Home Sweet Home

I spent Saturday with volunteers from Chicago and South County (St. Louis) working in my future apartment.

For those of you who don't know, when I came to St. Louis I moved in with another couple until we could get extra staff housing available. We own a house a few blocks from our ministry Center but the upstairs apartment, which was empty, was unlivable.

We have very few resources and no finances to commit to this project. That means all of the labor, including things a licensed professional is required to do, must be donated. Also, all the of materials need to be donated.

Work started in March, and we began to see progress with the help of some volunteers. A group from Kansas removed the old rotten sunporch and built a new deck-a near necessity in the city. They also worked on the leaky roof (40 feet in the air) and did a lot of demolition on water-damaged ceilings.

Not too much happened in April or May because we didn't have skilled volunteers available to help. We have finally made contact with some great people, including a licensed electrician and a master carpenter, who are willing to spend countless hours at the house this summer so we can get things done!

We started our summer efforts two weeks ago by tearing up the old kitchen floor, which was beyond repair. We also removed old paneling in the bathroom to make way for new moisture resistant wall board and new tiling. We have been breathing in suffocating amounts of dust as we pound away at cracking plaster on interior walls which will need to be patched or covered with new wall board.
Yesterday we began framing the exterior walls so we can insulate and run new wiring throughout the apartment. A wonderful lady scrubbed the fridge clean after the old tenant unplugged it and left the door closed so mold could breed freely. She had a nasty job and did it with a smile.
In two weeks we will have another workday and complete our framing, hopefully, so the electrician can do his thing. Maybe by then a plumber will appear to help redo our kitchen and bath (we need to pray about this!!!).
Then we will replace the windows, insulate, put up drywall, install new cabinetry, tile, carpet, paint and move me in!!!!
At least now the rooms are coming into view. There are three large rooms which could each be used as bedrooms or any combination of dining or living rooms. There is also a small front room which might make a good office or reading room. The bathroom is small, but has a beautiful old clawfoot tub we want to restore and keep. The kitchen will have to be totally reworked with new cabinets and countertops. I must admit it is fun to get to help make design choices on the project! I have no idea when we will finish the apartment, but it would be great to move in by December.

There is a 22-homesite Habitat housing project going up across the street from the house and they expect to be moving people into those homes in December. It would be a great ministry opportunity to welcome all those new families into the neighborhood and be able to point to the house with the red steps and say, "I live there, come by any time!" That will be a great day.