Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit that’s near and dear to us at OPC and The Better Half. The work Habitat does is tremendous, and they’ve had a huge impact in our local community and all over the world. It’s only fitting that we support the cause (since we too love home improvement), and that’s the reason for our annual Before & After series. We started this event four years ago as a way to help raise awareness for Habitat, and support their mission to provide decent, safe and affordable places to live.
This year, our Before & After series is going to run a little differently than in the past, so read on to learn the details of how you can participate.
Fred volunteering with Habitat Sandtown
How it Works
If you’re not familiar with the series, here’s the basics: you submit pictures and a story from a home improvement project you worked (no contracted jobs) sometime over the past year. Every week of the summer (June 20 – September 21), a winner is selected and their story is published online. Each winner gets a $50 gift card to either Lowes, Home Depot, or Amazon, and we make a donation of $100 to Habitat for Humanity in their honor! At the end of the Summer, the best submission, as voted on by readers, wins a bonus $150 gift card to one of the three stores above.
This year is different and even more AWESOME because we’ve asked 13 other sites to get involved, each hosting a week, picking that week’s winner, and featuring the Before and After article on their site. We’ve got a great group lined up, and here’s the schedule so far:
| Week of: | Host: |
|---|---|
| June 17 | OPC's The Better Half |
| June 24 | Pretty Handy Girl |
| July 1 | Beneath My Heart |
| July 8 | ten june |
| July 15 | Southern Hospitality |
| July 22 | Charles and Hudson |
| July 29 | House of Hepworths |
| August 5 | the space between |
| August 12 | Remodelaholic |
| August 19 | DIY Showoff |
| August 26 | My Blessed Life |
| September 2 | Home Stories A-2-Z |
| September 9 | Bear Rabbit Bear |
| September 16 | Burlap & Denim |
Ethan volunteering with Habitat Sandtown
Ethan volunteering with Habitat Tuscaloosa
How to Enter
If you want to submit a before and after story, email us your submission at beforeandafter@oneprojectcloser.com. Your entry can be in the email itself or attached as a Word document. Make sure to number pictures in order so it’s easy for us to reconstruct the story, and please attach the pictures as JPEGs even if you also embed them inside the Word document.
Keep in mind that good before and afters include interesting pictures (before, during, and after) and a descriptive story. Here are some great examples from last year.
Alternately, we’re letting people enter via link party to show off their great transformations. Select one of your best makeover projects to share with us below, and don’t be surprised if Jocie pins her favorites to Pinterest.
Please link back to this article | Link directly to your B&A submission | Don’t link to a shop, store or giveaway
Email in your Before & After story
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Tell a Friend
This series is only a success because of the great submissions we receive, and telling your friends and readers about it is the best way to spread the word. Please consider writing an article on your site letting everyone know about the contest. Remember, the more submissions and comments, the more fun!
Grab a Button!
<div align="center"><a href="https://www.oneprojectcloser.com/2012-before-after-series/" title="Supporting Habitat for Humanity"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7228/7352794492_4ac9511b8e_m.jpg" alt="Supporting Habitat for Humanity" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
<div align="center"><a href="https://www.oneprojectcloser.com/2012-before-after-series/" title="Supporting Habitat for Humanity"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7216/7167584773_786b728bf8_m.jpg" alt="Supporting Habitat for Humanity" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
<div align="center"><a href="https://www.oneprojectcloser.com/2012-before-after-series/" title="Supporting Habitat for Humanity"><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7167584787_0d998cfa36_m.jpg" alt="Supporting Habitat for Humanity" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
<div align="center"><a href="https://www.oneprojectcloser.com/2012-before-after-series/" title="Supporting Habitat for Humanity"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7231/7167584807_d32b4957d7_m.jpg" alt="Supporting Habitat for Humanity" style="border:none;" /></a></div>
Follow us on Facebook to get updates on the contest and find out who each week’s winner is!
As Always, thanks for reading!
If you love DIY projects and a good deal, check out our awesome coupons for all your local Home Depot and Lowes needs!
I need to take the time to sit and chronicle our latest renovation. Sometimes, that is more effort than the actual project!
HAHA, i understand that. I’m writing a post for tomorrow and it is taking WAY longer than the actual project! I’m super excited about it though! Hope you can enter, would love to see your renovation!
What an awesome way to support Habitat! Which reminds me, once our daughter’s wedding is over I need to head to the nearest Restore.
Carol, wanna come to Omaha and go with me? 😀
I have a few projects to write up before the summer has passed.
These buttons are so stinkin’ cute, adding one to my sidebar now!! What an AWESOME series. 🙂
Thanks, Karah! Ethan worked really hard on them! We’re excited you’re hosting a week.
What a great way to give back! I love everything about H4H…the restore, volunteering, donating…everything!
Thanks, Paul and Aundrea. Hope you guys can submit a project and maybe be featured!
Is a submitted project considered during every contest week (unless it has already won), or is each week an individual contest and only projects submitted that week are considered for that week’s prize?
Each project is considered throughout the entire series, and readers can submit more than one project. I hope you’ll get in on the action!
What about a project that spanned 2 years time but was just finally finished? I’m not that slow, the project was just that big.
Now I’m really intrigued. Go ahead and enter it in!
Habitat for Humanity is one of my favorite organizations. Thank you for inviting me to link up!
Mary
Thanks for coming by, Mary!!! 🙂
Jocie,
Thank you so much for the invitation. I am excited to be involved with such an awesome project. I linked up my bathroom remodel project and would LOVE to help spread the word by doing a blog post about it next week. Is it okay if I take direct text from your post (so that all info is exact and correct)? Thank you again for letting me know about the project and best of luck to you in your efforts to support Habitat. I’ll send you a link to the published post next week.
Thanks,
Nicole Estes
Hey Nicole,
Thanks so much for spreading the word – that would be awesome!
Try to paraphrase where you can and if you need to quote, just give us credit. 🙂
Thanks again!
-Jocie
I can’t get any of the button codes to work… has anyone else had a problem with them? I’m on blogger & haven’t had this problem before. The buttons are AWESOME by the way. Any suggestions on what I should try?
Hi Nicole, I’m so glad you were able to link in your bathroom! Feel free to copy any of the text you’d like, and thanks for sharing it with your readers. I’ll email you to try and work out the button problems. Thanks!
What a cool idea! Thanks for the invite.
Thanks for coming, Taryn! Again, love that gray door! 🙂
Thank you so much for the invitation!
Thanks for coming Anne!! 🙂
What a fabulous idea! I just love it … and thanks so much for inviting me to enter. Just a quick question: Do I need to link up the same before and after at all the parties? Or could I mix it up? And on the flip side, would it be okay to link up the same before and after at all the parties?
Linda
P.S. Thank you for your very kind and sensitive comment on my post about how sewing curtains brings up memories of my sister. So sorry to hear about the loss of your aunt.
Hi Linda, Its only one link party just lasting all summer with ongoing winners. You can link up as much as you want, but you can only win once. If you can share this link party with your readers, we would love you forever! 🙂 Does that answer your questions??
I thought it was really sweet of you to share about your sister, thanks for putting it out there!
I’ve been following you on FB for awhile now and really enjoy your blog!
Thank you for the opportunity to link up to a great party and cause!
Thanks for linking up Christina!
What an amazing idea! Thank you for inviting me to participate. I’m more than happy to advertise this on my blog. Way to set a great example!
Thanks so much Meg! We really love Habitat and its mission too!
Thanks so much for the invite to link up our backyard spa and bar-b-q area re-do. I just did that and with your permission I would like to do a blog write-up to spread the word in the next couple of days.
It is truly an honor and excitement to me that you seen my little ole blog and wanted me to link-up.
Thanks again for inviting me to be part of an awesome opportunity such as Habitat for Humanity!
Jana, Of course, please do spread the word!!! Thanks, and thanks for linking up. We feel the same way – very privileged to be linked with all the other hard working bloggers!
Thank you so much for the invite! Very cool idea! I am linked up with your button and plan to do a little post on your project this week.
Thanks so much Catherine for linking up and spreading the word!!!! 🙂
So happy to participate in this link up. No matter where one lives, it’s always awesome to support a great cause!
https://www.oneprojectcloser.com/2012-before-after-series/
i featured your party with an article on my blog today. best of luck on this awesome project!
Thanks so much Nicole!
Thanks for inviting me over. What a great idea for a great cause. I linked up a different project than the one you saw. Are we limited to just one? 🙂
Not limited at all! You can only win for one project, but please submit as many as you like! Thanks for linking up. 🙂
Awesome! I put your button in the sidebar of my blog!
Where do entries that were emailed show up?
Hey Lori, Great question. All judges share the email address for email entries. But after you asked, Ethan and I talked about it and it would be great for readers to see the email entries also. Today (or tomorrow, depending on Ethan’s time) we will post one small picture (just like the link up party) to represent the before and after project so readers can see ALL the projects. Don’t worry, email entries are just as important and we love them all!! Thanks, Lori!
Glad I came up with the question! 🙂 That will be cool to see the emailed ones. I know that not everyone has a blog but they have great projects anyway. 🙂 Thanks for letting us see the emailed ones too. I’ll be watching.
Hey Lori, The email submissions are up! Thanks again! 🙂
WOW! Just WOW! There were so many Before and After submissions that truly knocked my socks off. Thank you for sharing your projects with us.
Hi Jocie,
It is my honor to link up to such a worthy cause. I love to go to our local Habitat restore. Thank you so much for hosting this link party. I am new to blogging, so getting such sweet comments from such a great blog is soooo encouraging! Thank you for making my day!
Leanne @ The Burlap Cottage
Not sure how I missed your comment, but thanks so much for linking up and so glad to have you visit!
What a fabulous idea! Heard about it through Ten June. Can’t wait to see the winners!
Erin
Thanks for linking up and visiting, Erin!
this is a great series! Thanks for hosting!
Habitant for Humanity is such a worthwhile cause! Bless you!
Nice, I didn’t know about this! Good on you for working with Habitat…they’re a worthwhile investment of time and money
Hi! I just wanted to contact you and apologize for not responding to your invite to link up… what a great cause! Wish I had seen it in time to participate, we were in the middle of moving at the time and blogging took a back seat for awhile. When you have your 6th annual HFH, please let me know! Thanks again!
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