ENOCH - It was an exhausting year for Raevan Blake, but 2007 is
closing with a rewarding finish.
Raevan, husband Andrew and daughter Gentri are moving into a new
home for the holidays - a home they helped build with their own
hands.
 ADVERTISEMENT
|
|
"You would do it again, but
when you're doing it, it's not the funnest thing in the world,"
Raevan Blake said. For Andrew Blake, who also got a job as
superintendent with a construction company this year, the new house
is the perfect way to celebrate Christmas. He said he'll be
finishing the year with a lot of new skills and valuable knowledge.
"Now, when we build our next home, we'll be doing it all on our
own," he said.
The Blakes are one of 10 families who will be getting new homes
for the holidays, all located near each other in the Midvalley
Estates subdivision.
Through USDA Rural Development's Mutual Self-Help Housing
program, the families participated in the actual construction of the
homes, and will move in with sweat equity worth up to 20 percent of
the value of each home.
The Mutual Self-Help Housing program is designed to make housing
affordable for families whose income does not exceed 80 percent of
the area median income.
"It's kind of like Habitat for Humanity on steroids," said Keith
Kelsch, program director.
Kelsch said participating families work together to build each
other's homes under the supervision of a construction manager, and
all of the homes are completed simultaneously.
The labor acts as a down payment, and reduces the price of the
home by 15 percent to 20 percent. Most of the Midvalley Estates
families will have at least $18,000 to $20,000 in sweat equity to
start with, Kelsch said.
The program subsidizes the interest rate, keeping it low, so that
qualifying families can participate.
Jeremy and Telece Glass, along with their three children, hosted
an open house Thursday in their newly completed home, hosting USDA
and government representatives, along with some of the other
participating families.
Jeremy Glass said he couldn't wait to start his new life as a
homeowner, after all of the work and difficulties of the past year.
"There are a lot of challenges, just getting everyone together
and coordinating," he said.
The young family still has some work left - moving furniture in
and unloading boxes - but is off to a good start with a Christmas
tree in the living room.
"It was good experience," Telece Glass said. "We won't have any
freak-out sessions if anything breaks, because we'll know what to
do."
Mutual Self-Help Housing program projects sometimes run into
rough patches for obvious reasons - the process of building ten
homes with a group of inexperienced and sometimes uncooperative
participants can be difficult. However, that was never a problem
with the Midvalley Estates families, said Mark Woodbury,
construction manager.
"We had a really good group this time," Woodbury said. "They were
really gung-ho about it right from the start."
Five of the homes began construction in January, while the other
five didn't begin until June, with a goal of being finished by
Christmas.
Dave Brown, USDA housing program director, said he couldn't
believe the group worked so quickly.
"When you can do one house a month, practically, it's comparable
to what a regular construction crew would do," he said.
thespectrum.com 
Zoom
Photo
