Door Shopping for Dummies

The other day my daughter’s dog, Bug - oh, ok, my dog Bug who is living at my daughter’s house because my job relocated me and I could not leave her at my old job site and I could not bring her home because Duck would eat her and my daughter said she would keep her - ate the door between my daughter’s garage and kitchen.

Knowing that we needed to replace the door, we drove the 50 some miles to the big town. There are two major home improvement stores, several large chain hardware stores, and a “liquidation and recyclers” store. We figured we could find an affordable door at one of these places.

Then I remembered that I had seen an ad on the local TV station for a “Re-store”. It is a store run by the Habitat for Humanity. They have items donated by local companies, items removed from homes under renovations and items donated by private parties.

I mentioned it to my daughter and she said that her husband had been telling her about this same store. He said they had everything and at amazingly low prices.

We went first to Jo-Ann’s to pick up supplies to make a rosary for a seminarian who is being ordained on the 8th of December (5th grade CFC project), World Market for gingersnaps (Pepparkakor) and pannetone, Once Upon a Child to leave some of the jeans the lil man has outgrown already (6 slim to 10 slim since September, all in height), and Hallmark for a card.

We then drove to where I thought the store was. Then we drove to where I thought the store was. Then we drove to where I thought the store must be.

I called information and got a number for Habitat for Humanity. It was the wrong number but they gave me the right number. I called the right number. There was no answer. I left a message on the right number and then called the wrong number to see if they could just give me an address. There was no answer.

My phone rang.

It was the right number and the nice man gave me directions. We still got lost (actually, you’re only really lost if you care where you are) but finally found the place.

Oh, my gosh!

It was like finding Aladdin’s cave - if Aladdin had been the child of Bob the Builder and Rosie the Riveter.

We wandered, like members of the lost tribe, for a while and finally asked for help. We told the nice man what size door we needed and he went to the door cave and found what we needed. Now, some of the doors that we had seen were marked with prices - $75, $100, $60. Not horrible but not as great as we had been led to believe either.

The door the nice man pulled was not marked. Julie asked the price. The nice man mentioned that it was a solid door - not hollow core. He pointed out the hinges and the door knob. He pointed out what great shape it was in - and it was. He asked us if $10 would be all right.

$10.00?

Julie pressed $30.00 into his hand, told him to please just count the change as a donation, and we were ready to leave with Julie’s already painted and hardwared solid core door.

So, if you need paint or countertops or doors or windows or shingles or cabinets or cabinet hardware or light bulbs or lighting fixtures or appliances or…
PLEASE CHECK THESE FOLKS OUT!