We visited our local Habitat for Humanity ‘ReStore‘ today to try to get some first hand knowledge of the types and quality of materials would could acquire there.

For those not familiar with them: the ReStore stocks all sorts of items that you might need if you were thinking about building or renovating a house. The items they sell are donated by people who are, for whatever reason, getting rid of what they have now and don’t want to see it go to a landfill.

The stores not only divert a huge amount of materials away from landfills, but the proceeds from the sale of these items go towards their other projects, building homes for those who are without.

We found ceramic tiles, paint, windows, full sets of kitchen cupboards, lighting and lots and lots of doors. It’s a bit of a wonder that anyone buys hollow plastic doors for their home at $50 each, when they could buy an 80 year old solid-wood door with lots of character and fully functioning 80 year old door handle for about $90. Sure it’s more a little more, but for the amount of character and warmth it would add to a home, it really seems like a bargain.

We both found doors we fell in love with, but resisted the urge to buy right then. (We figured we should probably nail down at least an approximate final budget and be 100% sure we can afford this house, before starting to acquire its finishing touches.)