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My childhood home will only exist for a few more days. Next year a glorious home will be built on the site where my parents lived for more than 35 years. We were the only family to ever live in that home. My mom found a spec home while still being built, they bought it, and she watched as the builders finished.

Two years ago my parents sold the home to another builder, who saw great potential in their lot on Quarton Lake in Birmingham.

There’s lots of tearing down and renovation that goes on in our afflluent communities like Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills. There is also a place that wants to take fixtures, doors, appliances and other things out of the house before the wrecking ball arrives.

We told my mom about Habitat for Humanity’s Restore, and she asked the builder to donate the windows that had only been in the house for a few years. Today we saw that Habitat was going to need a bigger truck to haul away the bounty they salvaged from Lakeside.

Everyone benefits from this wonderful program. The builder pays less for the amount of refuse he sends to a landfill, and he gets a nice write-off. He didn’t even have to do the work; Habitat came, uninstalled, and hauled away the items they could use. The ReStore gets great building materials that it re-sells at prices significantly below retail. Then Habitat has more money to put into its projects around Detroit. And my mom, she just feels good knowing that her windows are helping someone else.

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Written by Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty, 248.430.4450
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