Please help me save my home.

Hi, this is Jim, and I have been lucky enough to live in a 1925 colonial (with lots of Craftsman-style woodwork in the interior} in a great neighborhood.

How you can help me (Why I am raising the money). Due to the heavy snowfalls the Cleveland area has suffered this year, the slate roof on my house is damaged. As the snow started to slide off the roof, it pulled down dozens of slates. The roofing contractors tell me that most of the 90 year-old slates are crumbling and the nails securing the slates have rusted away, so a total roof replacement is needed. There is some wall and ceiling damage in two bedrooms and the hallway. To add insult to injury, when the temperatures dipped to minus-zero degrees a week ago, a water pipe burst in the floor of the second floor bathroom flooding the living room below. When we opened the ceiling to find the pipe, we found the joists were rotted and broken and the cement bathroom floor will need replacement.

Why I can't pay for the project myself. Medical bills from a month-long hospital stay (ruptured appendix) wiped out all of my savings. There's been two surgeries since to repair incision hernias. Not long after that, I lost my job, and have only been able to find part-time job as a maintenance man at a church earning a third of my former income. So, I haven't had homeowners insurance for almost two years. My financial crisis includes being two months behind on my mortgage.

For 25 years, I taught home repair to thousands of low-to-moderate income homeowners, often at their homes as well as in the classroom. I hope that the good karma of that work will help me to complete this goal. I need to raise a minimum of $7000 as a downpayment towards starting the repairs and get my payments back on schedule. While I can still do a lot of repairs on my own, I physically cannot handle roofing a steep second-story roof or installing 20-foot floor joists any more.

How I can help you. When you make a $30-or more donation to my project, email me a phone number where I can reach you in the evening (I work during the day) and I'll give you 20-30 minutes of home repair advice and coaching. Be sure to send pictures of your projects. I have nearly 50 years of building materials and construction experience. ([email protected], put "Project Fund" on subject line.)

An Update. I wish to thank everyone that has donated to this project, particularly members of the Kenney/Shields/Vokes family and the DeRose family.