Hi there! Welcome to another installment of Habitat for Humanity talk. If you’re new here, WELCOME, and just know that Mr. Houseful (my husband Shomari) and I are building a home with the help of Habitat for Humanity, so that we and our awesome Houseful Collective (our four children) can have an awesome spot to live. Lately, I’ve been talking about our journey and update as often as I can. Here we are on our second group build.
As you can see, our group has grown. This time, my parents came out, our next door neighbor, a church friend and her husband too. Shomari’s best friend brought his wife, and my best friend’s husband came out to help as well. My bloggy friends Samantha and Melisa showed up armed with Pitbull, and the usual suspects of high school and college buddies, along with cousins came out for a second month in a row. I think for next month’s build, I may tell everyone to wear their favorite college shirt or something, because most of us have it down. I’m representing the World’s Finest Navy though. I’m not only giving my blogging friends props, I just didn’t know if all others pictured wanted their names given. I’ll make sure to check the next time with take a photo.
So today, I’m here to give you a bit of history behind Habitat for Humanity and WHY it’s so important to me.
First of all, did I mention, no one gets a free house here? Which was made clear by one of our foremen who made an interesting comparison. He stated that when he first started with Habitat for Humanity, he assumed that it was going to be something akin to Extreme Home Makeover. Where, families are literally given a home makeover with no idea of how to do the upkeep. Now, I have nothing against Extreme Home Makeover. None in the least. I love the stories, I love the transformations, I live Ty Pennington. However, I do not love reading about families having to give up their homes because they couldn’t keep up with their new property taxes, or things of that nature.
With Habitat for Humanity, Mr. Houseful and I were required to take a HUD/FHA approved First Time Homebuyers course along with taking pre-purchase counseling. Not only does Habitat make sure to teach you how to BUILD and maintain a home, they also make sure that you will have the ability to pay for and maintain a mortgage. They want to make sure to plant great homeowners in neighborhoods where they are needed and desired.
Habitat for Humanity is also important to me because they allow me to spend time with friends and family volunteering to not only make OUR lives better, but the lives of other partner families better as well. I love that the feeling of community starts long before you even move into your home. Check out our second group volunteer day!
My Mor Mor baby making sure that all walls are painted smoothly, and don’t have any odd spots on them.
There were more men installing this back window protective gate. It was indeed hilarious, but they got it done!
My blogging buddy Melisa from Suburban Scrawl, vacuuming like a boss.
Our cousin Malik filling in nail holes so that the window ledges were even.
I loved even more that so many women were present to help get a house ready for a partner family. Here I am along with a childhood friend Jessica (I have so many Jessica’s in my life it’s not even funny) making sure that the house has been tidied up properly.
If you are interested in seeing more photos, just find the #TheHFBuilds hashtag on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, and you can follow along!
I’ll be back next week with more Habitat for Humanity information, BUT if you live in Chicago, and are interested in applying to be a partner family, you can join us at the Kroc Center THIS Saturday, April 12, to get the ball rolling!
Windy City Habitat_Your Keys 2014 Event Flyer
This is so cool, Natasha! I love what you and your family are doing. Habitat is such a great organization, and I have to say that I can’t wait to see what you do with your place when you get it. I’m looking forward to lots of great and crafty decorating posts. 🙂
Andrea, we can’t wait either! What I’m especially excited about is the fact that soon we’ll be able to pass on hours to other families!
It is nice to get involved with something that is so fulfilling such as building a house. I can imagine how builders and construction workers feel when they see the fruits of their labor. Not to mention those were some awesome people to work with.
Those people were indeed awesome to work with. Especially that painter. She worked like her life depended on it!
I’m so glad you have so many family and friends involved your build. I’ve had to pleasure of helping going to a church camp that does something very similar to this and it was such an awesome experience for me. To see the joy of the homeowners and their appreciation for what we were doing just made my heart swell. Hope the build continues to go well and that more people will be inspired through your posts and your friends’ and family’s spreading the word about their experience that they will want to help a family in their area with their build.
hey hun – pls let me know if there is an opportunity for me to come out and volunteer.