Posted on 01/04/2009 8:14:04 PM PST by nysuperdoodle
I know a woman for many decades now who bought her home through Habitat for Humanity.
It was not free it was affordable mortgage payments and she was a hard working (still is) woman in the fish industry.
She did not raise her kids alone by choice and again she was/is not a free loader.
Maybe Habitat works different in New Orleans.
We have a house up the street here that a man built for his wife all on his own unfortunetly she died before he finished.
You talk about misaligned windows/floors ect this place has re sold many times and not once has anyone told the new owners about the history of the home.
Sad thing is the previous owner who sold it to the now new owner died unexpectantly soon as he sold it.
He amazed me how his mind worked as a Dr. of Economics a real natural.
I took the new owners up a welcome to the neighborhood gift and the adult daughter fell down the steps and hit hard as she came to answer the door.
Me thinks the house is hexed.
Back in time that area was a chinese camp(rail road builders) and one Japanese guy who was a ship cook saved a child left behind on a sinking boat they later found him murdered in his lil shack.
I did a historical background on him because King Vanity told me we have a nice ghost who is an asian man and at times we smell coffee or other breakfest foods wafting through our living quarters.
I went up hiking and took pictures of his tombstone that still exists to show the son.
KV said his name is Charlie.
He use to say a big indian man ghost protected him in our old home that was rumored to be built around burial ground at the foot of Mt. Diablo.
I am not sure if he is yanking my chain or not about this ghost stuff.
Also, there are a lot of impoverished white families in the area, but 100% of these homes went to black and Hispanic families.
I just left Highlands County, where a new H4H home went to an Illegal and her Latino boyfriend. Highlands is a Florida county with a 60% Veteran population!
≡≡8-O
I have no way of knowing for sure about the immigration status of any particular family. But Hispanic parents always seem to either speak no English at all, or speak English as though they were born and raised in Mexico and learned it as a second language.
Then of course there are the African-Americans, who also speak English as though they learned it as a second language ...
Yes, that seems to be the point: look good doing it. Given a choice between building 10 quality homes that will last 50-100 years, and building 20 shacks that will last 15 years, they'll build shacks every time. Because every time they hand over another set of house keys to another family, it's another photo op.
Twice I tried volunteering for H4H and was rejected. I’ve got an old house I’m trying to fix up and thought I could learn a thing or two. No, they didn’t want anyone just picking up nails — it seemed to me they wanted only skilled labor.
One recipient I know of was a white single mom.
Twice I tried volunteering for H4H and was rejected. I’ve got an old house I’m trying to fix up and thought I could learn a thing or two. No, they didn’t want anyone just picking up nails — it seemed to me they wanted only skilled labor.
One recipient I know of was a white single mom.
Often you might try an old retired builder. I know some who are more than happy to sit down on a chair and tell you how and what you should do. Just a suggestion.
Perfect metaphor for the man and his legacy.
Yeah, no grounds for a mistrial there, eh?
I agree completely. I was just pointing out that one who cannot afford a house cannot afford the upkeep either. That's the problem with giving things away like that.
JC (Jhimmi the Dhimmi that is) gives carpenters a bad name.
Perhaps these poor people can shack up at the Edward’s estate or the Kennedy compound.
Sounds like what one can expect from some men as well, including the guy who worked on my home when it was his home.
Do you really think all those mistakes were made only by women who didn't know what they were doing? Somehow men, the ones who can't afford homes, have a great store of how "how to build a house" knowledge?
I’m sure there are a few women out there who can build quality kitchen cabinets from scratch. But you know as well as I do that such women are scarce. I’ve only met one in my life, and she wasn’t at any of these job sites.
Certainly, you may find skilled volunteers at these homesites. Your original point was about the lack of skills of the single females who were going to be moving in and doing their own sweat equity. My point was that most men, doing their own sweat equity in this situation, were as likely to be unskilled.
I'm not trying to engage in a battle of the sexes, simply pointing out that all the homeowners are likely to be people without vast skills. If any of them were vastly skilled, they wouldn't need HFH, KWIM?
And the idiot who worked on my house, a male construction dude/original homeowner, somehow avoided creating any straight walls or square corners in the work he did on our house. Being in the construction trade, one would think he'd have a clue. It isn't always so.
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