Doorways Safehouse Renovation Project

Late last week, I was asked to help out on an important project.  Doorways, a local organization that helps victims of domestic violence to find shelter and receive counseling, is starting a significant renovation of its safehouse.  The safehouse provides emergency shelter for families who are in immediate danger in their current living situation.  At any one time between 6 and 11 people live in the house.   The house has received some renovations over the past 20 years or so, but it is in need of a new roof, insulation, upgraded outlets, new vanities and other things.

I am excited to join other bloggers around the country, such as those involved in the Alma Project and Room Service Atlanta, to do a project like this with local designers.  It's a great way to give back to the community for a very worthy cause.  As with those projects, designers will be assigned to 1 or 2 rooms in the house to redesign to the extent they want.  I cannot wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Sagatov Associates is doing most of the work at low cost or through donations and volunteerism.  We have also begun the process to recruit designers, decorators, office furniture stores, furniture stores, and other local companies to provide additional assistance.  As of yesterday, we had 4 or 5 designers interested in helping out with the project!  We are still in need of 1 or 2 more designers, as well as financial donations to support the non-cosmetic renovations. Click here to donate (please note "safehouse" in the box for Additional Information).

I'll document the process on my blog so you can follow along.  Here are some slightly outdated pictures from the Doorways website to give you an idea of how dated the house is!  I'll be taking a ton of pictures over the next couple of days so I'll provide more updated "before" pictures soon!

Through the course of this project, we'll be updating the living & dining room, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a playroom, laundry room, and 2 staff offices.  

This is going to be a great way to kick off the new year and warm up a bleak winter.  

Any big volunteering projects on your horizon?  I'll take any tips from those who have done projects like these before.