The Magic of Good

The other day I was having a discussion about pets with the guy that sits behind me. He maintained that dogs and cats didn't produce anything useful say like milk and eggs, therefore he was unable to see how they contributed to a household. He's a young fellow, so no doubt after a few more years of life experiences he'll figure it out. There wasn't much point in arguing although I did point out that the day before when I was awake at 3:30 with a brain that wouldn't quit, the third shift cat that prowls around our house and I had a nice cuddle. A few minutes of reading and petting soft kitty fur I was ready to go back to bed and actually sleep. It would be nice if Eragon brought home a paycheck or could make pancakes, but I'll take a nice cuddle in the wee hours.

My brain was busy at 3:30 am because I am idealistic. I think that if I'm working very hard on someones Habitat House that they should want to be there too. Potential homeowners need to be able to financially afford one of our houses (regardless of what the house & taxes assess for, the homeowner will pay what they can afford which is 30% of their income), be willing to partner with us on working on it (a set amount of sweat equity hours are required) and be ready to own their house.

We just wrapped up a really hard rehab the other day.  When we started, the house was smelly with a lime green kitchen. After the foreclosure and before we started tearing into things, we had to get rid of bedbugs and fleas as well as two dumpsters full of possessions in the house and one we filled up from the yard. Later down the road we figured out the house had termites from a leaky water pipe that never gotten taken care of. We tore into the plaster and started rebuilding large portions of walls. Four months later it's rebuilt and is a happy shiny new house with cherry colored kitchen cabinets and a beautiful burgundy stained glass door. I'm pretty proud of what it looks like today, but it wasn't an easy task getting here.

The potential new homeowner is difficult. Difficult like one of those balls of fishing twine you find on the bank of a river that is looped through itself and basically can't be unraveled. The dude has had many years of fighting for everything and he can't stop fighting. I only wish he'd put that energy into working on his house. It was his mouth that got him in trouble with me around 8:15 on a Build Club Day. I was waiting in my car for our big Habitat van to defrost when he approached my window and started in. Having had the appropriate amount of coffee and nothing better to do, I got on my soup box and engaged.

I have had enough life lessons to know better than to argue with a five year old who is having a tantrum so thankfully I came to my senses about ten minutes into a pointless heated discussion and left with a bitter taste in my mouth. The good news is that there is a bit of magic associated with the doing of good things. If you are patient, things have a way of working themselves out. Karma of the universe if you will. It might not make sense now, but in a bit it will.

Thankfully there were other better things to cheer me up this week. We also wrapped up a roof on house for a lady who is nearly twice as old as me. She was grateful and awesome. Her house was warm and inviting. The side porch that was in bad shape from a bad roof is now much safer. Onward and upward, I say!