Loren Wood Builders recently had the opportunity to host a group of Edgewood Junior High School 6th graders as part of the “Tour of Opportunity” as part of the Success School curricula — sponsored by The Greater Bloomington Area Chamber of Commerce.
We were so happy to play a part again in this year’s Habitat for Humanity Women Build. Our crew of women from LWB, Bailey Swan, Priscilla Rocha, Rachel Henry, Jonelle Gross, Natalie Foy, and Sarah Menefee all volunteered over the course of two weeks and helped to build homes for two deserving families, with Natalie and Sarah working as crew leaders on the build.
This year, Joel and I attended the National Cohousing conference in Madison, WI, put on by the Cohousing Association of America along with two current members of the Bloomington Cohousing community to help spread the word about our growing neighborhood and to continue to be active in the cohousing community at large. This was the first in-person conference since the onset of Covid. It was such a pleasure to reconnect with the greater Coho community and to see old friends again.
Our team has been working with The Project School and Habitat for Humanity on a shed build project that started in 2019. After learning more about housing insecurity, sustainability, community development, and design-centered solutions, TPS began partnering with us to design, customize, and build unique auxiliary backyard structures for Habitat for Humanity homes, in order to help families grow and expand individual life capacity.
We were recently contacted by the Middle Way House, to help them with their “Doorway to Dreams” Project. Their Rise and Shine daycare was open, however their entryway was lacking organizational space and the ability to store items.
We are excited to be a part of a new program with the Project School and The Habitat for Humanity to design and build outdoor sheds for Habitat homeowners. Our design team, Alex Minor, Tucker Jaroll, and Ernesto Castaneda visit the students of the Project School every Friday for an hour-long instruction on architecture and the whole world of design. They can be found presenting topics like the design phases, design elements, scale, and measurement, how to interact with a client, how to come up with new architecture concepts and even model making.
Sycamore Land Trust, one of our favorite community partners, reached out to us to help them design, plan, and execute a partial rebuild of their Beanblossom Bottoms Nature Preserve Boardwalk. We are proud to have been involved with such a special organization and grateful for the opportunity to help give back to the community and help maintain and preserve the environment that nurtures us.
We enjoy supporting the local arts in Bloomington and had the pleasure of working on a remodel with Bloomington Center for Creative Glass. The remodel was focused on their “hot shop” where glass will be blown and fused. The project was made more interesting by the fact that the space was previously used for light industrial and several changes had to be planned to support the added power consumption of the various kilns and glass blowing equipment.
Two women from our crew, Sarah Menefee and Kait Garner, took part in the Habitat for Humanity Women Build this past week. It was two days filled with laughter, lots of learning, and an opportunity to help a great cause. They both ended up smashing through their goals and helped two families come closer to their dream of owning a brand new home.
This location started out as a carriage house with 12” thick local limestone walls, dirt floors, and no plumbing or electricity. It later became the flagship location for the Bloomingfoods Co-op before being converted into its current use as Osteria Rago, a fine Italian restaurant in the heart of Bloomington.
