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Appliances are among the bargains at ReStore, a salvage yard |
Our modest 1904 home in Southern Illinois had been for sale for more than two years when we found it.
Sitting on a dead end street, adjacent to a large patch of woods, it looked pretty good from the outside. It was attractive, solid and spacious.
So why hadn't it sold? Like so many old houses, it had been victimized by too many owners and had served as a rental unit for two decades. Worse still, some of the best old house features -- millwork, plumbing and electrical fixtures -- had been destroyed.
40,000 square feet of treasures
As we began to restore our home, I went to the local Mega-Monster hardware store. I found aisle after aisle of mass produced fixtures. I just couldn't talk myself into buying these for my century-old house.
And then a little snippet in the local paper caught my eye. ReStore, a new kind of salvage yard, had opened in neighboring St. Louis. The store is an outgrowth of Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organization that builds affordable housing. Proceeds from the sale of merchandise at ReStore fund Habitat building projects.
We made the one-hour drive to the store on South Vaneventer Avenue, near downtown St. Louis.
I was in love the moment I walked through the door.
The building itself was enormous -- 40,000 square feet of brick and cinder block built in the 1940s. Other than the modern counter by the front entrance, everything about the place was old and basic.
Gazing upwards (as old house lovers tend to do) I saw beautifully aged pine planks lining the tall ceiling, interspersed with glass skylights, now only slightly darkened by the peeling black paint covering the panes. In some places, the old cranks, gears and levers for the skylights in the 25' ceiling were still in place.
Sensory overload
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Need paint? ReStore probably has your color |
Rows and rows of old and new construction materials and architectural salvage yawned before me.
They beckoned me to come closer -- but it was nearly a sensory overload.
I found myself almost running through the aisles. I would pause for a moment to examine some treasure until a twinkle of light glanced off another gleaming jewel in the distance. Distracted, I had to run off again -- to inspect yet another shelf filled with architectural goodies.
My husband, who had accompanied me to the store, wasn't moving fast enough so I left him behind in the "miscellaneous and indescribable electrical items" aisle.
Some time later, (was it hours or days?) I ran into him again by the wooden window sashes. He was clutching a 24" x 26" lower window sash tightly to his chest and repeating in a monotone, "this will fit our living room window."
I think he was drooling, ever so slightly.
According to ReStore Director Kathleen Schweitzer, this is a common response. Customers don't just like Restore; they love it, said Schweitzer. "We have thousands of customers, some phenomenally loyal. Some folks come a couple of times every week."
From customer to employee
Roy Bland, a Restore staffer and deconstruction supervisor, started out as a loyal customer. Between paint jobs, he'd run in to grab a quart of paint for a small job and spend the next three hours roaming the aisles, looking through merchandise.
"I'd see all these great things and then see other people getting all excited because they'd find what they needed for their own homes," said Bland. "Then I got into helping people load things up and move things around. And then I was working here."
Bland still works as a painting contractor, but he puts in 40 hours a week at ReStore, too.
Bland "deconstructs" houses -- taking them apart for salvage for ReStore.
Mouldings, lumber, mantels, windows, electrical and plumbing fixtures, heating and air conditioning equipment are all salvaged and sold at the store.
Last year, ReStore deconstructed 15 houses, but has the capacity to do many more. According to Schweitzer, 75% of the merchandise at ReStore is used and about 25% is new. Donations come from a variety of places, including building contractors, hardware stores and individual homeowners.
Better than new
St. Louis resident Irvin Hudson is shopping at ReStore with his brother, David Emmanuel. Hudson, a full time real estate investor and landlord, is searching for windows for his own home.
How to shop at a salvage yard |
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"The first time I came here, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven," Hudson says with a hearty laugh as he pushes his cart through the aisles and headed for the windows.
"I can buy windows here for $100 each or less," he said. "Sometimes, you can get them brand new. At a hardware store, these windows could cost you $400 each. I've gotten some good deals here. And you can buy stuff here that you just can't find anywhere else. Old things, like a single part or a special piece of trim."
Passing the appliance aisle, he paused and pointed to a water heater with a $40 price tag. "What would that water heater cost new? Probably $150. I'll take that and stick it in my rental property. It will work great and I'll save more than half off the cost of new."
Back to the future
Just beyond the water heaters are built-in dishwashers and ranges, refrigerators, stoves, freezers, washers and dryers, with a couple of space heaters at the very end of the row.
For $350, you can buy a 1940s 40" General Electric cook stove, which was in storage for several decades. It's in excellent condition and from the looks of the push buttons on the control panel and the oven walls, this stove was rarely used.
Most appliances appear to be 10 to 20 years old and all are purported to be in working condition. Some are new or nearly new and a few are very old.
Appliances are somewhat of a gamble to the purchaser, as all are sold as is, which no warranty and no return allowed. ReStore largely takes the word of the donor as to the working condition of the appliance. Electrical appliances are simply plugged in for testing. Gas appliances are not tested at all.
Other merchandise may be returned within 14 days for store credit.
A veritable museum of "pottyology"
Walking down the plumbing aisle, you'll find toilets in every color of the rainbow. Need a robin's egg blue triangular toilet tank for a corner toilet? You'll find it here.
It is a veritable museum of pottyology, going back 80+ years to the so-called "pregnant" toilets to brand new toilets and modern bidets. "Pregnant" toilets were so named because of the round protrusion on the front of the bowl.
In addition to the ubiquitous harvest gold and avocado green plumbing fixtures, you'll find lavender, toast, beige, black, shocking pink, lime green, dark green and teal.
You can also find a mop sink, which looks like a toilet with a square bowl.
Further down, you'll find matching sinks and vanities and tops. There are a few antique pedestal sinks, but most are in need of reglazing. Old style wall hung sinks -- half rounds and square ones -- are also for sale, but many are missing the corresponding wall brackets.
One long row full of kitchen sinks has many stainless steel sinks and cast iron double sinks. There are a few acrylic sinks here.
Towards the back, I spot a 1930s metal kitchen cabinet with a double sink and a sliding drain board. The two door cabinet and sink are in pristine condition. The price tag on this vintage find is $160.
Solid wood -- oak, maple and walnut -- kitchen cabinet sets are also for sale.
"We've had complete kitchens donated," said Schweitzer. "We had one kitchen that had 27 cabinets. We sold that set for $2300. I know that set must have cost nearly $20,000 brand new."
The store contains almost everything you'd find at a regular hardware store and anything you'd find inside a house.
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This solid oak interior door has its original finish |
There is an impressive amount of salvaged lumber, and also delicate mouldings, staircase balustrades, newel posts, doors and windows. Window weights and all that curious little hardware you can't find anywhere else is here too.
While replacing the sash cord in our own 100-year-old windows, we discovered one of the window pulleys, where the cord rides, was bent and distorted. We found a replacement pulley at ReStore. The price was under one dollar.
A large glass case near the front of the store displays antique door hardware, such as doorknobs and locksets, hinges and pins and other cabinet hardware.
There are not many electrical fixtures for sale and the stock seems to change pretty quickly.
This is shopping at its most basic. ReStore is a working warehouse with a forklift darting about, moving things around. And in the wintertime, the place gets downright frigid. Public restrooms were recently added because most folks don't come to ReStore just to "grab something." They come for the day.
Moving toward the black hole
Like many salvage yards, the closer you move toward the black hole -- the darkened, distant void in the furthest reaches of the warehouse -- the more disorganized things become.
On a recent visit, my husband emerged from the black hole toting an 8-foot four-light fluorescent fixture.
"Look what I found" he joyously proclaimed. "Finally, I won't have to work in the dark when I'm out in the shed."
I didn't want to damper his spontaneous outpouring of pure happiness, but the fact is, our shed is 10 feet long. With that huge light in our shed, I was afraid we'd be accused of testing super novas without a permit.
"Isn't that a little too big?" I asked, hoping he'd think through the dimensions of the light and the size of our little shed.
"No, it's just right. I hate working in my own shadows all the time," he said, tenderly stroking his newfound treasure.
No one in Upper Alton will need to worry about working in their own shadows after that thing is hooked up, I muttered under my breath.
At the front counter, they rang up our purchases and he showed the light to the clerk, explaining that he couldn't find a price on it.
"Sir, where did you get that?" the clerk inquired.
"Way back in the back," came his reply.
"Sir, that is one of our store lights," the clerk responded, in a calm but firm voice. "And we can't start selling off the fixtures."
"Oops," hubby quietly replied. "I'll go put it back."
"Hallelujah," I thought to myself.
About ReStore and Habitat for Humanity
One of the goals of ReStore is to recycle reusable resources and provide low cost building materials to neighboring communities. This in turn supports activities of Habitat for Humanity. Since 1976, the organization has built more than 85,000 simple, decent houses worldwide.
There are more than 50 ReStores in the United States and Canada. All merchandise at ReStore is donated and profits from ReStore go towards funding Habitat homes. According to the Habitat for Humanity website, successful stores will create enough revenue to fund the construction of ten (or more) Habitat Houses each year.
Merchandise donations to ReStore are tax deductible. Purchases are not tax-deductible.
To learn more about Habitat for Humanity, click here: http://www.habitat.org/
For locations of the ReStores throughout the country, click here: http://www.habitat.org/env/restoreusa.html
