Clean Slate 2010 {my team’s home}

If you have been waiting to get an email back from me over the last few days…well I have been far from the computer…I’ll get to email eventually. What started three years ago with one house and maybe 1oo volunteers has grown to include thousands of volunteers and many more homes. Clean Slate began with a few of my dear friends wanting to make a difference in the lives of others. Their vision has exceeded even their wildest dreams.

Clean Slate is a community project of my church. It is similar to Extreme Home Makeover…only without the television cameras & without the huge budgets! The intention is to make over one room of the family’s choice. This year 9 homes were transformed…the designers and project managers can never stop at one room! Each home was given a budget of $2,000 – each home probably ended up in the $15,000-$25,000 range after you count in all the donations of services, products, and time.

My team made over the home of a super sweet family. In the past couple of years their story includes the blending of two families, job loss, and a courageous battle with cancer. They were ready for a clean slate and let our team come in and go crazy for 3 days. Our project manager Matt C. did a phenomenal job and the designer Lori K. seriously needs her own design show.

Here are a few of the before & after pictures…and a few in between. I am also sharing a longer slideshow for the sake of my team and the countless companies and individuals that donated to make this house transformation a reality. It was an awesome weekend….and there were 8 other houses that did the same thing!

Serious sitting water…the team took care of that. Only after a french drain was in the process of being installed did they learn that permanent structural damage was on the verge of happening due to the sitting water. Tom’s Lawn Care donated a lot to make the drainage solution happen….they were awesome!

The designer Lori is my new friend…we have a mutual love for junk…she got a little inspiration from Baby Sister’s pallet bed….”Junk to funk” as Lori says.

People ask me all the time, “What inspires you?” Well this is what inspires me…individuals who selflessly give of themselves for the benefit of others. This sweet gal held her own with the guys digging the trench…with a smile. She won’t get anything substantial on earth for spending a weekend digging a french drain for strangers…totally inspiring. This, to me, is the picture of a stunningly beautiful woman.

This is Matt, our project manager. This picture pretty much sums up Matt over the weekend. He even slept in his car one night. Selfless.

This is Lori, our designer. You will see in a minute the phenomal talent that oozes from her. She likes the word, “Shabby.” I like her.

The family pulling into the driveway…excited volunteers

The first reaction.

When it was all said and done the team spent a few minutes praying for the family. We got so much more out of the weekend than the family did.

I did photograph the weekend, but I also got assigned random jobs…like painting Lori’s vision for a family tree.

Can I just say drawing a tree from scratch with black paint on someone else’s wall is nerve wracking!

It is incredibly wonderful to get to spend a weekend transforming someone’s home, but the greatest joy for me is doing it with my friends. I believe we are most influenced by those we spend the most time with. I have amazing friends. Almost all of my closest friends were working on this house at some point during the weekend. Between the ladies below there are 9 kids…that is a lot of sacrificing and schedule arranging for these ladies to be a part of the weekend. I am so grateful to have friends that are consumed with a love for others and God – friends that challenge me not to be so selfish and self absorbed. I want to be like my friends.

and for those of you itching to see more of the story & the rooms…here is a slideshow…it is worth your time…

The “play” button is the middle of the screen hidden in the tree. The song is by Need to Breath (Something Beautiful)…you might have to wait a minute for it to load. I am not sure why the controls aren’t showing, I’ll try to fix that later…off to watch LOST!!!

I also have to say a big “thank you” to my mom – she watched my four kids for LONG amounts of time all weekend so I could be a part of Clean Slate.

My kids have 2 amazing grandmas. Thanks, Mom.