Helen Keller, in a speech given in New York City in the winter of 1921 said, “To keep on trying in spite of disappointment and failure is the only way to keep young and brave. Failures become victories if they make us wise-hearted.”
The road for Close to Home has been one paved with many interesting lessons and we like to think that we’ve remained young and brave, but the grey hairs may speak to something else!
Since our last blog, we had the opportunity to move ASPIRE to the campus of St. John’s The Evangelist Episcopal Church, in Chico, CA. This move happened through the support of Tami Ritter, from the Butte County Board of Supervisors, one of the many groups/agencies working to find housing for the Paradise Survivors.
Chico, a community of 90,000 is now home to 20,000 new residents seeking refuge from neighboring Paradise after the Camp Fire of November 2018. Chico, like many American cities, was dealing with its own issue of homelessness before the Camp Fire, plus a very low vacancy rate. Now Chico has a 20,000 person increase in population and officials and citizens are working on housing solutions for two distinct populations that are intersecting.
It was back in 2011, when the Seattle real estate market was still suffering from the impact of the recession, that as a real estate agent, I had some time on my hands. I listened to news on the radio and read my local newspaper. But instead of tracking the local market, I became captivated …
Continue reading “The Building Aspirations of a Social Entrepreneur”
At Close to Home it’s sure hard to turn off the news. It seems that every time you turn around, there’s another story of someone losing their home or dealing with the unattainable house. Whether because of a forest fire right here in our Pacific NW backyard, or watching the recent news on the multiple …
One of the treasures of the Pacific NW is the collection of Islands known as the San Juans. After a terribly rainy Seattle winter, I was excited about an opportunity to visit San Juan Island this summer. I was ready to unplug, relax, and catch up with the natural world. Well, as things go, I …
Our work at Close to Home brings us in touch with individuals from many different realms of society. Our clients are individuals who hold a vision of building: a tiny house village in their own community, small structures such as “pop-up” stores, or new focal points for gathering spaces. Or we are in communication with a municipality exploring “tiny” as a solution to a number of different challenges facing their community – homelessness or affordable housing, for example.
Have you heard this saying before? It refers to the fact that we often see new fads come from old, as we see in the fashion world all of the time. Kids are wearing Dr. Martens boots again, Converse shoes and Birkenstocks – making this forty-something feel somewhat fashionable once again! But there is another …
It’s another new year – time for a new me – or at least another opportunity to try to be my best right? That feeling is pretty universal at this time of year. But I’m going to argue that for those of us with early January birthdays (mine was on the 11th and inspired this …
Continue reading “Decluttering: A Tiny Journey from Chaos to Order”
The team at Close to Home has years of experience working with buyers and sellers – of tiny and not so tiny – homes. We believe that buying the right home is all about buyers being honest with themselves prior to house hunting. Start by making that crucial list of what you want and need in your tiny home, then figure out the difference between the two. When people start with this step, the path to the right home becomes clear.
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