Published: November 29, 2009 12:07 am      

A house, a hope …

Catlin folks pitch in to help homeownerCatlin folks pitch in to help homeowner

CATLIN — They say it takes a village to raise a child. But, in Catlin, cooperating residents have decided it takes a village to raze — and rebuild — a friend’s deteriorating home.

Friends and church members had watched as Linda Grinestaff dealt with blow after blow in the last two years — fighting to fix a home she had just purchased, unaware of existing problems, and trying to support three of her daughters who had been diagnosed with forms of cancer.

When an attempt to sue for damages as a result of the home purchase ground to a halt, friends and members of the Catlin United Methodist Church (where she worshipped) decided they wanted to do what others hadn’t — help Grinestaff have a home.

“We had talked about this, some of the people in our church,” said Bill Ingram, a Catlin resident and one of the coordinators for the effort. “We weren’t just going to walk away from it.”

Ingram, a self-described optimist, saw first-hand the damage to the home Grinestaff purchased: The sill plate was eaten up by termites and the floor joists had settled onto the blocks of the foundation. Termite trails were visible all over the place and eventually were found in the walls all the way up to the attic.

“She bought her dream house and now the dream house was a nightmare house,” he said.

Ingram talked to former Catlin Mayor Fred Rinehart; a committee made up of a number of people interested in helping Grinestaff was formed. At the first meeting, members put together a list of contractors with services that could be needed. Then they contacted the people, Ingram said — many of whom stepped up to help out.

Rinehart said what’s happened to Grinestaff is a tragic, incredible story.

For him, the effort being put together harkens to the past, when citizens would help each other in times of need.

“Here’s someone who is down and out and if the community doesn’t take care of her, we’re real remiss and not worth much,” he said, standing outside the home.

“This is people taking care of people. And that’s what it should be all about.”

Leslie Almy, another of Grinestaff’s daughters, is part of the effort to help her mother.

“We’re not trying to build some extravagant new house for my mom,” she said. “The floor plan set up is the exact same house. They want to take this house down, but use the foundation.

“Basically we just want to put back the house that my mom bought in good faith.”

Almy said a lot of people have already offered to volunteer and help. Smoot Construction is overseeing the project and coordinating it. A plumber has offered to do work for free and others have offered to donate things at cost so they don’t make profit off the materials.

The biggest step for the effort is, of course, financial support. Ingram said money has already been received and the citizens are trying to bring in donations to reach the estimated $60,000 needed to complete the project, which would be slated for next spring.

Almy said the citizens are going to present the idea to the members of two village churches, Catlin Church of Christ and Catlin United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church is handling all donations, funneling the money specifically to the Grinestaff home project.

Almy said her mom was surprised by the effort.

“People have just been … I knew there were nice people, but I didn’t know there were this many nice people,” said Grinestaff, who is in Houston with a daughter receiving treatment.

“The fact that this is going on gives me such tremendous hope,” she added. “I feel like if something like this can happen, this cancer can go away.”