Oh hello y’all, how are things?  I’m feeling pretty good today having finally finished the laundry room over at our adopted Alma House.   For those who don’t know, earlier this year, the hubs and I decided to adopt a house in partnership with our local COTS (Committee on the Shelterless). 

The Alma Project began as the transformation of a fixer upper house into a comfortable functional home for women who desperately need it. Living inside the Alma House are single mothers, previously homeless, who reside for free on the condition that they are learning skills, stabilizing their lives, attending counseling, and that they remain drug and alcohol free. Busy remodeling their lives, these mothers have no time or money to fix up this house.

Over the past few months, we’ve given our time to this project with money donated by so many of you. Some of you blogged about the Alma house and others held small fundraisers to benefit the project.  We cannot thank you enough. 

In April, we spent a day transforming the entry hallway to create better utility:

In May, we built them this media center. 

Over the summer, we set out to build the families a laundry room center in the garage and at last it is complete! 

Here’s a glimpse of the space a few months ago:

Here it is today!

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Hey everybody, hope you moms had a relaxing Mother’s Day!  Last week, I spent a few hours constructing a media and storage center for our Alma Project.  I struggled for weeks on how to accomplish this task, at first scouring thrift stores and Craigslist for bookcases with no luck.  Why is it so hard to find two solid wood matching bookcases these days?  I contemplated either going to IKEA or having them built, but the bid came in at $400 which I was not willing to spend. 

My parents came to the rescue.   They moved all their belongings last week and they happened to have two solid bookcases they didn’t need anymore since they’re downsizing, so they generously donated them to this project. 

To create the new media center, I reused the existing TV stand and paired it with the donated bookshelves, one on each side.  Then I purchased two new pressboard shelves for the top and between the bookcases.  I primed the pieces, then assembled them all together and painted it all white to create one large wall unit.  And we did it all for under $60 dollars.

Here is what the family room wall looked like a few weeks ago:

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Here is the wall after we constructed a new media and storage center:

Fantastic right? 

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Hey there!  Hope you all had a fine weekend!  I spent the weekend working on a few projects, like building an upholstered ottoman, and also taking a very cool class.  I hope to share both with you later this week. 

The best part of our weekend was spent working on our Alma Project, transforming the bare walls of the entryway to not only provide more storage, but also make this hallway a much more functional space to help the families living within these walls stay organized. 

Take a peek at what we started with in the morning:

And ended up with in the afternoon!

So much better!

I started by painting the hallway in Kelly Moore’s ‘Graystone’, a nice neutral tan color.  Usually I opt for Ben Moore paints, but KM was right down the street, and I was color matching the new paint in the great room (more on that to come!)  I chose these wide plank grooved panels from Lowe’s because the adjacent kitchen has the same style paneling on the lower half of the walls, but in that icky 1970’s brown.  I had all of the new panels cut in the lumber department.   I intend to prime and paint those brown panels in the kitchen and eating area to pull all three spaces together and make it more fresh and modern.     

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I’ve been meaning to share this with all of you for some time, and wasn’t quite sure how to say it.  This project is a little different, but it is one that means a lot to me. 

Whenever someone asks me where I see myself in five years, the first answer that I give is ‘fixing up spaces for those who really need it, not those who can afford it’.  I feel in my heart that I want to spend part of my time giving back some of what’s been given to me.   The mantra I have heard over and over in my head for months now is ‘there are real people with real needs who need real solutions.’  I talked it over with my hub, and we came to an agreement months ago that we were going to reach out into our own community and find somewhere to help. 

We called the Committee on the Shelterless (or COTS) to offer our services, and as with all non-profits, they welcome all the help they can get.  We gave them some information, and told them what we had to offer.  They ran a background check, and a week later, we adopted a house.  The Alma House. 

Historically, the act of almsgiving is a material donation to the needy.  ‘Alma’ in Spanish means ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’.  The name of the street where our adopted house is located is Alma Drive.  We deemed it a sign, and The Alma Project was born. 

What is The Alma Project? 

The Alma Project is the transformation of a fixer upper house into a comfortable functional home for women who desperately need it.  Living inside the Alma House are three single mothers, previously homeless, who reside for free on the condition that they are learning skills, stabilizing their lives, attending counseling, and remain drug and alcohol free.  These mothers are saving their money from their part time jobs and raising their children as best as they can.  They have no time or money to fix up this house.  They are real women with real needs who need real solutions. 

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