Habitat for Humanity

With all the recent plugs about Habitat for Humanity (thanks Zanne!), I would like others opinions of this store. I myself always donate my leftover construction goods, and they provide a nice donation receipt for my taxes.

I often will go into their stores and have found some great treasures, for pennies on the dollar.

Does anyone else shop or donate to their stores?

No, we have one downtown and I've never been in it. I'll have to stop and check it out.

I will confess to a true story from the last time I set foot inside one of their locations.

I was looking at their articulating European hinges, trying to figure if I could make one work for me on a project I was doing around the house. The damn hinge snapped closed right on the end of my index finger, pinching about 1/8" of my finger. As it began bleeding, panic set in because as I tried releasing the spring, it started pinching tighter. I walked by an old handyman shopping inside and with a dumb look, asked if he could help me. He pulled out a pocket knife, but the spring was too tight to be released by prying alone. Both me and him walked to the front counter and asked the gal at the cash register if she had access to a screwdriver. Once she saw the blood dripping from the finger, she freaked out, got on the loud speaker, asking for the manager to come to the front immediately. As if I wasn't embarrassed enough, I hear her jump on the phone talking to the paramedics via 911. At this same time, a young contractor walked over and pushed a brown button on the side of the hinge, and it released its death grip on this extremely embarrassed idiot. I asked for a paper towel to wrap my bloody finger, told the gal at the cash register to cancel the paramedics, and slithered out of the store so fast you would have thought my feet were on fire.

Next time, I'm not touching them damn foreign hinges!

So you learned a lesson to not stick your fingers in places they shouldn't be, huh?

I just picked up a bunch of leftovers from a church rummage sale and will loading them in my trailer and taking them to the HFH Monday.My girlfriend volunteers for work at the store.

Havasu: my advice is - Don't bother shopping for mousetraps!

I've been to two different ReStores (HFH name for them). I think they're a great resource. I needed a replacement window for the back of my garage and I found a near perfect Marvin window to do the job. I was actually amazed at the amount of stuff they offer. And each store has different stuff, so if you have access to more than one, you have twice the chance of finding what you need. Besides the big things (doors, windows, furniture etc) they have small stuff too, which surprised me. Things like o-rings, masks, gloves, some nails & screws.............

Twice I have found tile at the restore that haven't been made for years, no one else holds on to old stock.

I agree they have some neat stuff in them.

I have two locally to me and used to shop at them all the time. They always have decent stuff at a good price but the last couple years they have been upping their prices at one of them locally here to the point that you are paying almost full price of a new product. I know they are there for a good cause but paying 55 bucks for a 60 dollar item that is missing a part is not good in my book. I stop in every now and then to see if things have gotten better but they don't seem to.

That's a problem most stores have when they catch on. Eventually, they find their own level...or fail.

I do like that most of the proceeds go to charity. I purchased a couple of things at the nearest ReStore-- like some doorknobs for $2.

I haven't donated anything yet because the stuff I want to donate is pretty large and they can't come to my area to pick it up. The prices seemed fairly reasonable. I found Facebook pages for a few of the stores in my state. I wish I was near the one that keeps the stuff updated because they get a lot of cool stuff in.

The one nearest to me has some doors and stuff. A lot of miscellaneous things that can't really be identified as well.

They don't stay open for too long and sometimes they are closed on days when they are supposed to be open with no explanation of why, but given its mostly volunteer work, its not a big deal. The clerks were always nice when I went in.

Btw, the link to find if there is a ReStore near you:
http://www.habitat.org/restores