Ok, if you’re a regular reader to the Greenest Dollar then you know I’m in the process of planning my own shipping container home. And, based on the traffic that my last article on the subject, “Want To Live In A Shipping Container?“, has gotten, I’m guessing that there’s quite a few of you out there who are interested in this as well.
Which is why I’m sending out a shout-out to all of you who are as obsessed with alternative housing as I am. A fellow blogger who’s building his own shipping container home, RenaissanceRonin, needs some help.
Ronin’s blog is all about building and living in a shipping container home. And, it’s wonderful. Why it’s wonderful? Because Ronin writes exactly what’s on his mind. It’s hilarious, opinionated, and full of life. It’s also full of really awesome, hard to find information on shipping container homes.
But, things are getting tight for Ronin and his family. They’re in the middle of building their shipping container home in coastal Mississippi (right where Katrina hit), and he’s not sure he can afford to keep his blog up. He’s not getting any feedback from readers, and the $55 he pays for Internet each month is getting to be expensive.
Ronin just might kill me for putting up this article, but I don’t care. I’m begging, yes begging, all of you who are interested in alternative housing, specifically shipping container homes, to visit Ronin’s site. He has a small Paypal donation button on the right hand side of his page. Even if you can only send him $1, or $5, please help him keep his blog going.
It’s a wealth of information if you’re interested in building one of these homes. Ronin’s gone through all the trials with planning and zoning, and he’s written about it all on his blog. It’s fabulous, and you simply can’t find this great information very many places on the web.
Again, his site is: http://renaissanceronin.wordpress.com/
Please go help him out if you can.
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I just sent them a $25 donation
hope it helps
Tara,
Thank you so, so much!
I’m on it. I think it’s great to help individual people, rather than blindly sending checks to large organizations. I don’t mean to suggest that large charitable organizations are a bad thing, but often people who need our help are easily accessible through more direct means.
Thanks for letting us know about Ronin’s site.
Beth,
Thank you so much for your generosity!
I think all of us pulling together, even if it’s just $5 per person, can make such a difference in someone’s life, financially and spiritually.
And I agree with you; I donate to larger organizations, but it’s so much more personal to help someone on an individual level.
Thank you all for helping him.
Let me tell you little bit about Ronin;
I’ve actually met Ronin and his family. I work in the gaming industry, and that takes me to the city he lives in. After trading emails with him, my husband and I arranged to visit him and his family, in February.
Although he’s a “crotchety old guy :)” he’ll give you the shirt off his back, if you need it. His family has almost nothing (not even a car any longer, they sold theirs to pay his wife’s medical bills so she could stay in treatment), after the hurricanes and the hardships his family endures. He lives in a “pretty difficult” little apartment, in the middle of a lower-income neighborhood. He’s surrounded by HUD and Section 8 housing, and train tracks.
But, he operates a makeshift food bank out of his own kitchen cabinets, to make sure that none of his neighbors go hungry. They collect old clothes to distribute to anyone who needs them, as well. His tiny living room looks like a “swap meet warehouse.” (Sorry, Ronin!)
All this while his wife is dying, and his little boy tries to grow up like a “normal” child. And on top of that, he writes the blog that we’ve all grown to love, to help other families just like his, that are looking for a way out.
We’d arranged to stop by, to visit, and get some plans Ronin had, for a 5 ISBU home they had built a few years before. I didn’t “buy” them, he gave them to me. He wouldn’t let us pay for them. He said that they’d have to be redrawn to reflect my circumstances, but they’d “give me guidelines.”
Even though I’m employed, my family lives paycheck to paycheck, and we appreciated his generosity. Like many other companies, my company is downsizing, and my job may be on the block soon. But as a result of his kindness, our home is about 30% complete as I write this. We’ll be living in it, by the time the kids finish the summer, and school starts later this year.
Ronin is the kind of neighbor you always wanted, He’s kind, and he’s generous, even if he is basically a “cranky old hermit.”
And, I’m sure that he really appreciates our generosity in return, even though I’m sure it hurts him to have to ask for help.
Please know that you’re not throwing money into a pit, helping Ronin means helping to save a family that really deserves it.
Like heather, Ronin is probably going to kill me for telling you all this, but I don’t care.
Tina,
Thank you so much for writing in; your comments about Ronin are amazing. I knew his wife was ill, but I had no idea that they’d sold their car to help pay for her treatment.
I’ve talked with Ronin many times, only through email of course, and he’s always been incredibly friendly and always willing to share information. In spite of all he’s been through, he’s incredibly funny and never fails to crack me up.
They’re truly good people who desperately need help.
Thank you so much for writing in.