Learning from an Apartment in Jerusalem

Our family - kids, parents and grandparents - recently spent the week of Hannukah together in Jerusalem.

We rented an apartment and boy, did I learn alot about house building from that experience.  

The apartment was lovely and in a great location. But it included a number of things that were (ahem) less than ideal for real life:

i) Too many light switches. This might seem impossible. But I assure you, in a large open room there is no need for three switch panels each with 4-6 switches on it. It is not only unnecessary, but downright confusing to have three different switches for the dining area in a single room.


ii) Be very careful with the placement of a switch that turns out all the lights in the place. Can be very annoying when one person is up reading in the salon and another hits the switch from the bedroom. Sudden plunge into total darkness.  
 

iii) Polished stone floors are pretty but cold and very slippery. Imagine 5 kids playing at skating. Constantly.

iv) I'm sure that a glassed in en-suite bathroom seemed like a good idea. But really, the glass needs to be frosted or something. Way too intimate. Enough said.

v) Electric curtains. Why?


vi) Electric blinds. See note above on electric curtains.

Oh, I'm sure there's more. Plus we got a lot of positive inspiration as well. But that's for another post...

And yes, we had a fabulous time in the holy city.

Be a Part of It - Help to Build a Home in Israel

Permits - Stage One

One important if dull part of the house-building process is getting permits from various authorities.

The first level is from within the yishuv itself. We have our own "permit committee" (how bureaucratic that sounds!). They want to make sure that the house fits within the parameters the yishuv has set.

Some communities allow residents to build however they want. I've visited places like those, and they can be a real trip. All kinds of radically different houses. I would imagine that some people live in places like that precisely for the opportunity to build a special "dream house".


Our community is more "community-minded" and has established rules to make sure that there is a degree of uniformity in the houses. There are restrictions on size, on shape and color of roof, on sizes of windows, finishing color, etc. The effect is pleasant - a significant degree of individualism with a sense that all these families live in community together.

So the yishuv's permit committee's job is make sure that the plans are part of that vision.

It turns out that we haven't yet passed. We are missing two things. Our plans forgot to indicate where our water heater will go (i.e. make sure it's not on the roof, says the yishuv). We are also missing a clear indication of something built to conceal our hanging laundry, which is fair enough since I can't imagine the neighbors need to see our wet clothes when they look our their window.

All in all, this is *great* news. These are simple things for the architect to deal with.

Phew.
We'll resubmit to the yishuv permits committee.
Next, the municipality (I think.)

Are you Building Too?

If you are looking for a great architect in Israel, Yitzchak Shapira from Moshav Hazorim near Tiberias has been a pleasure to work with. Totally professional, very friendly. Speaks English. I would highly recommend him.

I'll Sign On That

This morning we had a long meeting, and finally signed a contractor with a building supervisor.

We're hoping that Eli will help to shepherd us through the process, and do some of the critical inspection work and oversight that we don't have the skills to manage ourselves.

It was a pretty regular meeting in which a contract gets signed. Very technical, a tad dull. Clarifying paragraphs, dealing with "what ifs", discussing grades of concrete blocks.
Very blah blah blah.

But when the contract was signed, I found myself suddenly overcome. 
This was so huge. Only a few words would be perfect.

I turned to Eli and to my husband and wished them one of the brightest blessings we Jews have:
Tizku l'mitzvot.

May you merit to do more of what God requires of you. 

Now this is a powerful statement indeed.

First, it asserts that what we are doing now is a mitzvah, as we begin building a Jewish home in the land of Israel. 

Second, it insists that the true reward for doing what God wants of us, is the opportunity and strength and means to do *more* of what God wants of us.

May it be your will.

It Takes a Village

We've heard from several friends who have jumped in with their help - in prayer, with advice, in words of encouragement and by "chipping in" to our "mitzvah" - our project to fulfill the commandment to settle the land of Israel. It means so much to us, and we feel strengthened.

It takes a village to raise a house. Join us!

Windows

We need to make some tough decisions about windows.

I was a major window freak until I looked at the budget. 

On the one hand they bring in the beautiful view of the land of Israel, and the clear breeze of our Galilee hilltop.

On the other hand, they are terrifically expensive. 


As someone told me once, first you build a house to protect yourself from the outside. Then you put in windows to allow the outside in. Then you have to cover the windows to control how the outside comes in. Oy.


Shabbat shalom!

 

A House with a Refridgerator

{Doubt new fridge will be this nice...}

Our caravilla is rented, and our furniture is on loan to us from the Jewish Agency, as this neighborhood is a kind of immigrant absorption center.

We've got Jewish Agency beds, and Jewish Agency sheets. We've got Jewish Agency plastic chairs, and a Jewish Agency plastic table.
 
And we're using a Jewish Agency refrigerator.

Now, I don't want to sound ungrateful because really these things have helped us out a ton.
But we are a family of seven.

And that fridge is about 3/4 of the size of a normal fridge.

Somehow we've managed, even with the large number of guests we like to invite over holidays. (I love to cook)

Now I don't really have a fridge of my dreams, just so long as it's of normal size, has some freezer space and stuff doesn't freeze in the fridge.

Do I sound spoiled? I guess so. But really, I'm starting to dream of a normal sized refrigerator after 3 1/2 years of frozen hummus and borrowing space from friends.
 
In fact, some days I think we are building a house just to build something around a new fridge....

Our Lot - July 2011

This is how our "pile of dirt" looked six months ago...

But hey, before that it was a mountain!
Will there really be a house there one day? Hard to imagine. Stay tuned...

Be a Part of It - Help to Build a Home in Israel via PayPal

Building a Home in Israel

Jews wish many traditional blessings upon newlyweds.

One of these is that the couple should merit to build a "bayit ne'eman b'yisrael". 

We see the expression "bayit ne'eman" three times in the Bible, in 1Samuel 2:35, 1 Samuel 25:28 and 1 Kings 11:38

The blessing is for the couple to establish a lasting (or enduring, or reliable) family (or dynasty or home) within the nation of Israel.

The word "ne'eman" is related of course to the word for "faith" (emunah). 

We were married twelve years ago, with this blessing ringing in our ears. We've merited to begin growing,  raising, and nurturing our own "bayit ne'eman" with our five children. It's a huge responsibility and a great honor to be building the Jewish people.

But just over three years ago, a new dimension to this blessing was opened to us. We moved to Israel.

And as if making aliyah wasn't challenge enough, we decided to move way up north to the Galilee and build ourselves a house here. Most normal immigrants just rent or buy an apartment or a house in a city. But in what somedays seems like a crazy fit of independence, we decided that we wanted to really build the Land of Israel. 

So, where there was once no house, a new house will - with God's help - be built.

Our own bayit ne'eman b'Yisrael.

This blog is our chronicle of the process. One concrete block, one anxiety attack, one prayer at a time.

Welcome.

Floor Plan - Upstairs

Floor Plan - Downstairs

Shabbat Dreaming

It was a shocking beautiful shabbat here in the Galilee. The sun was shining and the view from our hilltop of the surrounding area was crystal clear all the way to the Golan Heights.  Superb day for a stroll.

At about 2:30 I went for a walk with our beautiful 8 year old to the new neighborhood, to stretch our legs and to see how the houses in process are coming along.

We did a walkthrough of our house together in our imagination. Standing on a big pile of dirt, we knocked on our imaginary door and walked into the kitchen, living room, dining area, etc.

Yup - it might be a pile of dirt, but it's our pile of dirt. In Israel. And one day our home will be on it.

It was good fun, particularly when we saw some friends and invited them over for some imaginary coffee.

Oh shucks, no electricity. :)

Hard to imagine that one day we really will have a kitchen there, with water, electricity and a coffee pot...

Where we live now

I'll explain later about the joys of living in a caravilla, but for now, a picture of our current home (actually, these are caravillas in Nitzan, but they all look the same so it hardly matters...)

We've  lived in our Caravilla for over three years.

It is time to live in a real house.

We've Begun!

Finally! After more than three years of living in a mobile home here in the Galilee, we have finally submitted building plans to the authorities. It's going to be a long and difficult path, but we are eager to build a home here in Israel for our family.
But it's not just us. No - our home is your home. We look forward to sharing our stories, our frustrations, our pictures and our decisions as we go.
And one day, many stories, frustrations, pictures and decisions from now, we look forward to hosting you in our new home.
For now, we've got a lot, some walls (between our lot and the neighbors) and some building plans.
And anxiety. And hope.