Prayer Request - Housing
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| Our current apartment building |
PREVIEW:
We are debating whether to move or not but hoping that the owners of this rental apartment will commit to fixing the mold issue.Background
In 2015, when we moved to Ramat Gan, we were very certain that this apartment was the right one for us. It was a large, three bedroom apartment with a pink bathroom. If you don't recall why the PINK BATHROOM is significant, you can read that post here. After nearly three years, we have had a few bumps along the way, but the apartment actually became an amazing blessing. It is literally a three minute walk to work! This means that the entire family can participate in a lot of ministry activities, even some that go late. After three years, we are now debating whether or not we should move. There are two reasons why we are considering moving.
The FIRST reason we are praying about relocating is because this apartment does not have a parking spot. There is on street parking, but there are a lot more cars in the area than there are spots on the streets. On the one hand, this increases our faith, because we are always PRAYING for a good parking spot. On the other hand, if we want go to a wedding or special event after 3:30pm, we might have to look for a half an hour before we find a spot. Parking spots are typically personal property and registered like any plot of land. We have asked if any of the parking spot owners in the area are willing to rent out their spots. We are praying for a positive answer.
The SECOND and more important reason we are praying about relocating is because the apartment has a MOLD issue. Mold is a common problem in Israel because of the climate, but you have to keep fighting the battle to win the war. When this apartment was originally built, at least thirty years ago, wallpaper was put directly on the cinderblock walls, with only quickset mortar between. Since the quickset mortar is highly porous, once mold gets in, it's hard to get out, especially when its sandwiched between the wallpaper and the wall.
Wallpaper mixed with water leaks creates a recipe for mold propagation. It's not at all uncommon for older apartments like these to have water pipes start leaking. This happened twice in the last three years. The good news is that nearly all of the metal pipes have been replaced. The bad news is that these leaks put a lot of water in the floor (sand under ceramic tiles). This is when the mold problem became apparent.
Now that the walls have dried from the last leak (more than a year ago), it's time to deal with the mold. To fix the mold requires tearing down all of the wallpaper, treating the walls, spackling and painting. As you can imagine, this will be a costly repair and it's up to the owners to decide if they are willing to do this. We also have to decide if we want to live through this for about a week.
Wallpaper mixed with water leaks creates a recipe for mold propagation. It's not at all uncommon for older apartments like these to have water pipes start leaking. This happened twice in the last three years. The good news is that nearly all of the metal pipes have been replaced. The bad news is that these leaks put a lot of water in the floor (sand under ceramic tiles). This is when the mold problem became apparent.
Now that the walls have dried from the last leak (more than a year ago), it's time to deal with the mold. To fix the mold requires tearing down all of the wallpaper, treating the walls, spackling and painting. As you can imagine, this will be a costly repair and it's up to the owners to decide if they are willing to do this. We also have to decide if we want to live through this for about a week.
We would love to stay in this apartment. In order for us to stay, we need the owners to agree to fix the mold problem and we also need a parking solution.
Prayer requests
Please pray that the Lord's will would be done in our housing situation! If it is the Lord's will for us to stay, please pray that the owners would agree to fix the walls, remove the mold and that someone would agree to rent us their parking space.
Praise Report
One prayer request has already been answered! Our mission agreed to raise our salary to combat the rising inflation. Did you know that Israel is the 10th most expensive country in the world? It's a much longer story, but we didn't actually ask for a raise. They simply saw the need and wanted to help! By God's grace our many faithful prayer partners and supporters have strengthened our ministry fund enough, that we can afford a salary increase. THANK YOU! SO MUCH! Lord willing, our support will continue to remain stable.
What About Buying?
I'm sure someone is wondering why we would continue to rent, when buying is cheaper in the long run... Since we are permanently located in Israel, it doesn't actually make a lot of sense to rent, rather than buy an apartment. Of course, we would love to buy a house with a yard that the kids can play in! In Ramat Gan, that dream costs about a million dollars! So, that's not going to happen any time soon.
We would love to purchase an apartment rather than rent, but at the moment we can't afford the 20% down that is generally required in Israel. We did purchase a house in the USA in 2013 and if we sell it in a few years, we can get close to a down payment, but just barely enough to enter the market. There aren't many available apartments in our price range, budget price range. The bubble never burst here like it did in so many places in the USA. Just so that you get the feel for the housing market here in our neighborhood, three bedroom apartments range from $440,000 to $700,000. So, if we were to buy, it couldn't be in this neighborhood. Ten years ago the prices were half that and all indications point to a major increase in the next few years, in this neighborhood specifically. So, although we would love to buy property in the land of Israel. To put our roots down in our historic homeland, we really need a divine solution. So we would appreciate your prayers for these prayer requests for our family.
