably buy an old solid wood door to use as a bench top. Looks like I have a lot to choose from.


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Including these. Hello Love-vah.

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Paint can be a good deal too. All of the home improvement and paint stores donate the mistints that they don’t sell to the Restore. The best selection is usually pint size.

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Well hello, hello little pint of low VOC paint. Fancy meeting you here. First time at the Restore? My guess is yes.

There was a whole stack of EXIT signs just begging for a project. For the life of me, I couldn’t think of a thing to do with them beyond the obvious.

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Perhaps hanging 9 of them in a three by three grid on the wall and backlighting them in some way? Or maybe I should just take it as a cue, and make a quick Exit from this post.

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11 comments :

Cheap Like Me said...

Oh, I love the inside view of your store. We have a Habitat store in Denver, but I've never gone. I'll have to go check it out!

Morgan said...

I...have never heard of this place before and I am shocked! The condition of all of those items is amazing. Seriously, I am stunned. And I adore you, "and remind me of drag queens." hahah...you're right!

Those yellow cabinets are love, my gosh. If I could put those somewhere...I absolutely would.

I am going to have to investigate this place. Great products...great cause...it's perfect!

Thank you for sharing such a gem with us!

-M.

KimMalk said...

Thanks for the tour. We have one of these stores in Tampa, but I have not been there yet. This gives me incentive.
@cheapchichome.blogspot.com

gail@My Repurposed Life said...

Our ReStore is NOTHING like that! Mostly hardware, and doors. Some overpriced furniture. No paint, ever!
Lots of chandeliers and toilets. :)
thanks for rubbing it in! hahahah
Happy Thanksgiving
gail

Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions said...

I seriously need to go visit the Restore in my area. It's a little bit out of the way, but I'm hearing too many good things about finds there.

Thanks for visiting my blog! That black and white paper is actually scrapbook paper and it was a scrap of scrapbook paper that was already cut that size. I just popped it in for the pictures, but I like it myself!

utahlawyer said...

Amazing. I need to find out how to get one of these in my city.

Unknown said...

So, THAT is what our Restore looks like? Wow, I have to admit I've never been there, but I'll go now! I'm loving those trees too, you didn't take them all did you? :)

Sue said...

Very Interesting- I've never heard of the habitat store. I have family in Columbus- may have to check it out sometime!

Anonymous said...
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Christina said...

OK, where is that store in town? I love the Dalek trees! I would happily display one of those. (Or several of the minis - a little Dalek Christmas army?)

My2Gs said...

What restore did you go to? Hubby and I went to one a few years ago and it didn't have much...very disappointed. Would to know the location of the one in your pics ;)

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