Building A New Habitat

Published 6:00 pm Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Sarah Grice has been telling her daughterthey can paint her bedroom soon.

    They can’t right now, because Grice and her 5-year-old daughterAutumn rent a house in Brookhaven. Things will be different,though, when the day comes and they move into the new home Habitatfor Humanity of Lincoln County is currently building.

Subscribe to our free email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

    “I rent right now, so I am excited about owning,” Grice said.

    Autumn doesn’t quite understand what the difference will be but isstill anticipating the house, Grice said.

    Habitat volunteers were at work Saturday to make that house areality, with about 15 at work on the project. The group was thereand ready to go at 8 a.m.

    “If you have a couple volunteers for every skilled laborer, you canmove pretty quickly,” said Shannon Lambert, who organizes labor andvolunteers for Lincoln County’s Habitat.

    The house is located on Maude Lane, in the southwest corner ofLincoln County. Saturday morning, volunteers worked to finisherecting the house frame.

    Grice pointed to the two bedrooms located near the front of thehouse.

    “One of those will be Autumn’s room,” she said.

    The bulk of the local Habitat houses are completed over manySaturday workdays.

    Some work may be done throughout the week, particularly if thegroup has to bring in a contractor for certain elements of theconstruction, Lambert said. But the majority of the constructiontakes place slowly.

     “It’s mostly weekendwarriors,” Lambert said.

    Work on the house began early in June, after construction of theorganization’s previous project on Grenn Street came to a finish.William Davis, head of the construction, estimated there are around200 man-hours in the Grice house so far.

    Lambert said he doesn’t have an estimate of when the house will befinished. The final project length is dependent on the number ofvolunteers and whether the weather cooperates, he said.

    “A normal house may take two months to go up,” Lambert said. “Ourstake a little longer since we are volunteer based.”

    Davis said the owners need to understand the process.

    “It takes patience on the part of the homeowner,” Davis said.

    Grice has already demonstrated that. She applied for the home inOctober of 2008. But she has enjoyed seeing the house she will livein move from a concrete foundation to actually taking shape.

    “I want to make a scrapbook, from start to finish,” said Grice,flipping through photos on her phone of the building work sofar.

    Grice also volunteered with the house Habitat recently finished onGrenn Street for La’Tasha Washington.

    “I learned a lot about the process then,” Grice said.

    Homeowners of Habitat houses agree to work on their own home, butalso to volunteer with other Habitat projects as well.

    The Lincoln County Habitat has its next house in the planningphase.

    “By the time we start a project we usually have the next houselined up,” Lambert said.

    However, Lambert said the organization has to work on one house ata time.

    “It’s hard to get volunteers for two places at once,” he said.

            Lambert said thoseinterested in volunteering on the build should contact him bycalling 601-754-3217.