Building a Greater Los Angeles: Guest Blog: David’s Angels

We wanted to share this blog from a volunteer named David Garrett, who recently built with us and felt moved to share his experience on his professional blog. David came out to build with his daughter, actress Beau Garrett, and two of her friends. This was his first time building with us.

After a conversation about the ReStores, David was instantly discussing sharing this on this blog – explaining that more of his realtor friends needed to know about the ReStores. We are grateful to David for sharing his story and helping to spread the word about ReStores! Enjoy his blog post, which also appears here, and as always if you moved to share it, we truly appreciate that!

Shared by David Garrett:

A Day in Long Beach

My daughter asked me along to help on a Habitat for Humanity build in Long Beach last week. Had to take the shot above with the beautiful Ingrid Sophie Schram, Lauren Glazier and Beau Garrett.

The rest of the (guy) volunteers were quite jealous and there was some distraction - not good on a construction site.

Great fun for a great cause (www.HabitatLa.org) but I also learned about an amazing place to get great stuff for your home at great prices.

Secret Place and Hollywood, Too

Married to Randi means I know home remodel. In fact we have built 2 1/2 homes (more on that 1/2 number another day). What I wish I had known is about Habitat's two stores. Here's the scoop:

The ReStore is a social enterprise of Habitat for Humanityof Greater Los Angeles (HFH GLA). It was established to be a self-sustaining funding source for HFH GLA and to provide our local community with low-cost building and home improvement materials.

The ReStore sells donated materials including new and gently used furniture, appliances, lumber, hardware, vintage and unique items to the public. All prices are at least 50% off retail value and all proceeds from the ReStore are used toward the Habitat for Humanity mission to end substandard housing worldwide.

Bargains and Important "Green" Projects

· Since 2004, the HFH GLA ReStore in Gardena has helped divert over five million pounds of reusable materials from local area landfills.

· Both the Gardena and Norwalk ReStore locations are "e-waste" collection sites. Donations of television & computer monitors, computer towers/hard drives and other electronics help keep electronic waste from landfills and help HFH GLA fund building projects all over the greater Los Angeles area.

· Trucks are sent out daily to pick up items all over Los Angeles, too.

· The ReStore receives new, used, discontinued or surplus building materials, appliances and home furnishings from companies, contractors, retailers, film and television studios and individuals.

Home Goods meets Home Depot meet Marshalls meets Hollywood

Stuff arrives daily and fans wait for the stores to open. Never know what - from paint rollers to Traulson Freezers at great discounts. TV and movie productions donate from sets so you may find something from Breaking Bad or Star Trek - not labeled but fun to guess.