meet the brown family
Oxford, Nova Scotia
The Brown Family Story
We are a family of five: two full-time working parents and three awesome kids, ages 10, 13, and 19, who have always been renters until now, and truly never thought we would have the opportunity to buy a home of our own. We were displaced during the pandemic when our long-term rental home was sold. The rising cost of rentals and lack of availability left us with nowhere to go, and we have been precariously housed for the last two years, living with a family member in a two-bedroom mini-home. While we have been grateful for the roof over our heads, it has been very hard to live for so long with all our belongings in storage and sharing sleeping space amongst two bedrooms.
We first learned about the Habitat for Humanity build in Oxford through a Facebook post, and wondered if we might be suitable candidates. We honestly never thought we would have a chance, but decided to explore the option further, and put forth our expression of interest. When we were contacted to say that our family met the criteria to apply, we were excited at the idea, but also knew that we were not the only family in need, so we tried not to get our hopes up too high. As we moved through the application process, we became more excited at the idea of not only home ownership, but of becoming part of the Habitat family. The day we received the call to say that our family had been selected as the family for the Oxford Habitat for Humanity home is a day we’ll never forget; there were tears of joy and relief, and the exclamation from our daughter, “We are all finally going to have our own rooms!”
Owning our own home means stability for our family, a room for every one of our kids, and the opportunity to get back to a normal life routine. Our two youngest children are already planning their first sleepovers in their new rooms, and can’t wait to have friends over to play, and set up their trampoline again in our own backyard. For us, as parents, it means providing a safe, stable place for our kids to call home, and knowing that we will never have to worry again about having to move. It means being able to relax again and just enjoy life with our family. We are all so excited to settle in, decorate, plant a garden, entertain guests again, and make our house a home. We keep saying we feel like we’ve won the lottery; not only do we finally have a home to call our own, but we have become part of the Habitat for Humanity Nova Scotia family. We can’t wait to pay it forward and volunteer our time on future builds to help make other families’ dreams of home ownership come true as well. It truly does take a village, and we our so grateful to become a part of this amazing community!
