This challenge was started by @conradt, and I was nominated by @practicalthought. The purpose of this challenge was to spread around some positivity here on Steemit, and what a great idea!

In today's post, I want to focus on how much of a blessing it is to have my house, and I will tell you the story about how we got here.

source

In 2011, our family was living in a set of duplexes. The duplexes were nice, and there was plenty of room for our family. I had 2 kids at the time with one on the way. There were some problems, though. The monthly rent was pretty high, we could barely pay the bills on one income. The landlord lived in one of the duplexes too, and he was kind of obnoxious, being a drunk and all. Once he built a fire too close to a big pine tree, and the entire tree went up in flames. The backyard was like one big commune, and the completely unsupervised neighborhood kids would peel the paint off of our picnic table despite my husband talking to them several times. They also destroyed a bunch of saplings that were planted. The people in the duplex next to us had loud parties, and they were even raided once. The couple that shared our duplex with us was a middle aged man and his teenage girlfriend, and we were always subjected to listening to them getting intimate with each other. So needless to say, there were definitely some drawbacks!

Someone from church approached us, and told us he was on the board for Habitat For Humanity. He suggested we apply, so we did! Shortly afterwards, we were interviewed by a couple of HFH members. Out of the 7 people who applied, we were chosen to be the recipients!!

Habitat For Humanity is a non-profit christian organization, that provides brand new homes to eligible families. In our city, they build one house every year. A common misconception is that Habitat for Humanity provides handouts, but they don't. We needed to put "sweat equity" into the home, meaning we had to spend a certain number of hours helping to build it. It is also built with volunteer labor, and many of the materials needed to construct it are donated or discounted. After the house was complete, we bought it at cost with a no interest loan. Pretty great deal, right?

Unfortunately, the pictures I once had of the building process are lost, but it was an awesome experience planning and building our own home. With the number of children at the time, we were only approved to have 3 bedrooms, but the home has a full basement with egress windows for 2 additional bedrooms, and the plumbing to build a second bathroom. Some day we would like to finish the basement, and give the kids more space.

I did find this newspaper article about our housewarming party. :) Sorry for the blur, I couldn't get a clear shot of it.

There are many memories attached to this house, some good, some bad. The birth of two children, a divorce, a remarriage, Christmas, birthdays. During our divorce, I almost lost our home. While I was living in a shelter, it became a den for squatters. Meth and heroin junkies. Neither of us were living there, and it was virtually destroyed. Holes in the walls, trash everywhere. I had the choice to either keep it after kicking out the squatters, or start fresh, but I'm so glad I didn't let it go... Habitat helped again in repairing it and cleaning it up.

Here is a picture of what our house looks like now.

A few years ago, we fenced in the side yard so I wouldn't have to chase toddlers so much when we were outside.

Here's a picture of Jared building the fence.

And here's a picture of the kids playing in the yard a few weeks ago.

All in all, we are very fortunate!

Today I choose @ladyrebecca, @enginewitty, and @arrliinn. Hope it's okay!

Here are the rules:

• Write a post about something you have to be postive about today - this could be anything from being thankful for your current situation, someone being nice to you, being thankful for your friends and family, or even being thankful for the oppurtunity you have been given here on Steemit - just keep it positive :)
• Do this for 7 days in a row if you get nominated
• Mention three people who should do this on each day.
• Tag it with #7daypositivitychallenge and include these rules at the bottom of your post
• Include a picture of something positive (related to your story if possible).

Thanks for reading!

Love, snowpea ❤