Alicia & Ken Build a House
Donation protected
We are Ken and Alicia (and the baby monster dog Pinky). For the last two years we have been on a mission to create a home in Gerlach Nevada. We consider ourselves fortunate to have found a property in Gerlach that we were able to purchase and even more fortunate to have been gifted a house. However, that is where our fortune ends. We desperately need help to get our house put back together and to make it livable. While we've enjoyed the adventure of living in an RV for two years, the Gerlach winters are too harsh to do it again.
In September 2022 we were up against the weather to get the "gifted" house moved to our property before it began snowing in Tahoe; once the snow started there would be no way to move it till the next year. The previous owner told us that we could have the house so long as it was moved by the spring, otherwise it would be demolished.
With the help of a friend (and credit cards) we rushed to pull together $20,000 to take the house apart and move it to Gerlach but didn't have enough to then have the house installed. The house has precariously been sitting on our property ever since. We find ourselves again up against the weather to get the house set, leveled and "married" in order to reduce any further damage from rain and snow. Our goal is to be living in the house before the end of the year.
When we started this journey we were working with two incomes; Ken unfortunately was laid off in January and despite trying has not been able to land another job in tech. Alicia has already leveraged her retirement plans to get to the point we are at now. We've been able to start the joining process but we are shy of our goal to finish. We've extended ourselves as far as we can and exhausted all of our financial options on the home stretch.
We are fundraising to:
- Marry the home
- Install the supportive skirting
- Trench and connect the sewer.
- Connect electricity and gas utilities
- Replace windows to get them to code
- Replace flooring
- Repair water damage
- Obtain appliances: fridge, washer, dryer
We are excited to add another home to Gerlach where housing is always scarce. Upon completion of this project we look forward to being able to welcome friends and members of our community to our home and our property as they pass through on their own adventures.
Organizer
Alicia Vouk
Organizer
Gerlach, NV