Eco-friendly home-improvement store reopens after fire

Lisa Bellefond couldn't stop fingering the recycled tiles that reminded her of colored beach glass, envisioning them in the kitchen backsplash of her new Ballard home.

Nearby, guys at the Environmental Home Center marveled at denim insulation they could incorporate into walls -- a cotton product made of scraps from jeans manufacturers.

Two friends who shanghaied Bellefond last weekend to celebrate the reopening of the store's showroom were plotting to persuade a husband to spend this year's tax refund on a new bathroom.

Last August, a warehouse fire destroyed the Sodo business offering one-stop shopping for environmentally friendly and chemical-free building materials.

The fire was a blow to the Environmental Home Center's peculiarly loyal customers -- from couples expecting children to people with picky sinuses to do-it-yourself home remodelers who put projects on hold.

While some items can be found elsewhere, the store offered a unique array of reclaimed woods, water-saving bidets, non-toxic sealants, formaldehyde-free cabinets, plant-based stains and sumptuous New Zealand wool rugs.

Staff members juggled cell phones to take orders in donated office space just days after the August fire, sparked by spontaneously combusting oil on a rag that wasn't properly thrown away, said marketing manager Lisa DiMartino.

But it wasn't until this month that the Environmental Home Center reopened a temporary showroom at a new location at 4121 First Ave. S. The company hopes to make the move permanent, she said.

"I'm so glad," said Christina Villiott, a marketing manager who's been restoring a 1906 Wallingford bungalow with her husband. "I was devastated -- that's my favorite place."

They used the Environmental Home Center's sustainable bamboo flooring. They chose spongy cork tiles for the kitchen nook. Her stepdaughters picked out blue and purple hues of Safecoat paint for their bedrooms.

Villiott, who said in some cases she's paid only a small premium for the eco-friendly products, was contemplating a bathroom update when the store burned down. But she shelved those plans until the home center was fully operational again.


		Scott Eklund / P-I
	Tom Vaughan, checking out wood flooring products, says he shops at the Environmental Home Center because, "I like what they stand for."

The new showroom, tucked in an industrial park south of the West Seattle Bridge, is a place where sales staff can demystify composting toilets and educate customers who aren't familiar with different materials or installation practices.

Even without any physical space to display products after the fire, the store expanded its call-center business serving contractors and customers who knew what they wanted and could order by phone.

Surprisingly, the Environmental Home Center's sales for 2004 were actually higher than the previous year, breaking the $3 million mark. Insurance covered the store's inventory losses, DiMartino said.

"I think everyone who worked here realized it's a special place. But until the fire we didn't quite realize ... how much it meant to the community," she said.

Bellefond and her friends -- who work at the Nature Conservancy -- were eagerly awaiting the showroom's reopening.

They planned a girls-day-out to drool over iridescent blue bathroom tiles and pine floors rescued from old buildings.

After a nine-month search, the 37-year-old finally got a 1940s home in Ballard. The prior owners had already updated it with environmentally conscious touches, such as a low-flow toilet and a garden of drought-resistant flowers.

Low interest rates have spurred a frenzy of home buying among her friends, Bellefond said.

With so much of their money tied up in mortgages, choosing paint colors and sizing up home-repair projects have become social events, she said.

"There's definitely this nesting phase that everyone's in," she said. "I can see getting my ladder out and inviting friends over to come look at my attic."

Laurie Clothier, who works in movie advertising and owns a turn-of-the-century Ballard home, originally came to the home center to check out water-saving, dual-flush toilets popular in Europe.

But she hadn't made it past the display of marbled linoleum floors, made of natural linseed oil and offered in such colors as orange African desert and deep twilight purple.

"I'm in the wishful-thinking process," she said, envisioning a new kitchen with the funky, impressionistic Marmoleum tiles. "They look like a Monet on your floor."

Jill Wyke, who's about to tear up a Bellevue rambler with popcorn ceilings, said she needs the benefit of a showroom to envision how a kitchen counter or intricately flecked cork floor might look.

"We need to touch it, feel it -- you can't always tell," she said. "To see all these products in one place is great."

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