The House That Love Built

As you may or may not know, Sharri lost her mom back in April of this year. Many of us knew Norma Gregory for her work in the SDA Church. About a week after Norma passed away, Sharri’s husband, Gabe, was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. The prognosis is not good, there are no more treatment options and hospice has been called in. The inevitable is approaching rather quickly.

Before Gabe became ill he started building a home for himself, Sharri, and Karissa, 14, to live in on her property near Philadelphia, MO. Gabe’s boss, Joe Jones of Jones Construction, rallied a group of volunteers and was able to advance the work quite a bit on the house.

Outside, the roof, siding, windows and doors have all been installed.  

Inside, the walls are all insulated, the wiring has been installed, as is the plumbing. The drywall has been hung in the main floor of the house and is ready for mudding, taping, and sanding.

I worked on the house a bit myself last week while trying to help Sharri and her family with cooking, cleaning, running errands, etc..  I was able to install three circuits to allow for temporary lighting, and power to outlets in the far bedrooms so contractors can plug in their fans, sanders, etc.  Unfortunately, my mudding skills are not nearly at a professional level and I’ve come to an impasse.  I can’t install all the electrical because the outlets and switches will be in the way of mudding, sanding, and painting the drywall.  

Time is of the essense.  The sooner we can get Gabe, Sharri, and Karissa moved into this home, the more it will help Gabe's health, Sharri's peace of mine, and Karissa's security.   

Sharri is carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders right now between trying to manage her mom’s affairs, hold down her job, take care of Gabe, take care of Karissa and make decisions about this house.   We can relieve one of those burdens from her and Gabe.  

While I was there last week, I sat with Gabe and told him what I was working on in the house.  He can barely whisper at this point, but his response grabbed my heart when he squeezed my hand and nodded his head.   It gives him peace to know his family will be taken care of.  

I plan on going back to Sharri’s next week to continue to help support her with just cooking, cleaning, taking out the trash, etc as well as work on the house where I can.  I will continue to post updates

My goal with creating this gofundme is to raise enough money to hire a contractor to finish the mudding, texture the ceiling and prime the walls so we can paint and move forward with getting Sharri and her family moved into this house before Thanksgiving.  The contractor’s estimate is $4,000.    I’m creating an itemized list  of materials and if we go over the $4,000,  we will purchase more materials for the house.  If you have any of the items on the materials list, please let me know and we will work on a way of getting the materials to the house.   



With all of us coming together, it will be the house that love built.