Hi, I'm Joy, a disabled communications professional. I rely on walking sticks and a rollator to move around inside my home and a mobility scooter to get around. My home is a small, garden-level condo overlooking a lovely pocket park. I'm requesting help to finish in-progress health, safety, and disability access modifications to my home.
This project began last fall. I found a severe mold infestation in my walls that required extensive demolition. I've been living out of suitcases ever since! After the demolition, I hired an aging-in-place specialist to rebuild my home based on my access needs.
My contractor is incredible! However, once the walls were out it was clear that we'd need to repair the wiring and pipes to bring it up to code. It's been a big project, but we're in the final stage. I received some funding from an insurance claim for the mold. I also received funding for disability-related renovations from the Home Modification Loan Program. I was also approved for a loan to cover the rest of the work.
Unfortunately, I lost my job before I could close. Today, I humbly ask for your help to close the $60,000 funding gap to finish my project. Would you like to learn more?
This chapter of my life began in 2012 when I learned I had relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis. I was thirty, had just left grad school due to another medical problem, and served as an AmeriCorps VISTA. It was a rough year. As I came to terms with my diagnosis, I realized I had to rethink my priorities.
My top priority became finding what I needed to manage long-term chronic illness. I focused on finding a career that matched my skills and limitations. The commute was hard on my body. I started looking for housing and found my condo about two and a half miles from my job in 2016. A few years later, I found a better job a few blocks closer to home. As my career grew, my physical condition declined. My needs changed, but I was too overwhelmed to do anything about it except make do until I couldn't make do anymore. I took medical leave from work last fall to assess my health and safety needs - starting with the mold problem. And then promptly caught my first and so far only COVID-19 infection.
Thank you for sticking with me long enough to read this far. The last few months have been some of the hardest of my life. I've been effectively homeless since deconstruction began on my home last fall. During the past few months I:
- Burned through my insurance payout for the mold, the windfall from my liability claim against the driver who ran over me with his SUV, and other saving paying to put my belongings in storage, demolition, mold remediation, and short term AirBnB rentals while I was sick from COVID
- Spent a few months in my gutted out home where the only running water was in the bathtub to save money while I searched for the right contractor and funding for my home renovation
- Moved to at a month-to-month rental in a furnished basement room that cost more than 2x my mortgage + Condo association fee where my room was a full flight of stairs down from the main floor and kitchen and two flights down from the laundry,
- Lost my job which resulted in the rejection of my application for a home equity line of credit,
- Moved back to my mostly finished home to save money during the final phase of the project only to wake up the next morning to a carbon monoxide alarm from exhaust fumes blowing in my bedroom window,
- Been targeted by someone trying to take advantage of the monoxide alarm by using scare tactics to drive a hard sell
- Spent a bit more than a day in the ER to have concerning symptoms assessed for possible Carbon Monoxide Poisoning (It was an MS exacerbation kicked off by stress, thank goodness.)
- Been channeling my inner Dory, a lot, to keep swimming.
Your donations will help cover:
- My final payments to my aging in place specialist to help finish this project,
- High interest debt from commercial loans and credit card purchases to keep this project moving forward
- Fixing the newly discovered problems causing the carbon monoxide buildup in my bedroom and any other challenges that may arise
- Help supplement my cost of living while I work on moving home, stabilizing my life, and taking the next step in my career.
While donations provide the most versatile support, I will also share my wish lists and a link for people who want to volunteer services. I'll add links to my resume, portfolio, and professional profile. So stay tuned for information about getting in touch to discuss potential freelance or consulting work. Taking the next step in my career feels like adding one more plate to an already packed stage full of spinning dishes and a few empty poles. Please don't hesitate to contact me with questions if you think I may be the right fit for big projects or permanent positions, either.
$60,000 may seem like a big goal for a personal goal. But this is the final stage of the project. My quality of life is leveling up, fast. I am hopeful this may make it easier to participate in my life outside my home again. Hopefully, I can be active in my community. Maybe even a social life. ;)
I'll be able to cook for myself again - without stopping to rest so I don't fall while I chop vegetables. My shower is fully accessible and big enough for me, a wheelchair, and an attendant should I need that level of home Healthcare someday. And it's gorgeous. Pictures soon, I promise.
I hope, if you have read this far, you feel moved to offer support. Any support, of any amount, even sharing my story, brings me closer to home. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and enough of your attention to reach the bottom of this letter.
With deep gratitude,
Joy Mosenfelder