Bless my readers' hearts, y'all are bound to be sick of hearing about our housing situation. Me too. I'm sick of having a housing situation. Really, really sick of it. There are still no houses available in our price range in our town. It's nutso. So we've started thinking outside the box.
Mobile homes. We've found one at a great price that we love. We just don't have the down payment we would need for it. Even if we did, I can't find a mobile home park that has a space for it. Since our lot behind the church is not yet clear, I guess that's a no go for now.
Buying a house. Yeah, it's a great idea. It's also expensive. Very expensive here. We run into the down payment issue again as well as closing costs. Guess that's a no go too.
Someone donating a house to the church. I think this is by far the greatest idea yet! Anyone know someone who wants to donate?? I'd be totally into this. Just in case you know someone who would like to do this, I would love to have a 3 or 4 bedroom, 2 bath house. A dishwasher would be great but we don't HAVE to have one. A fenced yard for my kiddos and doggie would be great too.
Ok. Well, no one is jumping in line to give us a house so we better come up with something else.
How about transforming our fellowship hall into a pastoral apartment? This would require changing up how we conduct church. I think it's possible. No Sunday School: that's not gonna kill anyone. Might make some people made but no one's going to die over it. We would also have to have children's church in my living room. I can also deal with that. It might actually work nicely that way.
Church services are the easy part. The actual transformation is harder. There is a closet in the bathroom that could be turned into a shower. I don't know how hard that would be but that would make that a 3/4 bath and that is fine for our family. Our kiddos are old enough to just shower and the oldest actually prefers that. We would also need washer and dryer connections. There is a Sunday School supply closet that would be great for this. We'd just need to take out the free standing cabinet in there and install washer and dryer connections. I have no idea how hard or how expensive that is but it's a great place for them. Also in there would be a great place for a family closet. I think this would be great! All our hang up clothes could go straight from the dryer to hanging in the closet. Easy peasy! Install a dishwasher in the kitchen and we're in business. Of all this, the only thing I HAVE to have right away would be a shower. I can go to the laundry mat for a while and we can keep doing dishes by hand. A fence for my kids and long little doggie would be nice too.
So, what do y'all think? Is this doable? What would you think if your pastors needed/wanted to do this?
I think that it could turn out alright. If you did it with the idea that it would be a temporary thing until something else opened up once you have a shower installed you would be in the position to help others in a similar situation to your own in the future. Our church owns what I think used the be the parsonage but is now used as the offices and youth room. It has a full bathroom and so we are able to host our counties local homeless group once every 12 weeks and it's been a fantastic way for our families to help out with the ministry. Anyway just food for thought as far as future long term implications.
ReplyDeleteWow, no ideas but I pray that something works out for you soon.
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