A safe nest . . .help support our family move into our home

Hello friends, we are Kerri, Mark and Aengus and we are fundraising to help get us into our small stone cottage in the west of Ireland.

We bought our wee derelict cottage two and a half years ago and slowly have been doing all the huge work of bringing this special dwelling back to her former glory. She is a wee labourer’s cottage in County Clare, and oh my heart do we love here.

We have done it ourselves with the help of some wonderful local folk—skilled traditional craftspeople— and have done so under extremely difficult circumstances.

As many of you will know, we experienced a miscarriage in winter, and due to the financial pressure of the build, I had to keep working, and thankfully I was able to do that thanks to the support of my gorgeous friends minding us a a family. But it’s been hard, and was the start of a trail of things that creates much difficulty for this build.

We experienced storm after storm, setting us back time and money, and I (Kerri) have worked an obscene amount as a self employed creative while mark has been on site doing the build.

Then in March I was refused entry to the states due to an administrative error stateside, resulting in the loss of a huge income for me for this American work. Given that almost immediately afterwards we had to leave our rental , followed by a month of illness for our wee one, I’ve simply not managed to make this loss back. Once more, we were blessed to be held by community, and I am learning slowly how to ask for help from those who really want to give it, like I want to give to others.

We are living in our van on-site, working round the clock and have no power so to do any work I am going to a friends home.

But caring for a wee one takes much more work outside of a house and I simply don’t have the capacity to hustle this income at the moment like I normally would. I have been so worried and I am choosing now to put this energy into hope not fear .

The money I am trying to fundraise is the amount lost to the unluckiest St Patrick’s day I ever had (!) being refused entry for my work by ICE— and is an attempt to try to make this final push after two and a half years a little lighter for our small family.

In the last two years I have supported so many fundraisers— and have done various events in the name of them too— and if I really believe in community as I say I do then asking for help is a normal part of what that means.

In the shelter of each other, the people survive…

If in the wildest situation that we raise more than this amount for our outstanding electrician balance , it will go into this wee nest of ours , to help us make a safe home for us three (oh that we all could know this…)

With deepest gratitude,

Brightly, X