Helping hands: Homeownership opens the door to new hobbies and builds community
Buying a home through State College Community Land Trust brought many possibilities into our lives and even fulfilled a few desires we didn’t know we had. Having enough space to raise a family used to be one of our main hurdles — now that barrier is gone. Our three-bedroom home gives our family room to grow.
In the meantime, I finally have a space where I can paint and sew without my curious kitties trying to steal my yarn or eat my paint. James has his own office to work in without being disturbed.
Our new hobbies have been a pleasant surprise. The previous homeowners left behind a few basic woodworking tools, and James is now obsessed with learning about carpentry and is very excited to be outside playing with power tools. I have also been able to use the space in our backyard to begin my journey into gardening. In the past, I only had room for flower boxes on our balcony. Now, I have a rain garden to sculpt and a new 8x4 foot garden bed to play in.
The ability to save for a smoker and a small chest freezer has led us down the merry and delicious path of trying to smoke all the foods we can. Because of these purchases, our grocery budget has been much easier to manage every month despite the rising cost of groceries, which is important because we added a third person to the grocery bill when our brother moved back into town.
Finally, buying our home has helped to solidify our sense of community. We are a block away from several friends and have a network of people we can rely on if we need something. This was proven when a storm recently did major damage to the power grid in State College. While we were without power, we checked in with each other and got together at one of the houses that had a charcoal grill for dinner. Once our power was back on, we reached out to others in our friend group to offer places to charge devices, take hot showers, and eat a decent meal.
We felt we finally had something to offer back to our friends who have been amazing to us over the years, and that is very important to us. I have been working with the State College Community Land Trust Stewardship Committee because I want the homeowners to feel that same sense of community with their SCCLT neighbors.
State College Community Land Trust is an essential nonprofit organization helping to provide affordable, energy-efficient housing with a goal of sustaining the vibrancy and diversity of the State College Borough.