This article was written by Marzia Bellesi, Hands on Housing Program Specialist. 

It has been a busy summer at Hands On Housing. I can look back and think of several Austin homeowners in need that we were able to help and were incredibly thankful. It’s a great thing to see them so happy and trying to show their appreciation with little things, like Maria bringing freshly made cookies to the office, or Sharon calling us all individually to say thank you.

With the extremely high temperatures of the past few months it is no surprise some of the most time sensitive projects involved replacing or repairing HVAC systems and homeowners who had no air conditioning at all in the middle of the Texas summer.

Antonia Farry is one of them, who found herself with a broken down AC system right after having her knee replacement surgery back in June.

Antonia is a very active and talkative senior who loves to tell stories about her family and life. She is the surviving spouse of a member of the Armed Forces, lived in the Philippines on an army base for many years and traveled all over the world with her husband. It was heartbreaking to see her not being able to move around normally or drive due to her chronic arthritis slowing down the surgery healing process, and being stuck at home with no AC definitely didn’t help keep up her spirits. We were able to resolve the cooling issue, address post-surgery accessibility, electrical safety and several other things, and the look on her face when she found out the scope of work for her project was priceless.

So here we are approaching the fall, our bi-annual volunteer house painting event right around the corner, several repair projects in the pipeline, onward and upwards to more happy homeowners.