Guitar Hero

It all began with a night of hanging out with Nigel and Danielle, Nigel had borrowed his friend's Guitar Hero game for playstation and wanted to play. We looked at him and rolled our eyes as we thought to ourselves, "this is lame". But, soon enough we each tried a turn, and within 10 minutes we were addicted! We soon borrowed the game from Nigel and then the games began. We had a little jam session in the house with each person giving it a try...and it was a blast! We've since given the game back but we miss it dearly...

1st floor updates

Well, I was trying to think of some chronological way to update you all on our progress, but it was just to daunting, so I'm just gonna give you and update and show show some pics of where we are now. We started using the 1st floor in November, and it was a welcome relief to our cramped space we were using before. We've been doing little projects here and there and now are almost completely done with teh 1st floor...all we have left is to put in 2 kickboards under the cabinets. So here are some current pics :-)...
Here is our newly painted stairway thanks to a wonderful paint job by our friend Dave

Here is the living room, we manage to all squeeze on the couch for movies

Ahh, and the kitchen. We abosolutely LOVE it, these are our IKEA cabinets, installed by 8 of us in 1 day, not too shabby :-)

This is our magnetic chalkboard that I painted on the wall, it's been lots of fun for messages and for Theo to draw on (yup, he drew all those lovely lines at the bottom)

This is our future "Sewing and Craft" room, since all us girls here have some sort of craft hobby: sewing, scapbooking, quilting, etc... We plan to put up some tables and shelves to hold all of our stuff :-)

The dining room, with our table without a leaf...

And last of all, our study/library/game room. We love this room cause it's a great place with lots of seating to hang out (and there's no TV!).

If you want to see more, feel free to come over and check out what we've done...it's been a lot of work!

-Missy

Back to Blogging

Ok, OK, I know, I need to update the blog. But in August I did this wonderful entry with lots of photos and it took like an hr and then it got lost into cyberspace! I was so frustrated I gave up blogging for a while. Now I'm trying to make my way back but it's become a daunting task since so much has happened!!!!

But I will try to take it step by step, so you must know the events and photos I'm going to use may be quite old news now :-)

-Missy

Demo Day #2

Well, we sucessfully filled another dumpster this weekend! Thanks to the help of our beloved connection group buddies, we filled 15 cubic yards full of trash! We also were able to get up all the stick down ugly tiles in the attic and empty it so that we could get carpet today- and it looks great! So we're busy now doing last minute finishing touches on the bathroom wall that we moved up there- filling in joints with wall jt compound and finishing trim around the doors and a few pieces of baseboard. We're in a bit of an overdrive mode since we're having a couple and a 1yr old joining us on Saturday. We're super excited to have them, but want to have the attic completely done so that it will be nice for them up there. And you know how it is, once you move in it is doubtful that you care anymore about a few nail holes in the wall and some unpainted trim, so we know we must do it now or we'll never get to it again. Well, more to follow once I get some more pictures together. Thanks again to Greg, Marie, John, Nathan, Spence, Steph, Nathalie, Lanny, Nigel, Jared, Kelly, and the Carroll folks for all your help- It would have taken us DAYS to do what you helped us to do in 2.5 hrs :-).

A hole in the roof

So, we have a hole in the roof, but before you start feeling bad for our unfortunate circumstances, you must know that WE put it there. Last Saturday we decided to put in a skylight in a little room in the attic with no windows. We'd like to make it a little nursery for a 1yr old, and thought he'd appreciate a little natural sunlight :-). So, crazy as we are, we thought, "Hey, how hard can it be? I bet we can figure it out"....and so we did....
Ah, light at last...

"Lord, please don't let this skylight leak!"Ah, 14 hours later and done at last :-)... now we'll just have to see what happens when it rains...

An Urban Garden

Well, on a different note than the normal construction talk, I thought I'd share some pics of our little urban garden here. We do only own about 50 sq ft of grass, but we've managed to create quite the litle jungle. The Church next door was kind enough to let us use about a 15ft strip of their grass for some gardening and Spencer and Steph also built 3 large planters. Our garden is doing amazing mostly due to the wonderful soil we got from a 15yr old compost pile we got from Spencer's parent's back yard. So, this first picture is our little side patio area next to the large church next door. We have a number of plants and herbs (one tomato plant, peppers, beets, thyme, basil, eggplant, sunflowers, squash, zucchini, carrots, mint, soybeans, and a few other just flowering plants) Then behind our house where there is more sun we've planted 5 other tomato plants that are getting HUGE! As of a few days ago we had over 30 little green tomatoes growing which we hope will ripen soon.
We're so happy to have Spence and Steph's gardening skills with us since we never would have thought to create such a great little garden ourselves. We've even started composting in a bin ext to the side patio garden and it has been really fun to see all our extra kitchen waste turn into beautiful dark soil. We're looking forward to building a little plastic greenhouse next spring so that we can stat all of our plants from seed with our own soil.

Super Basement Demo Day

Well folks, in case you've never seen our basement or have just forgotten what it looked like...this is what our basement looked like when we moved in...


But as you guessed, it no longer looks anything like this.

Thanks to the awesome help of our friends Greg, Marie, John, Laura, Nathalie, Lanny, Spencer, and Stephanie and Austin's parents and Spencer's Dad, the basement is now completely gutted. We were very busy on Sunday riping things out and carrying them to our 15-cubic yard dumpster (which actually turned out to be about 5 yards too small). So, here are some pics of the action (used without permission :-).

Whoops, looks like we cought Greg and Marie on a little rest break :-) So, after we got all the stuff leared out, Austin and Missy began the long processes of building shelves for storage down in the basement. Contrary to popular believe, it takes FOREVER to take all the screws out of 80 two-by-fours. Austin worked about 9 hours and Missy about 5 hours today on building these shelves for our future illegal hostel bunk beds...just kidding...but here's the pics you've been waiting for...the AFTER pictures...

Demolition Derby

The demolition is well on its way! We've been quite busy and every chance we get we rip apart our first floor. Thanks to the help of our house-mates Stephanie and Spencer and our good friends Nigel and Danielle, we've removed all the trim from doorways and windows, removed 2 walls, remove the plaster from an outside wall, and removed all the old kitchen cabinets. The only demolition task we have left is widening one more doorway on the 1st floor and makig a door in a closet and then cleaning out the basement (which we are doing in a week and a half with the help of several friends). We are very excited to get this stage over with since smashing things and having to protect your face with a mask and goggles in hot humid weather while dust and plaster flies at you can be very tiring and uncomfortable work. Well, enough talk, time for some pictures...




Here Danielle is just gettin started....








and this is a little later...




Here we are after just a few more days...and then Spencer and Steph doing a little more destruction.












And finally, here are some of where we are now...

The Demolition has Begun!

Sorry I've been idle for so long, I am just learning the ways of a blogger...Life has also been busy and has delayed our house plans for a bit...I've graduated...begun studying for the liscensure exam...hosted my parents for a week visit...and helped 3 friends move into our community house! Yup, we're up to 5 people now and I'm loving it...and we may soon in the fall be up to 8 people! So, as you can imagine we've realized we need to kick it into high gear with our renovation plans. So, while Austin was away having a grand ole time hiking and camping in the rain for 4 days, my house-mate Stephanie and I decided to take this demolition thing into our own hands. So, as you can see we put on some music, grabbed some crowbars and hammers, and begin ripping apart the old kitchen.

And we sure did a good job, except at the one point when we decided to unhook the sink and were spraying water everywhere. But after a quick trip to the hardware store and some thinking like a plumber, I fixed the problem and we are enjoying hot water again :-).

So, the journey has begun, I'll try to update more often with lots of photos :-)

-Missy

The Planning Begins

Well, we have the house, the stuff is in and unpacked, and the drawings are in process. Our First task to tackle is to make a master plan. Austin's Dad has been over a few times now to draw up plans of the house and from those floor plans we are beginning to see what possibilities exist. In fact, so many possibilities exist that decided just how far to go with things is becoming difficult...do we take out the chimneys to make room for where we want a bathroom to go? Do we get new water heathers that are more energy efficient? Do we expand the attic bathroom so that someone more than 100lbs can fit in it? Which way do we put the kitchen island? Where do we draw the line between functionality and frugality? Where's the midpoint between Missy's "Let's get it done as fast as we can for the least amount of money" attitude and Austin's "Let's do it right even though it may cost more and take a lot more time". Ahh, the joys of coming from completely different backgrounds with different ideas about cost and quality. So, we are praying that God will help us make the right decisions.

We are really enjoying living in Lawrence finally! We're begining to discover cool places like the little state park down the street that has a beautiful little area to sit on a bench and watch the birds and we had a great time playing bocce ball with our friends in the big City Common on Easter. We've also discovered that the addition on the back of the house makes a wonderful place to sit in the sun on the flat roof (just have to get over the fear of climbing the 12 foot ladder!). We've also discovered that living in the car insurance fraud capital of the state has made our car insurance go up $1400/yr...so are looking for ways to maybe reduce down to one car.

So, we are excited to have begun our journey in Lawrence. If you want to check out some of the other cool things that are going on in the city, here are some links you can check out...

http://www.lawrencecommunityworks.org/neighborhood/index.php?area=reviviendo

http://www.groundworklawrence.org/

We'll be posting more pictures soon as we take them...

The Waiting is OVER!

Hello everyone, It's official! We closed on the house today after a long period of waiting. We are very excited to get things started and will keep you updated as things progress.

Here we are in our new house with our new set of keys (well, until we changed the locks, that is)

The Waiting Game

OK folks, here it is March 26th and I’m anxious to get into our new house in Lawrence and get this thing moving. Our closing was supposed to be tomorrow, but may not be happening until later in the week. For those of you who don’t know why in the world Austin and I are moving into the poorest town in New England (and no- it’s not because it’s the only place we can afford to buy- although that is indeed true)…here’s the reason and the story behind it. Once upon a time around about April of 2005, Rebecca Fitton leant Austin a book called, “Money, Possessions, and Eternity”. Austin would read this book for hours upon end while I studied the finer points of Neurological Physical Therapy at home and at Panera.

Meanwhile, Austin’s best friend Spencer and his fiancé were living in Pittsburgh, PA and telling us of the situation there with the poor living in the inner city run down areas and how abandoned houses in the city were selling for as low as $5000. Austin, with his new focus on using his earthly possessions to affect eternity came up with the idea that he wanted to move to Pittsburg, buy up several city blocks, build several nice subdivisions and create a really cool community for the poor.

Although I thought this sounded cool, I was hesitant to leave our beloved New England where we have become very close to a lot of people, love our church, and where Austin has a great job. I think it was the same friends, Kevin and Rebecca who said to us, “What about Lawrence?”

“Hmm, what about Lawrence?” we thought to ourselves. And then it hit us, “why of course Lawrence, why didn’t we think of this before?” Lawrence is the perfect place for us to move, buy and make an intentional Christian community house, and get involved in the community.

Here’s some info about the community: it has a rich industrial history and has undergone a large demographic shift since the 1970’s. It now consists of a largely Latino immigrant population (over 60% of the population). It is a densely populated urban community with over 72,000 people living within seven square miles. It is the 23rd poorest town in the United States and the poorest in all of New England. 84% of all Lawrence residents are living in poverty; 37% in dire poverty. Affordable housing is almost non-existent in the city and throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Over 400 families are on the list for affordable housing with an average waiting period of six years.


Our goals:
1. To create an intentional Christian community living together in one house, sharing our time and possessions and learning and growing from each other
2. To create an opportunity for those who need to pay off debts, save up for a home ownership, or just get back on their feet to live with very few expenses and mobilize their resources as needed.
3. To create an environment from which we go forth to impact the community of Lawrence.
4. Create an awareness of those outside Lawrence of the needs and situations of those who live in poverty.
5. To have an awesome time building deep relationships

The Plan (subject to change)
1. Find and buy a house in Lawrence. Requirements are as follows: the house must be large enough to hold 3-4 families (about 3000 sq ft), the house must be in a neighborhood where it is easy to meet neighbors and build relationships, the house must not be in the nicer/more suburban parts of Lawrence nor in the really dangerous parts: but in between. Desirables (but not requirements) are as follows: the house could be in an area where stores/shops are within walking distance and within walking distance (about 1 mile) of the train station, and a location near the central town common (a large park) would also be nice.
2. Purchase the house through NACA, an awesome home buying and advocacy program. See www.naca.com for details.
3. Renovate the house: turn into a single family with a common kitchen, dining, and living room, and study, make several bedrooms and bathrooms for living quarters.
4. Have Spencer and Stephanie move in in May of 2006
5. Once renovations are mostly done, invite other friends and acquaintances in need to live in the house and try out this community thing
6. When room opens up, continue to invite those in need of a place to stay to live with us for short periods of time (up to a year).

Well that's the deal, folks...stay tuned as it progresses...

-Missy and Austin