A family in Springfield is looking for a nice shower stall for their new bathroom, but they don't want to spend an arm and a leg.

A family in Northampton is renovating their home, and they have a nice shower stall left over and they don't know what to do with it.

Wouldn't it be great if there were a way to get that shower stall from family A to family B?

Well, there is.

Julie K. Blake, holding her son Joshua J. Blake, and daughter Sierra T. Blake, 9, look over the shower stall Blake bought at ReStore. The Blakes are renovating the bathroom in their Springfield home.

ReStore, a home-improvement center in Springfield, is dedicated to preventing waste and promoting thrift. It's a nonprofit program of the Northampton-based Center for Ecological Technology. ReStore accepts donations of high-quality building products and sells them at low prices. The donor gets to write off the value of the item on his or her tax return, and the customer gets something he might not have been able to afford otherwise.

ReStore serves people such as Stephen D. and Julie K. Blake of Springfield, who needed that shower stall. The ReStore contribution from a Northampton family allowed the Blakes to transform an unfinished space in their 1920s-era home into a bathroom.

"Recycling is a big part of our philosophy," says Julie Blake. "But what caught our eye about the shower stall was that it cost $75. Somewhere else, it would have cost $350 or $450, easily."

By going to ReStore, she says, "you get to save money and the planet at the same time."

Another advantage to the donor is that ReStore will pick up the object being donated - as long as it meets ReStore's standards.

"It can't be dented, can't be chipped, can't be peeling," says Holly M. Milton-Benoit, manager of ReStore.

"What we want are things you hate to have to throw away and have been keeping in your garage. This is the perfect outlet."

People with something to donate should call ReStore at 788-6900 to make sure an item is acceptable. It's not a bad idea for customers looking to buy a specific item to call ahead, either.

Not all products ReStore carries have been used. Some are factory seconds, some are surplus materials, some are bits and pieces left over from building projects.

Blake says several items she and her husband bought at ReStore were out-of-the-box brand-new, including a shower door and a faucet.

About a third of the customers are professionals - landlords, contractors, handymen, retirees with fix-it jobs - and the rest are homeowners shopping for themselves.

Some, such as Robert T. McFadden of Springfield, are both. A carpenter by trade, McFadden likes to shop at ReStore for projects in his own home.

On a recent afternoon he was eyeing a circular china sink, moss-green with the veined look of marble. "I love this store," he said.

He was also looking for a ceiling fan. The aisles at ReStore are filled with stacks of goods - tiles, knobs, trim, shutters, cabinets, sliding doors, screen doors, wooden doors, windows of all sizes, sinks, toilets, table lamps, chandeliers, wall sconces, vanity lights and many other items.

	ReStore manager Holly M. Milton-Benoit sits atop a two-person hot tub in the store's warehouse. Behind her are solid cherry kitchen cabinets. ReStore is a home improvement center that recycles used or surplus building materials.

"Most of what we have is basic and utilitarian," says Milton-Benoit, but once in a while, the store gets an unusual, one-of-a-kind item. A whirlpool bath molded for two, for example, is going for $500.

Virginia H. Hoener of the Florence section of Northampton found a claw-foot bathtub at ReStore for her new home, which she describes as "an odd space. No rooms - just 2,000 square feet. It was built in 1884 as a temperance hall and then became a church."

Now Hoener is turning it into a living space. Part of it will be "very modern," she said, but other areas will have an old-fashioned Victorian flavor.

Which is where the claw-foot tub comes in. Fortunately for Hoener, Marisol Rivera of Springfield had one that she didn't want. ReStore picked it up and had it in stock when Hoener came looking. "No matter what you need, you might find it there," says Hoener, who also bought three matching two-panel doors that are "about 100 years old."

Hoener heard about the store from a friend who had heard about it on National Public Radio. Blake discovered it while taking a tai chi class at the Center for Harmony, which has a studio in the same Albany Street building as ReStore.

Milton-Benoit says her customer and donor base is always rotating. People buy, donate, tell their friends. It reminds her of the recycling logo with the arrows chasing each other, she says.

In keeping with its mission of conservation, ReStore also offers energy-saving deals. Currently it is selling compact fluorescent lightbulbs ($3.15), the 15-watt kind that give off 60 watts' worth of light.

It is also inviting customers of Western Mass Electric Co. to trade in an old torchiere or incandescent floor lamp for a brand-new, free, compact-fluorescent torchiere. "We chop up the old one and recycle it," says Milton-Benoit.

In addition to Milton-Benoit and director John E. Majercak, ReStore is staffed by four young Americorps Vista members - two from Springfield, one from North Carolina and one from Texas.

The federal program that sponsors them is designed to help them gain experience, serve the community and further their education, says Majercak.

ReStore is made possible by funding from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Lawson Valentine Foundation, U.S. Department of Commerce, Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts, Xeric Foundation, Home Builders Association of Western Massachusetts and others.

IF YOU GO
Place: ReStore Home Improvement Center
Where: 250 Albany St. (rear)
Hours: Weekdays, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
Call: 788-6900

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