ReStore’s Home Center benefits Habitat for Humanity

When Ken Webb wanted to remodel his Cedar Rapids home, he didn't turn to a traditional interior design firm.

Instead, he went to Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity's ReStore.

Walking through the downtown Cedar Rapids ReStore's rows of used light fixtures, old windows and secondhand appliances, one wouldn't think of this as the place to come for advice on the latest trends in cabinets. But at the back of the building, store manager Mark Stark runs the Home Center.

Inside, new kitchen and bathroom sets are on display, and he and Home Center sales associate Rachel Truitt are ready to help customers plan out their remodeling projects.

They sat down with Webb and helped him figure out how to best make his new kitchen work, including opening up the space by removing a soffit that had hidden wiring near the ceiling and replacing the cabinets and countertops.

The Rockwell Collins engineer had heard about the ReStore's services from friends and approached the Home Center in 2015 as a way to do some good while upgrading his home.

'It's keeping the money in town and helping the community. I thought it was a good thing to be part of,” he said.

The ReStore has three goals - raising funds for Habitat for Humanity, diverting materials from the landfill and providing low cost alternatives for homeowners. They accept donations of home goods - everything from furniture to doors to refrigerators - that they sell back to community members. Demand can be high - the idea for the Home Center came after Stark watched people fight over used kitchen cabinet sets and he realized they could help more people by selling new products as well.

When the Home Center launched in February 2014, they started with builder-grade cabinets, good quality but designed for those on a small budget. Those proved popular, and soon they started getting requests for more styles, colors and higher end options, so they expanded their offerings. Now they have three price points - budget, intermediate and high-end - and offer not just cabinets but flooring and appliances.

'We were surprised by the demand for higher end products,” Stark said. 'Habitat has two primary groups we work with, those on a tight budget and supporters of Habitat.”

He said they are cognizant of the fact that as a nonprofit they are competing with for-profit design companies and want to be respectful of other companies in the Corridor. They partner with a number of local firms to source their products, including Iowa City Window and Door in Iowa City, Schumacher Carpets in Cedar Rapids, Ring's Appliances & Home Furnishings in Tiffin, Elite Stone Fabrication in Lisbon and O K Tops in Brooklyn, among others.

'We're not big enough to be a threat,” Truitt said. 'And people like that they can support Habitat.”

Another way the Home Center works with the ReStore's model is that clients will donate the cabinets and appliances they're replacing back to the ReStore, where they can help other families.

'It's a win-win all the way around,” Stark said.

When they first started, they were plotting kitchen designs on graph paper, but soon upgraded to digital design software. Now, Home Center employees will go to a client's home, take measurements, create a design with blueprints and renderings and come up with a quote for parts. They will then refer a contractor who can do the installation work.

'We didn't know if it was going to fly when we started. We saw a demand and decided to try to meet the demand,” Stark said.

The bet has paid off. Stark estimates the Home Center has designed almost 100 kitchen and bath projects in the last three years. He said though there are ReStores across the country, the Home Center model is unique to Cedar Rapids.

It has proved a boon for Habitat's mission of building homes in partnership with low income families. For the first 10 years the ReStore was open, it was barely breaking even. The Home Center has helped turned that around, making the ReStore profitable and raising funds to go back into Habitat's core mission.

Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity executive director Jeff Capps said during the last fiscal year, funds raised by the ReStore were equivalent to the money needed to build one house, or over $100,000. That's a significant chunk of change for the organization, which hopes to build seven houses this year and has a waiting list of qualified families.

That funding will be even more critical moving forward, as money from 2008 flood recovery programs ends. Habitat has been a qualified builder for the ROOTS program, which will stop taking applications this year.

'It provides critical gap funding to keep moving all of our programs forward,” he said.

He hopes the program continues to grow.

'We'd love it to be the equivalent of ten houses,” he said.

l Comments: (319) 398-8434; alison.gowans@thegazette.com