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Restore Your Home
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by Suzanne Fisher
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Habitat for Humanity is
known for providing for families who otherwise would not financially be
able the means to purchase their own homes. Three years ago, Habitat in
Albany began Restore, a business for recycling used and surplus
building supplies to help fund their primary work.
Restore is located behind the Albany office of Habitat at 454 North
Pearl Street. Its large warehouse space is filled with reasonably
priced home improvement materials of many kinds. Whole ensembles of
kitchen cabinets and various single pieces were grouped together.
Nearby sat a huge, practically new refrigerator and a very nice oven.
Old and new doors lined one whole wall, windows in sets and singly were
in rows at the back, and decorative lights hung from racks. Wallpaper
filled another wall, and cans of fresh paint were stacked off to the
side. Also available were non-upholstered furniture, plumbing fixtures
and hardware, lumber, flooring, appliances, roofing, gutters and more.
Restore’s manager, Emily Collins, explained that every week new items
are available. Restore is open to the public for shopping on Fridays
and Saturdays from 9 am until 2 pm. During the rest of the work week,
Emily is picking up donations and organizing the store. The goals of
Restore are simple: to raise funds for Habitat, to make home
improvement available to all socio-economic levels, and to recycle and
use items that would otherwise be wasted. Restore is always looking for
three things: donations (tax deductible), volunteers for the store and
shoppers. Seeing the store and talking to Emily was encouraging: It’s
wonderful to see Habitat’s efforts at funding themselves while filling
a need for the entire community.
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Sweat
Equity for a New Home
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This
year they plan to build eight more homes in the Albany area for
qualifying families who are willing to work with Habitat. These
families generally have an income between 40% to 70% of the median
income for our area. They are required to donate 350 hours of labor to
Habitat as “sweat equity,” either in building their home or in some
other capacity. In return, they receive a 0% interest mortgage and a
three bedroom, 1,200-square-foot home that is NYSERTA Energy Star rated.
The most inspiring moment came when Emily took me around the block to
see some of the homes already built by Habitat. They had welcoming
front porches, appeared well constructed, and some sported solar panels
on their roofs. We observed as a solar panel was being retro-fitted to
another Habitat home, financed by Habitat along with some funding
provided by the installer, Solar-Gro. It was a sight full of hope for
the future. If you want to help out with in the store, or have items in
good condition to donate, give Restore a call at 518-275-6638, or check
out the Habitat website, http://www.CapitalDistrictHabitat.org.
To volunteer to join for Habitat’s building efforts, call the main
number: 518-462-2993. If you are thinking of doing any home repairs or
renovations in the near future, visit Restore to check out what they
have. Not only will you be doing something nice for yourself, you also
will be helping to shape your community into a place where everybody
has a place to call home.
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