Monday, August 15, 2011
We want your help in telling the story of how you think the American Dream has changed and what it means to you.
We're excited to inaugurate a new series for our Patch readers in Wheaton and beyond: "Dispatches: The Changing American Dream." Every day, the national media is full of stories about how American families, businesses and neighbors are adjusting to these trying times. So many changes are happening so fast that it's dizzying: national debates about unemployment, foreclosures, debt, religion, government and private enterprise all touch on fundamental ways in which we see ourselves and our communities. At Patch, we want to explore that conversation on a daily basis so we can better understand how our neighbors are adjusting to the challenges and opportunities that surround us. We don't think there's one American Dream, but a multitude of …
Thursday, June 16, 2011
In the third and last of our series on condemned houses, two homeowners are trying to renovate a house destroyed by a fire, amid questions about whether they set it in the first place.
This week, Wheaton Patch is looking behind the doors of houses in the area that have been condemned. Today, we look at the story of a house condemned by fire, and how the loss, compounded by foreclosure, affected the homeowners. For the entire series, click here It was late when Gurja Asmeret went to sleep on a summer evening in 2007. After working her second job and arriving home at midnight, she fell asleep on her couch. Her son Ermias slept nearby. Her husband, Mesfin Kiflu, was at work at his job as a night security guard in Washington, D.C. Suddenly, her chest felt tight. “When I open my eye, I could not see. I could not breathing. The house was dark,” she said recently, recalling that night in July. Their house on Claridge Road was …
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
In our second story on condemned houses, with some expertise and a lot of time, a Glenmont family remakes a house from the bottom up.
This week, Wheaton Patch is looking behind the doors of houses in the area that have been condemned. Today, we see a condemned house transformed into a home, but only after a lot of work. Tomorrow, we look at the story of a house fire that condemned a property on Claridge Road. For the entire series, click here. When Jackie Familia and her husband Rafael Ceballo decided to move into his cousin’s basement in order to start saving money for their own house, they didn’t expect to buy the one across the street. For starters, the place was a mess. The house’s pool was filled with muddy water and debris and didn’t have a fence around it. Neighbors feared that someone would fall and drown in the 10-foot pit. Graffiti was plastered on the side of…
Jackie Familia describes what her house used to look like and what she and her husband have done to make it their own.
Jackie Familia believed her husband could overhaul a condemned house into a home that fit their needs and taste, but she wasn't so sure about living in a construction zone for several years. Read more about Jackie's story here. Part of the Behind the Door series.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
What happens to a house in Montgomery County when it's condemned? It's not so simple, and rarely is the outcome resolved quickly.
When Jackie Familia and her husband moved into her new house, they found a cracked, rusted pipe underneath the family-room floor. It was the main sewage line from the house, so any time someone flushed a toilet, raw sewage would bubble up from underneath the floorboards. Familia was shocked, but not necessarily surprised. She and her husband had bought a house that was previously condemned by Montgomery County and had gone into foreclosure. Condemnation — a word that brings to mind scary haunted house tours and broken windows — can actually mean a variety of things are wrong with a house in Montgomery County. If a fire destroys a key portion of a house, making it structurally unsafe, the fire department works with the Department of Housing…
In the first of our series on condemned houses in the area, an elderly woman wants to stay in her house, regardless of its state.
This week, Wheaton Patch is looking behind the doors of houses in the area that have been condemned. Today, we look at a Kemp Mill resident who wants to stay in her home, regardless of its condition. Tomorrow, we will tell the story of a successful turnaround of a once-unlivable house. For the entire series, click here. Barbara Syska was at home on Fairoak Drive caring for her husband with Alzheimer’s the first time an inspector for the Montgomery County Department of Housing and Community Affairs came to her house, and she wasn’t sure what to do. When she opened the door, she thinks the inspector saw a broken pipe inside. “I started to explain I had a contract to replace it,” she said. “Maybe they did not understand me. I was nervous.” …
JH
4:47 pm on Tuesday, August 16, 2011
NIce idea and good for public education on policy issues. We have lots of problems to address: sky high umemployment, growth in gang violence, a flood of impoverished people from other nations, and way too many dysfunctional families more ›