Recycle. Reuse. Restore

Doors typically have only one lifetime. Rendered from trees far off, planed into slabs closer by, and then hung by local hands on a home.
A lifetime of slams and clicks later, and a new owner shows up with a little cash in the pocket and the yearning to improve their surroundings, and that door is ripped out of the only home it’s ever known, is carted off and thrown away.
Unless that is, it’s a lucky door that gets a second life at the new ReStore building on Belgrade Avenue near Citadel Mall and Best Buy, Charleston Habitat for Humanity’s latest retail spot.
There, the door can lean at ease, waiting to be picked from a bevy of other doors waiting for their second life.
This is the Charleston branch’s third such store, with one downtown and another in North Charleston.
Unlike the downtown site, which specializes more in housewares, the Belgrade warehouse is more focused on providing bigger pieces for contractors, or landlords, looking to save a little money. It will also  provide some much needed money to organization trying to make the dream of home ownership a reality for more families in the area.
This ReStore fits in perfectly on Belgrade, easily the funkiest street in West Ashley. This bendy street is home to everything from high-end kitchen stores to tattoo parlors to a video studio where live comedy shows have been produced.
Directly across the street from the ReStore, ukulele lessons are available at Hungry Monk Music, as well as a host of other musical instruction. Catty-corner from the ReStore is a state credit union, making the area a one-stop destination for everything you may not have known you wanted.
Donna Williams, a schoolbus driver from Awendaw knows exactly what she wants. Tile.
She snatches up eight boxes of glazed wall tile for what will be her new bathroom, once she finds the contractor to do the work. She’s been picking through several counters and shelves full of brand new tile and porcelain wares that would normally run between $3-$7 a square foot.
Here, she drops only $1 per foot. Manager Neal Beckman explains that this tile came from a pricy shop on East Bay, donated after the original customer changed their mind.
“Sometimes, the reps drop stuff off brand new because their companies have found it’s cheaper just to donate it than ship it back,” says Beckman.
Soon, another customer drops by to explain that the truck she borrowed to pick up her “new” cabinets has a flat tire and she won’t be able to come by until after the weekend.
And then she spies a kitchenful of cabinets that had been dropped by since her last visit.
These suckers are constructed with heavy pieces of solid wood, no particleboard here. They have crosspieces for added strength. The drawers slide the last 10 percent of their trip without a push, just a hushed coil pulling them gently into their final spot.
Nice stuff, to be sure. It even smells like Daniel Island decorator ambivalence. So she pounces, changes her order, puts more money down, and rushes off to get some air in that truck tire.
Director of Development Nancy Lee says the new ReStore is only open two days a week currently, Wednesday and Friday, and only from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. She hopes to get more days and hours after the holiday season.
Beckman says he’s just hired an employee, but they have to be trained first or they’d be overwhelmed by all the intricacies of selling donated items for pennies on the dollar.
And there is a lot of merchandise.
This place takes window-shopping to a whole new level. Enormous French double-doors lean on each other by the back rolling garage door. Every other kind of insert window – six-over-sixes, storm, two-piece, glazed – fill a nearby wall.
Outside, there’s a fenced yard with a rolling fence gate to accommodate bigger trucks and bigger donations. “That’s for when we start getting pallets of wood and lumber,” says Beckman.
In some ways, it’s like a thrift store for the construction set. Look, there’s a tool room with everything from saws-alls to professional grade levels with a curved bubble track for figuring out exact angles. Oooo, that airtank compressor is perfect for my shop.
The building itself is on at least it’s third life, having been a marine store and a music studio in the past – which explains the “Foghat LIVE” album stuck to the wall.