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So most people are familiar with recycling, but recycling isn't the only way to make these
things work. There's also reuse. We're going to visit the Habitat for Humanity of Clinton
County ReStore, where people are able to donate older materials from their homes that then
get sold to folks in the community. This reuses the materials and then also supplies funds
for Habitat for Humanity to build houses that are energy efficient and affordable.
We are just north of St. Johns on highway 27 inside the front part of our ReStore building.
If what a person has at home is reusable or resalable, we'll accept it from their home.
When you first walk in, we feature our furniture. The display is set up here and depending on
how much we have -- it depends on how much it takes up. We have an electronics area back
over here. You can see there's TVs sitting around. We have several TVs in right now.
Then we have dining room furniture, lighting department here. We have all kinds of chandeliers
and globes for lights. If someone breaks a globe, this would be a great place to come
and see if they can find a replacement. And that's the front part of our store. When you
go through to the back, you find more building materials.
Most of our prices are between 30 to 50% of retail price.
Lumber and trim, doors and windows. We've got flooring, power tools, doorknobs, all
kinds of screws and nails and fasteners. Anything that you need.
About 90% of it is donated. We have a donation center here where you can drop things off.
Or call us if you have larger items like furniture or entertainment centers, things like that.
Give us a call and we can come out and pick them up.
We just started a new program where we'll be able to recycle electronics and scrap metals.
So if you have aluminum window frames that the window or the screen is no longer good,
we can accept that kind of thing. Washers, dryers that don't work, we can take those
now, and then any form of electronics we can recycle.
All of the money raised from this Restore stays right here with Clinton County Habitat
for Humanity and helps support the programs to build the houses and do the refurbishing
here in Clinton County.
We're in St. Johns in the Habitat house that we're building for a young family. We ended
up doing in here an open kitchen concept. So the kitchen is all there and opens up to
this living room. If we go down this hall, there's a half bath back there and a laundry
here. This is a full bath here, and then you have the master bedroom, another bedroom,
and another bedroom.
It's going to give us a lot more space and I'll have a washer and dryer right at home,
so I won't have to take my laundry anywhere.
They have energy efficient appliances so that their utilities are going to be as low as
possible. So it goes along with the philosophy of keeping the house affordable for someone
who's never had a mortgage before. It's their first home.
The furnace is 95% efficient and the hot water heater is very efficient. Everything is caulked
and sealed tightly so there's no air getting in. It's a very tight house.
I just thought it would be nice, a new beginning, you know, for me and the kids. Kind of a fresh
start. Start with a home, hopefully go to school in the next couple years, get a better
job. I'll actually have to pay to own something instead of renting. So that's nice.
It's just wonderful. All the volunteers really feel good about it and I feel good about working
on it.
It's just nice having a home. Something to call my own, mine and the kids'. I think they'll
like it.