Free Home Renovation Advice

Joan
Bronze Feedback Medal for All Time! 186 Feedbacks

June 10, 20102 found this helpful

Where I live the Home Builder's Association, along with donations from businesses, and volunteers from the different home building companies do repairs on a certain number of homes, early every summer. This year it was one or two days last week, etc. They do things like build ramps, do some repairs. You either have to be a senior citizen or disabled and I think there are income guidelines in order to qualify.

(Guest)
Gold Post Medal for All Time! 846 Posts

June 10, 20100 found this helpful

Call your city/town and see if they have any programs available or advice of who to get in contact with if they don't. I once went through a city program and was able to get all new windows and new roof for a very, very, very small fraction of what it would have cost otherwise and only had to make tiny payments to the city each month for what I was ultimately charged.

I ditto redhatterb on apartment living now ;-) Don't want the headache of a house anymore ;-)

susan

June 10, 20100 found this helpful

See if there is a "Council for Aging" in your area, they will do repairs sometimes for elderly homeowners. Also your local church might want to take on the project to help out the neighborhood. Good luck.

Julia
Bronze Post Medal for All Time! 146 Posts

June 13, 20100 found this helpful

Hi Juia,
You say you have 12 grandchildren, some of whom actually live with you. Would your children be able to help you with these home repairs? My husband and I are very lucky to have four children who all have skills and abilities or capabilities that we no longer have, and they are quite willing to help us do anything. Sometimes all we have to do is ask.

Our home is "their home", and they are as interested in keeping it as nice as possible since they will all benefit from the sale of it after Papa and I no longer need an earthly home. But you do sometimes have to ask. They might know a lot, but I was never able to teach my four to be mind-readers.

I think many people are hesitant to ask their children for anything at all and this ends up hurting them in more ways than one. If they cannot help you for one reason or another, that's another matter, but we taught our 3 daughters and one son that charity begins at home and those words are to taken literally.

We have always helped them in every way possible, and vice versa, even the girls' husbands and our son's wife fit into that picture very well.

I would like to see this country go back to being a "family oriented" civilization. It would take a big strain off all of us in the long run. We would not need such a big government with agencies for this or that and every little thing.

In addition to immediate family members, most folks have what we call an "extended family" which is a network of close friends who can be called upon when help is needed. We just need to remember that to "have a friend, we must be a friend". This is the way our country survived during the Second World War, and it would be wonderful to see those values come back into American lives.

I wish you the best Julia in Easley, SC
Julia in Boca Raton, FL

redhatterb

June 19, 20130 found this helpful

Your best bet would be to contact your home builder's association. Where I live that organization does a once or twice a year. They come in and do minor repairs for elderly/disabled people. However, if your house needs more serious repairs they might not be able to help. Another thing talk to your pastor, sometimes a church will help with things like that, take up a special, anonymous collection, and there are always some members of the congregation that are handy with doing things like carpentry.

As far as asking for free remodeling that is asking for quite a bit. From what I have heard Habitat for Humanity, in some locations will sometimes make some home repairs. They don't do that where I live. Depending on the amount of work your house needs, and it must be a large amount being your grandchildren were taken away, it might be time to consider selling your house, as is, get what you can for it, and find an inexpensive rental, either another house or an apartment. There are some rentals that are HUD financed and rent is based on income. For homeowners the best thing to do is keep up on home repairs as needed, not wait until they become extensive.

cathy333

June 22, 20131 found this helpful

You might also check with your city of county offices. Sometimes they have home rehabilitative programs.

Joan B.

August 15, 20110 found this helpful

I have worked in a couple different non-profits that helped people with different things and all of these organizations know what the other organizations do, and a lot of the questions we received pertained to housing. I have never heard of free home repair. Habitat for Humanities builds new homes for people, but you have to meet certain qualifications, and there is a waiting list. Is your whole home uninhabitable? Talk to your pastor, he/she might know of some people in the congregation that could help you at least get the house livable, nothing fancy, but so that it could be lived in. Income wise do you and your Mother qualify to live in a HUD apartment? The rent is 30% of your income.

They do have waiting lists, but it kind of depends on where you live and how many HUD apartments there are, how long that list is. Also look in your phone book for something called the Home Builders Association, or something similar. I know every spring they have a deal here, where volunteers from their organization along with supplies donated by merchants make really minor repairs to homes for elderly and disabled people. I know this is a rare incident, but in the city I live in, an older couple(the husband has prostate cancer) lost their home in a fire of Feb., 2010, and a next door neighbor of theirs started a movement on facebook to completely rebuild their home for them.

They had been living with a family member since the fire, and between volunteers to do the carpentry work, and donations of supplies and furniture this couple has a really nice new home built on the same site as their old home. All the furniture, appliances, etc. were donated by businesses in town. The population where I live is about 150,000. Maybe you have a friend that do that for you. This couple just moved into the home last weekend. The house had to be razed before the building could start, and when you consider it was done by volunteers when they weren't working their regular jobs. I don't understand why you have to keep moving your Mother from place to place. Isn't there some friend or family member you could stay with and help out with groceries and a little for utilities?

Also if your Mom is actually terminally ill, maybe she should be in hospice care. I realize you want to take care of her, but it might be better all the way around if she qualified for hospice care. I don't expect my kids to take care of me in my last days. Also call 211, that is an organization that has a list of all the help organizations in an area, they might know of places that could help you.