Shopping Report: Habitat Home Center

Since I have been in Bob Vila mode, I thought you may be interested in knowing about the Habitat Home Center over on Probandt. My wife and I were chatting with our good neighbors Gus & Ruby last evening, and they mentioned to us that the HHC has different lines of furniture for sale, so we thought we'd go have a look.

I have been to this store as well as the companion store over on Walzem. Both places are great for people looking to do home projects without breaking the bank. If you need a door or windows or a new counter top, they may have just the size you need at a very reasonable price. When I was doing some work with my brother-in-law rehabbing rental properties, we often came up with our paint schemes based upon what colors were available at the HHC.

The beauty of it is, the proceeds of the items they sale at the home center go right back into the bigger Habitat for Humanity program. You don't have to like Jimmy Carter to think that's a good idea.

So, anyway, we took a look at the type of dining room table my wife has been thinking about. It is a taller table with taller chairs almost as if you were sitting at a bar. The table is square when you put the leaf in, so you can seat six people. I like this idea too, but honestly, the one they had that fit our size requirement just did not seem, uh, well... sturdy. My wife was convinced that they just had not tightened the floor model, but looking at the construction underneath, I was just not satisfied it would hold up to a Thanksgiving Turkey.

So we moved on and looked at all the other good stuff they had - the building materials. Though you get the impression that this is almost flea market like, the fact is that they have things very organized and they have lots of stuff.

Okay, so here are a few pictures of the things you need to fix up your house:
Have you been thinking about building yourself one of those fancy mailboxes guaranteed to keep Gramma and her walker off the sidewalk? You can't beat bricks at 30 cents each.
Got a teenage movie starlet or "Lil' Paris" running around your house? You need some lighting to help them see all the oil running from their pores. Buy about twenty or so.
Have you ever wondered why your house doesn't make it to the cover of Better Homes and Gardens? The answer is simple - you don't have some of these cement architectural structure thingys. A little duct tape and some spackling, and people will think your double-wide had a make-over by Ty Pennington.
Looking for a new cutting board? This might be a little heavy.

You know, everywhere throughout the HHC, they have these little signs that say things like, "Smile - you are on camera" or "We video tape everything" and such. So, I was thinking, if you worked in the surveillance department, how many video tapes do you have of some dipshit like me taking a seat and asking his wife for the TP. Thankfully, my wife was able to snap a picture before any arrests were made.

In the end (certainly, no pun intended) we bought a few room carpets (new, not used) to go over our saltillo tile.