Appliance question: please respond!

I found someone who will donate a deep upright freezer to us. 

Whoopee! John and I will pick it up tomorrow. 

Now, here's the question....

Someone offered to sell us a fridge and a stove in "excellent condition" for $150 and $125 respectively.

What do you guys think? 

We can either:

a) Go for it and split the cost equally

b) Hold out for something free

For those of you who don't know. We've already gotten a free dryer. 

Not bad. Not bad. I'm leaning towards holding out because we've already poured a lot of money into this house. 

Let me know what you think.

Love, 

Janet

What it could be

What it could be.

This is from a short story dan lent me, it’s called Walk in the Light While There is Light by Leo Tolstoy. I think you can read the whole thing online for free.

This is one of the best books i've ever read. It has made me understand (in addition to knowing dan :) how the bible looks like in real life. Or, what it could look like. It's so exciting!!!!

Here goes.

Two years passed: Julius completed his studies; and during all that time he did not once see his friend.
One day, however, he met him in the street, invited him home, and began to ask him how and where he lived.
Pamphilius told him he still lived in the same place with his mother.
“We do not live alone,” said he, “but many friends live with us, and we have all things in common.”
“What do you mean ‘in common’?” asked Julius.
“In such a way that none of us considers anything his private property.”
“Why do you do that way?”
“We are Christians,” said Pamphilius.
“Is it possible!” cried Juilius. “Why, I have been told that Christians kill children and eat them. Can it be that you take part in doing such things?
“Come and see,” replied Pamphilius. “We do nothing of the sort; we live simply, trying to do nothing wrong.”
“But how can you live, if you have no property of your own?”
“We support each other. If we give our brethren our labors, then they give us theirs.”
“But if your brethren take your labors and don’t reciprocate, then what?”
“We don’t have such persons,” said Pamphilius; “such persons prefer to live luxuriously, and they don’t join us; life among us is simple, and without luxury.”
“But are there not many lazy ones who would delight in being fed for nothing?”
“Yes, there are some such, and we willingly receive them. Not long ago a man of that character came to us - a runaway slave; at first, it is true, he was lazy, and led a bad life, but soon he changed his life, and has now become one of the good brethren.”
“But supposing he had not ordered his life aright?”
“Well, there are some such. The old man Cyril says that we must treat such as if they were the very best of the brethren, and love them all the more.”
“Can one love good-for-nothings?”
“It is impossible to help loving a human being.”
“but how can you give all men whatever they ask of you?” asked Julius. “If my father gave all persons whatever they asked him for, very soon he wouldn’t have anything left.”
“I don’t know,” replied Pamphilius. “We always have enough left for our necessities. Even if it came about that we had nothing to eat or nothing to wear, then we ask the others and they give to us. yes, it sometimes happens so. Only once did I ever have to go to bed without my supper, and that was because I was very tired and did not feel like going to ask any of the brethren.”
“I don’t know how you do,” said Julius, “only what my father says: if he didn’t have his own property, and if he gave to every one who asked him, he would die of starvation.”
“We don’t! Come and see. We live, and not only do not lack, but we have even more than we need.”
“How can that be?”
“This is the way of it: We all profess one law, but our powers of fulfilling it vary in each individual; some have greater, some have less. One has already made great improvement in the good life, while another has only just begun in it. At the head of us all stands Christ, with His life, and we all try to imitate Him, and in this only we see our well-being. Certain of us, like the old man Cyril and his wife Pelagia, are our leaders; others stand next to them, and still others in a third rank, but all of us are traveling along the same path. Those in advance are already near to the law of Christ - self-renunciation - and they are willing to lose their life in order to save it. These need nothing; they have no regret for themselves, and to those that ask they give their last possession according to the law of Christ. There are others, feebler, who cannot give all they have, who have some pity on themselves, who grow weak if they don’t have their usual dress and food, and cannot give everything away. Then there are others still weaker - such as have only just started on the path; these still live in the old way, keeping much for themselves and giving away only what is superfluous. Even those that linger in the rear give aid to those in the van.”

There is more. Go read it!

What do you guys think about living this way?

"This is not a feel-good post..."

Someone else should probably write about what we did yesterday, not me. Suffice it to say, it was amazing, an incredible amount of work and our hearts were deeply warmed by the caring (and skilled) Lifechurch friends. 

But, I'll leave that story for somebody else to post.  Instead, I'm going to write about what we did today. 

Today (Sunday) we threw one of these out of a truck: 

         

Cute, isn't it? Yes, this bad boy probably weighs around 100 lbs--something which wikipedia thinks makes it "portable." 

Ha. 

Portable, my ass. 

We borrowed a saw like this from someone who goes to Lifechurch for the workday yesterday. It was too late to take it back to the church by the time we finished last night. So, with great effort, we loaded it into John's truck and drove to a friend's house to store it in their backyard overnight.

This morning, sore and tired, John and I woke up early to bring the saw back to Lifechurch. Now, when I say tired, we are really, really tired. 

So, we groggily load it in and I climb into the back to hold it down. 

We pull slowly (read: groggily) out of the driveway and into the street. But at the very first turn, as the truck swerves, the saw shakes to the right, then to the left and then flies violently out of the truck bed and crashes in a huge heap on the road. 

I was using my legs and arms (all 4) to hold this table in place. And as I felt it slip from my fingers I shouted an obscenity that expressed very deeply how we would be feeling for the next 6 hours or so. 

Long story short: We said we were sorry, cried and carried the broken pieces of the saw into church during the middle of the service this morning. 

Lesson learned? None. There were absolutely no life lessons to be learned from this experience. Except that the people at Lifechurch are really, really nice. But I think we already knew that. 

A desperate entreaty

Hello friends and fellow commoners,

I'm writing you at 11:12 p.m. Sunday. We just got back from working on Sims St. 

We are so close to moving in and so far from making the house liveable. 

Please, please, please, please help.

This week we need to clean up the mess we made from painting and shop for supplies for the people from the church to use on Saturday.

They'll be working from 7 a.m. until early afternoon this Saturday.

Please, please, please, please help.

Thanks,

Janet

We're meeting at Mel's house at 7:00 tonight...

analogy explanation

i felt like the analogy was true about what i was thinking/feeling but lacked explanation::: the new food is not actually food... maybe i'll be hungrier than i am now, and hopefully less rich. The food is doing god's will and community, things that i do every once in a while, (sometimes it's great, sometimes not). Either way, it probably won't look as extravagant as the way it does when i do it now (the delicacies) but will be more like regular meals... anyhow... i hope that is explanatory... 

Janet, your post a while back makes me breathe easier and remember that fears and other normal-human emotions are OK. It also makes me want this to be beautiful and fulfilling for you and makes me wonder about how i can be a part of that. 

Kimberly, you need to come. I mean, do what's best for you. But come. :)  To your question, we want to have big decisions be a consensus of everyone living there if at all possible. We haven't had a lot of discussions/decisions about things to happen in the house as of yet..

Dan, I'm interested in simplicity too. I'm interested in whatever you're interested in, because you're living a beautiful life that i want mine to be more similar to.

John, thank you, thank you, for your words about God... Let's do that, yes, yes. I want that very much. Thanks for talking about God -- and for not letting us have bullshit! lives. 

And so.. just a few thoughts in addition.. I was thinking today of a good analogy for my thoughts towards the whole thing. It was hard, because there's a lot of different factors about everything to consider, but analogies are very, very helpful to me. I finally decided on one, after many attempts. 

I kind of feel like I am like a very constantly-hungry person who is going to live in a foreign, very food-filled place. In the place that i live now, when i do eat, it has been of a lot of these random delicacies that sometimes are very nutritious, sometimes very much not, and it's been hard on my body.

But the place i'm traveling to has the foods that i was made to be eating, and a lot of it. And I think, at first, the new food won't feel "right" at first (sometimes a person with anorexia's digestion system has a hard time processing the food it needs after going without it for so long) and i might not even like the taste of it, but after a while, my body will adjust to getting the nutrients it needs, and I'll get used to the taste and will probably love it much more than any of the delicacies i was eating before (like how sushi takes a few tries before you actually like it). 

These are my thoughts. No pressure: I think the above will happen over time no matter what, just situationally, a group of people doing the things we want to do, but am also OK with it being bad and hard at times.

I think what we're doing may be very close to the type of life we're "supposed" to live, and am so serenely happy i get to do it. And sometimes worried, and sometimes wanting to control, but mostly very grateful... to be eating... regularly..

Work schedule

Thursday: We'll be meeting around 7 p.m. at the house to decide which rooms need painted and to pick colors for paint. 

Thursday or Friday evening: Whoever can go, we'll work out a time to go supply shopping at Lowe's or Home Depot or....whereever. 

Saturday morning: Let's start work at 9 a.m. We'll be painting, laying tile in the bottom floor bathrooms and sanding some floors. That'll also be a good time to put contact paper in the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. If we hear from Phil, we'll try to install A.C.'s and stoves then as well. 

Sunday: We'll finish up any work we didn't get done on Saturday. We'll start in the afternoon, say around 1? 

Next Saturday: Workday with Lifechurch peeps. Let's all be there to help out and show our support for them. And also to make sure they don't get carried away and demolish the house. That's supposed to scare everybody into coming up. :) It's pretty exciting: they're going to help us install a railing on the stairwell, install doors, floors, steps, hang blinds and more! 

Please let us know if you can be there. With a specific task list, hopefully we'll be able to get a lot done. Get excited! 

If you're not around to help out, don't feel bad. We understand. They'll still be lots to do when you get here. :) But there's still lots of things you can do from home: Pray for us (this is probably the most important); scrounge your local craigslist, freecycle, garage sales or friends for a fridge, freezer, washer, dryer, window units, space heaters, seeds for the garden and more; make curtains; send us some cash to help pay for supplies; come have coffee with us some other time when we're not working to feed our souls :).... These are just some ideas. Feel free to add your own. 

Love, Janet

oh land-lordy! ... sponges... and the bullshit-negator

hey guys, i haven't had any luck getting phil on the phone to talk about the necessary repairs, rent, etc. so, for you prayin' types, if you want to pray that he doesn't throw us any loops with that, it would be good. god is good, and it will all fall together regardless.

speaking of that, i feel like we haven't been talking too much about god's role,or g-d's role for you mewithoutYou types, in all this. i really want him to be our source, our motivator, and our backbone. i feel like sometimes i just want to live with a cool group of people that do things that make me feel good about myself and not part of the PROBLEM. but a good deal of me has been saying to the other bit of me- Bullshit! you are thinking you are doing a good thing but it is bullshit! and i kept wondering why i kept feeling like i was calling bullshit! on myself (this is all in my head and perhaps unintelligible). maybe i've been thinking too much about how i want it to be, and how i want it to look. i feel like god nudged me today to get me to ease up and just think about how great it will be to have him love on us and love each other. i guess because i only partly know some of you, that is harder for me to visualize. i feel like i could try to bullshit! love you, but then that would make me part of the PROBLEM. so, i really want to be asking god to make my heart know its need for him, and to want to soak him up. and maybe, as a bunch of wet sponges, we'll be good at loving each other.
i think maybe i've been thinking about this because in the last few weeks i've been observing the differences in personality, methods of communication, and preferences we have. holy shit it's going to flop if we don't have love! so dan, kim, janet, thanks for being vulnerable and saying true things.

Simple living and raising chickens

I was thinking about living simply and how we all probably have different ideas about what that is. This worried me a bit because I was thinking about how some of our ideas on this could lead to conflict, and I was also worried because I wanted people to comply to my own views on what 'living simply' is. As in, there are some things that I wouldn't want to have in the house that someone else might want in the house. But I'm starting to realize that that isn't the biggest deal, and I'm realizing that it's more important that everyone has as much say as anyone else on what they have in the house. I was feeling a little too important, thinking that my ideas about what people should have matter more than their own ideas.

That being said, I'd like to have discussions about simple living and we can throw ideas around and find out where everyone is on that. I would like it if our commune-ity could be an experiment in simple living for us.

For example, my goal is to be able to give my car back to my parents and not have to pay insurance/gas/repairs/tickets/registration/inspection/oil change expenses. But I don't know how feasible that is. Then I can just bike around.

Plus we're going to have a garden at the house in addition to the one in Neal Park, and we're considering having chickens in our chicken coop.

I think we should all gather and watch "Brother Sun, Sister Moon" at my place, and then have a seance to summon the spirit of Saint Francis into our midst. Then we can just sing songs while doing garden work in rags and it will be fun.

Kelly is in the hospital and she's having surgery on her throat tomorrow morning. If you want to visit her she's in room 206.

I think I might have a hookup for free nightly Chinese food. If it works out we could put baskets on our bikes and ride to HEB in Bryan and pick up lots of Chinese food, then ride out to the park to share dinner with the folks there.

I'm really excited that I get to live with y'all :-)

Love
Dan

Feelin' hopeful! Let's paint this weekend!

last night was great!

chris and dalene, our friends from church, are planning a work day for their team to come out to the house and do a lot of the heavy work. huzzah!!! (as dumpster dan would say) they came to the house last night and checked it out to see what needs to be done. It will be Saturday, July 26, from 6:00 am to noon (tentatively). Their main priorities are, in some order from greatest to least: living room floor, upstairs great room wood floor, upstairs bathroom floor, linoleum on kitchen floor, a step from the kitchen to utility room, hanging doors (inside house), hanging blinds, replacing flooring by back side door, and removing all garbage from premises in a big trailer. hurrah!

so, what we need to do this week. select what rooms we want to paint and how. this weekend, we can do all the painting if that is possible (then on the work day they can do the floors more easily, and if time, help us with any further painting). let's decide on the painting before friday, so we can get all the stuff together and hit it hard core on saturday. do you guys want to meet thursday night perhaps?

hello, it's kimberly. I thought it would be a nice gesture to let everyone know that yes, I am still alive. I'm in Illinois living with a community on a farm until late August or early September, I'm not sure when yet.

I'm getting cold feet too, Janet. Last week I was seriously thinking about backing out of the Bryan community and leaving Texas asap (it's still a big temptation), but I think I will try to resist that urge at least for now. I'm concerned about how to work out the structure of living together since not everyone is in town. Y'all are probably figuring things out on your own, but I would like to know what people are talking about. Are you meeting regularly to discuss things or just letting it happen naturally? And what do people think about decision making type stuff? Consensus or something else? Reading your posts has made me a little less anxious, so thanks. I like communicating with the whole group instead of just between individuals; it's more communal :)

Oh, and what is everyone's general time commitment for this? Mine is probably through May, but I'm not exactly sure yet.

Also, sorry I'm MIA for all the remodeling work - you guys are so great for doing all this! I have some curtain making skills to lend if that's still needed in September, but I'm thinking you may need privacy before that. When are people moving in, by the way?

Some wonderful people from Lifechurch have offered to help us out with the house. I don't know about you guys, but this is a huge, huge relief for me. Look how good God has been to us! We have already gathered wonderful people who are willing to sacrifice their own space to live together, a great house with a nice landlord in a perfect area and now even help making the house liveable. I'll let you know when they're going to come out so we can be sure to be there to help them.

I'm off work this morning, so I thought I would take advantage of this opportunity to actually post something honest on this site, and invite you to do the same. I've experienced and am still experiencing a fair amount of anxiety about living together next year. I'm scared that we won't get along, that it will be too cramped, that the top floor will fall off the house, that I won't be able to handle being around people so much, that I won't get to spend the time I want to with John, etc. It's funny because a few months ago, I was so excited and so ready to do this, I could barely stand living in our apartment any longer. And living with you was one of the main reasons John and I decided not to skip town as we had planned to this fall. So, maybe it's just cold feet.

The other night it occurred to me as I was trying to fall asleep that living in this house is like a reward. I don't know what I've done to deserve this, but somehow I've been given the chance to dramatically and profoundly expand my understanding of what it means to love people and to think of others as better than myself. And even more so, I might actually be able to think less about my own needs and understand slightly more of how Jesus feels about me. I am normally very self-focused and self-indulgent, so this is a big deal for me, although some of you probably already feel like this is happening in your normal life.

Enough about me--What about you? What are some of the things you're concerned about or excited about this year? Thoughts? Revelations? Confessions? Please post them. It will make me feel less vulnerable. :)

Commune-ity Fun Work Afternoon

Hey :) :) 

It's my first post!! 

We're getting together tomorrow to clean, work, make our living space live-able and great. (see Janet-o's list below.) Come if you're in town. If you're unable or not in town, just do whatever you're doing and feel glad in your heart that these things are happening. 

We'll be going tomorrow at 2 pm. Do you know how to get there? Are you in town? Call us, let us know. 

Enjoy Elvis. 

Blood, sweat and tears...(Not really tears, but definitely blood and sweat.)

Hello friends, Dan, John, Cassie and I spent this morning cleaning up the hou

se. We managed to get A LOT done in a short amount of time. I thought I'd post some pictures as an introduction to the house, and then further down I'll post the list we made of what else needs to be done in order to make our home move-in-friendly. 

1403 N. Sims Street. Notice the nice tree.

Here are some rooms of the house during the clean-up. I would have loved to take before and after pictures, but my camera died. So, this is somewhere in the middle when the batteries re-awakened.

                          

We found some strange things, including an almost-exploded ancient jar of apple sauce and some jars of unidentified rotting-ness (not pictured due to the freaking pain it is to post pictures on blogspot).

But the best part was the incredible piles of stuff we were able to throw out of the second story window and pile by the curb and under the car port. 

                         

WARNING: LONG LIST

And now, on to the list. Don't be intimidated, some of these things are quick fixes. This is for us to see what else needs to be done for each room. If you see a task you're itching to do or a cost you're willing to cover, please give a shout-out to somebody in town. Or, better yet, show up at the house as a surprise!

Main Room

Replace floor boards

Sand and finish floor

Paint

Curtains/blinds for 3 windows

Clean windows

Fix glass in door

Downstairs Bedroom 1

Fix glass in door

Steam-clean carpet

Fix/take off door to main room

Downstairs Bathroom 1

Serious cleaning needed including windows

Repair fan

Install 1 door

Repair other door frame including knobs

Shower curtain

Take out carpet/floor

Lay tile/lineloeum

Downstairs Bedroom 2

Clean carpets/windows

Kitchen

Clean cabinets

Fix outlets

Repair drawers

Remove cabinet doors

Clean window

Install fridge/stove

Paint

Take out carpet/put in linoleum

Utility Room

Install washer/dryer

Clean windows/cabinets/floors

Downstairs Bathroom 2

Paint 

Fix outlet

Shower curtain

Tile floor

Clean HARDCORE

Downstairs Hallway

Fix glass and lock in door

Weatherproof both entries

Replace board by door

Re-tile (Price check: 150 square-feet)

Get rid of wasp nest

Fix screen door

Install shelving for mail/tools/coats/shoes/etc.

Stairwell

Clean and paint railing

Install railing

Clean carpet

Upstairs Hallway 1

Clean carpet

Install ceiling fan

Upstairs Bedroom 1

Replace floor boards/fill in holes

Sand, finish floors

Upstairs Hallway 2

Clean carpet and window

Install curtain of someone is going to live there

Upstairs Bedroom 2

Clean carpet and windows

Install doors

Paint/scrape paint

Upstairs Bedroom 3

Clean carpet and window

Install bar in closet

Upstairs Bathroom

Clean HARDCORE

Rip up wooden floor

Install linoleum/tile

Put door back on hinges

Outside Porch

Replace roof

Clean up trash

Paint metal supports

In addition, we thought we should probably spray for bugs and buy locks (in case of robbery), toilet paper racks and towel racks for all the bathrooms. 

In conclusion, here are your happy cleaners (minus me--I am taking the picture). Salud!

floor boards and windows all have to go...

yeah! i'm a blogging rock star... i think i have like five of these things now...

anyhow, whoever can should come down to the house tomorrow morning, perhaps at 9:00 AM, if their disposition allows. 1403 North Sims Ave will soon turn into 14 oh I wanna be there 3 north sims ave. haha.

so- if you read my previous comment... i could use some help with measuring and counting floorboards that will need replacing. if you have a tape measure, and some chalk, then bring it. also, you may want to bring work gloves. does anyone have a crow bar?

in other news, acme glass called today. their mirrors want you to stop looking at them! haha. all jokes. i mean that they set an appointment with us to replace the windows next friday, 7/18/08, sometime in the morning. that means they need one of us to be there to let them in. i can probably be there, because i usually get friday mornings off, but it would be good to know if there is anyone else who could make it, too.

Success!

I figured out how to let everyone post on here. You should have gotten an e-mail with an invitation to add to this blog. If not, write your e-mail in a comment and somebody will add you to the list.  Post away, friends!

Keys in hand

Well, ladies and gentlemen. We have signed the lease!

We paid Phil a $700 deposit and now the real work begins. (Ask one of us* about paying us back your part of the deposit)

If you haven't heard from *Dan, Melanie, John or Janet about the house, then let me write it here:

It's awesome, but needs some work. It's the perfect size, in a great area with friendly neighbors and has lots of space for us to stand and turn circles with our arms outstretched.

On the other hand, the house is in a serious state of disarray right now. 

Here are some of the most pressing needs:

* to be seriously cleaned

* to have all the junk moved out

* a stove, fridge installed

* air conditioning units installed

* broken glass on the doors repaired

* plumbing and electricity repaired and turned on 

Those are all the things that Phil has agreed to do. Now, Phil is a super-nice guy, but he's short on cash and lives about an hour away. So, if we can help him out, let's do it. We might even make some cash doing so.

There's other things that need to be added/done as well. These are less important, but might add to the fun of living there.

* floors refinished upstairs and downstairs

* carpets cleaned

* washer and dryer installed

* some touch up painting

* cabinets in kitchen repaired

* floor in downstairs half-bathroom repaired

* porch roof repaired

* garden planted

Overwhelmed yet?

John and I are the first people whose lease will be up. We have to be out of our apartment by Aug. 1. I think most people have a little extra time. But if we can get as much done as possible this month, that would be awesome. 

Please, please lend a hand and a tool and some expertise if you are in town.

One other thing: I'm not aiming to be a blog-hot. I want everybody to be able to post on this site, not just comments. If anyone knows how to make this blog poster-friendly. Let me know. :)  

Love, 

Janet