Meet Elizabeth Willingham and her daughter Zhaneka (19) who has cerebral palsy and requires 24 hour care. They live in Anderson, SC with Elizabeth’s two sons Kiante (15) and Anterious (5). After renting the wood framed home for seven years, Elizabeth was able to purchase it two years ago from Palmetto Liquidation Services, LLC for $4800. Unfortunately, she got what she paid for! The aged mill house has numerous issues. The two most pressing are the roof and electrical wiring.
Elizabeth works twelve hour shifts, 7 pm to 7 am, at Fabrical in Piedmont, SC. Her total income of $2200 from working and disability for Zhaneka doesn’t leave room for the extensive home repairs required, especially in winter when her electric bills range from $600 to $900.
We have completed replacing the roof. Now that it is sound we can begin the work of remodeling the bath & laundry, replacing the wiring, HVAC, and numerous other repairs.
PROJECT DETAILS
With a 70% chance of rain predicted, we began Friday AM removing asbestos shingles and the cedar shakes that were underneath. We prayed that the rain would hold off…and it did. We got a little damp a couple of times but not enough to stop work. Just as we were putting the last row of felt on Saturday it began to rain…another one of God’s “coincidences”.
Many thanks to Concord Baptist Church for their awesome help stripping shingles, knocking chimneys down below the roof line, replacing rotten wood, installing OSB decking, felt and drip edge. This set the stage for the professional roofers from Lee Maxwell Roofing on Monday to install, for free, the 30 year architectural shingles donated by Cannon Supply. The job was complete by 2:00! We also had volunteer help from First Presbyterian-Anderson, Trinity UMC, Zion UMC and Bethlehem UMC – Greenwood.
The next step is remodeling the bathroom and laundry area next Wednesday – Friday. This will be followed by rewiring the home.
Thanks to Zion UMC and Buncombe St. UMC Elizabeth and family now have a newly remodeled bathroom and laundry. The existing bathroom had suffered extensive damage over the years from the roof leaking into the exterior wall. We demolished the old cast iron tub and completely gutted the room including removing the floor, floor joists, walls and ceiling. We also removed the floors and joists of the laundry room which were on the other side of the wall. We then rebuilt, re-plumbed and rewired both rooms.
Many thanks go to Randy Jones and Jimmy Tinsley from Concord Baptist Church for getting a three ton heat pump donated, adding wiring and removing the old unit; Lindley’s Refrigeration, Fountain Inn, SC for donating the unit and G & G Heating and Air for installation. Now Elizabeth doesn’t have to rely on the expensive and dangerous space heaters to heat her home. All Elizabeth could say with a big smile on her face was “Thank you, thank you, thank you”.
Due to the hard work of dozens of volunteers from eight different churches Elizabeth and family have a new roof, remodeled bathroom and laundry room, new heat pump, upgraded wiring, direct wired smoke detectors, refurbished dryer and stove, upgraded plumbing and remodeled kitchen! Our $10,000 investment has resulted in $50,000 in improvements! Of course, we can’t measure the quality of life improvement.
Thanks to all who made this miracle possible. In a recent article in the Anderson Independent Elizabeth is quoted as saying “I’m so thankful, so blessed.”
