Starting tomorrow, I will not be around much for at least 2 or 3 days. Nothing is wrong. In fact, it was an extremely nice streak of good luck that is causing me to be otherwise involved for a couple of days.
My dad, who retired for the 3rd time about a month ago, is 84 years old. Every time he retires, he quickly gets bored and finds something else to do. We went out for lunch last week and I met him and my step-mom down near their house.
A trip to Restore
We decided to take a trip to Restore after lunch. If you have never heard of them and live anywhere near a reasonable sized city, you might want to research them. They have stores in most cities where Habitat for Humanity has either build houses and has collection points for donations.
I rarely find anything there other than some things I have used for craft projects and the occasional piece of furniture. But Daddy is always finding good deals and he found a GREAT deal for me.
New and used items
They have both new and used items available at Restore. Much of the furniture is used, but cheap and in very good and just cleaned condition. They tend to have TONS of items for building or remodeling a house.
My house recently turned 30 years old and has all the original fixtures, windows and such. I recently had no choice but to replace the bath in one bathroom and the bottom of the tube had caved in. But I did not remodel the whole thing because of money.
Later, I was about to clean the other tub and when I pulled up the bath mat, little round pieces of vinyl pulled off the bottom. I ended up spraying it with a vinyl sealer so it could be used till I found a replacement.
Complete remodel for less than $400!
Daddy managed to spot all the pieces of a very nice shower and surround set that was spread out in multiple places in the store. It was not a cheap set like you can get at Home Depot for less than $500, but probably retailed for upwards of $2000 and could easily have been one of the $3000 models. It just didn't have the doors. (shower curtains are cheap!)
But it didn't stop there. He also found a very nice, large medicine cabinet so I could replace that HUGE 1980's mirror I have hated since I bought the place. I am sure it retailed for over $500 and was brand new, never installed.
Then he found a brand new, complete vanity and sink set. It's not a higher end piece, but was probably at least a $400 to $500 set. For $5 we found a sheet of linoleum with a nice pattern that is about twice the size of my bathroom. The only thing they didn't have was a low volume flush toilet.
Total cost was unbelievable!
Together, what we found would have retailed for at least $2500, perhaps as much as $3500. The total cost was just shy of 300! Sam's club had a dual flush, low volume toilet for $89 that matched the beige color of everything else. So for $400, I am remodeling the entire bathroom!
You have to check back often at Restore, but you never know what they will have available. Daddy has bought numerous outside light fixtures. They tend to have lots of electrical outlets and tile. You can often find molding and assorted types of wood in bundles for $2 or less.
They can lost of perfectly good cabinets that have been removed from house where people have plenty of money to install whatever they want and most of them are very cheap ($40 or less).
Purchases help build houses for the less fortunate.
I learned a long time ago that no matter how bad life is, there is always someone in worse shape that you are. Restore can help you save a lot of money on items that you need and what you pay for the items, is used to buy what Habitat for Humanity needs to be able to build houses for people.
Its sort of the best of both worlds!
MIA to remodel the bathroom
Not sure exactly how long it will take, but I won't be online much for the next couple of days. New posts that fit Sotall have been slow since the value of SBD and Steem have dropped, so this is probably a good time to "get er done!"
I'll check in if there is time, but probably won't post any new posts till it is finished.