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I am really excited about an eco-urban project I’m working on outside of what I do with LJUrban.

Restoration In More than One Sense
The church I attend (Restoration Life) recently sent out a flyer to the neighborhood of Elmhurst (where the church meets) asking people to nominate their neighbors who were in need of some home maintenance and couldn’t afford, or were unable to do the work themselves. Apparently they got quite a response. A woman named Josephine Herman (Joey) was nominated. I think she is in her 80’s and doesn’t have any family in the state. Her house has a few years of maintenance that have piled up, and she is a great nominee. I think we have 60 volunteers!

What We’re Doing
So I am coordinating the construction effort and will be attempting to orchestrate these volunteers into four major projects to be completed in three days. We are going to be bringing an old garage that looks somewhat like the crooked house at Disneyland back into the world of right angles and then re-siding it. The house itself is going to get a thorough paint job. The back porch that houses the washer and a wash basin is going to be rebuilt to replace the rotten wood and lacking door. Landscaping will cap the project in the front and rear to clear out some dead wood in the beautiful trees and give her a lower maintenance yard with a patio to sit and enjoy.

An 80-Year Old Eco-Urbanist Discovered!
It turns out that Joey is quite versed in sustainability in all its facets. She walks to the co-op to buy her groceries (that is at least 2 miles in each direction). She didn’t want to use any herbicide on her grass that we are going to remove (I assured her that was not in the plan). And she was very happy to hear that we will be installing a drought-tolerant xeriscape, using paint from a project that a friend completed recently and recycling all of the wood taken off of the project.

I love seeing the community rally around projects like this, so it will be fun to work with all the volunteers as we give Joey’s house an eco-urban makeover.

Micah