Thursday, October 7, 2010

House in to a Home!!! Before and After.

Before Pictures
Paint Colors





After Pictures















I am so glad we are finished with this project! We have turned this house into a home for sure! So excited to see what comes our way next! :)

Much Love from CA,
Jess

FREE HOUSE!!! You heard me... FREE

So, a few weeks ago I posted about a flea problem at our first apartment. Well I was literally driven crazy by the pesky little things. I mean we were paying $1,100 to live in a place with fleas?.... That did not sit well with me. SOOOO... I got determined, determined to find something else. We have friends that gave us contact info for the Fuller Housing List. This list is basically a place where people can post apartments, houses, or rooms in a house for rent. And the rent is usually much cheaper than what would be found in the area. So, I get a copy of this list and start circling the places that could work for us. Then I come to a posting that says $0.00 in the price column. HMMM...Type-o? Maybe. Sketchy? Possibly. Worth a try? Totally. So I call the number and talk to the lady who owns the house (more on her another time). She asks us to come over and meet with her and see the place. When we arrive we walk up to this large property (in southern CA 2 acres is huge). We go into the house where meet Carolyn and Richard the 76 year old couple who live there. Here is what we found out...
- Carolyn has polio and is in a wheelchair with partial use of one arm.
- The rent is actually $0.00
- Our end of the deal would be to work with her on household chores from 9-12 Monday-Friday.
We get to see the house and it is a nice one bedroom house on the back of the property. We would have freedom to paint and make any changes we would like. The house has A/C which is hard to find in LA.
When we leave of course Luke is sold. But I was still skeptical. Not because of the couple or the house, but because I knew that most of the responsibility and work would fall on me. So I contacted the previous couple who lived in the house. She had nothing but great things to say about the time that she and her husband lived in the house. They lived in the house for 3 years and she said that if she had not started a new program at a University so far away they would still live there. She gave me all the details on working for Carolyn. After such a great convo I was sold too! We called Carolyn back and arranged a move in date.
Now we are living in this house for FREE. I still can't believe it! I spent a week before we moved in painting every room. (I will post before and after photos soon)
This situation is great for so many reasons. To name a few... Luke and I can both work part time instead of stressing over finding full time jobs that we enjoy here, we have waaay more space, and we get to connect with a great couple who don't know Jesus. So, this leads me to the REALLY amazing part. Carolyn told me that they put the house in the Fuller list in mid June and we were the first people to contact her. She said that it usually only takes a couple of weeks to get calls and have someone move into the house. But this time it took almost 2 months. As I thought about it, I feel like the house was waiting on us to realize we had options. We moved here just a few weeks after the house was posted and for some reason no one else called about a FREE house? No way. So Carolyn said to me "I just don't know why it took so long to fill the house this time." In my head I thought "I think I know why". What I mean by that is this... This FREE house with an atheist couple as landlords was waiting on us. I mean someONE bigger than me and you had to have organized this.
Needless to say this "crazy move" just got crazier!! I have only been working for Carolyn for 2 weeks and already have about a ton of stories to share. And in the end it took fleas to force me to realize that there were options outside of astronomical rent. Options that are only available if we are willing to trust Him, sacrifice of ourselves for others, and be willing to learn a lot about grace and humility. I am already seeing these things occurring in this situation, even after only a couple of weeks!
I am hoping to have the before and after pictures of the house up tomorrow so be looking out for that! And I know I have been slacking on the updates, but now that we are moved in and settled I am hoping to pick back up! I have lots to share about this amazing city, the people, and a new found appreciation for real and authentic faith!

One of our favorite parts about the house is the view.... (Those are orange, lime, lemon, and grapefruit trees that you see)

Here is a picture of the house from the outside....


West Coast Love,
Jess