LEWISTON – For years, Androscoggin Habitat for Humanity had to refuse donations. Wood and windows leftover from construction jobs. Kitchen cabinets and appliances replaced during a remodel. Wallpaper someone ordered, then didn’t want.

All good stuff and useful to someone. But the tiny Habitat chapter didn’t have any place to put it and didn’t have a need for a random cabinet.

Until the ReStore.

“Lots of time people finish a job and they’ve got two sheets of plywood left, 20 two-by-fours. They don’t want to go back to the lumberyard. Bring it here,” said board member and ReStore manager Paul Belisle, sweeping his gaze across an old Lewiston warehouse filled with glass doors, bathroom vanities, roofing shingles and yes, even a kitchen sink.

All for sale. All to raise money for Habitat homes.

“If it’s still good, why take it to the dump? Somebody else can use it,” he said.

Founded in 1987, Androscoggin Habitat for Humanity helps build homes for low-income, local families. In 19 years, it’s built 13 houses, each sold to a family at-cost and mortgaged with a no-interest loan from Habitat. The last was finished in February.

Houses cost $50,000 to $60,000. Habitat, a nonprofit, gets most of its money from repaid mortgages, a food booth at the balloon festival and fundraisers. It’s hardly ever enough. Habitat had to put off a build this fall because it didn’t have the cash.

But it did have a lot of something else: donation offers.

“People always want to give us stuff,” Belisle said.

He thought of a ReStore.

A Canadian Habitat for Humanity chapter opened the first ReStore more than 15 years ago. Hundreds have popped up since.

Portland’s Habitat for Humanity opened one earlier this year. The Bath-Brunswick chapter plans to open one this fall.

Androscoggin’s started over the summer. With help from friends, Belisle found and rented an old warehouse behind the Church of God on Strawberry Avenue. Donations immediately rolled in.

A couple of new, full kitchens from a cabinetmaker who went out of business. A whirlpool tub and a 7-foot long, duel-sink vanity from a woman who remodeled her bathroom. Five hundred and sixty bundles of roofing shingles leftover from Hahnel Bros., a Lewiston roofing company.

“We just thought it would be a great fit, instead of throwing the things away,” said President Alan Hahnel.

The ReStore prices its items below retail. Often way below. It recently sold a new, 24,000-BTU air conditioner for $200, about a third of what it would have gone for in stores. It’s selling a model kitchen, complete with wood cabinets and sink, for $1,200. Belisle believes it’s worth about $3,000.

“Bargain prices, really,” he said.

The air conditioner went fast. So did one of the full kitchens. But because the ReStore is only open by appointment, donations come faster than sales. The old warehouse is nearly filled with dark granite and Corian vanities, maple and pine cabinets, textured wallpaper, carpet remnants and appliances.

Some of the country’s largest ReStores are open full time and make up to $3 million a year. Androscoggin’s goals are more modest.

Habitat officials hope to get enough volunteers to open the Lewiston place a few days a week. They’d be happy making $50,000 to $60,000.

“Enough to build one home a year,” Belisle said.