HABITAT HOME #25
Journal of a House Build

It’s cold and rainy…a day for both winter coats and umbrellas.  But the crowd was there, on Cedar Hollow Road, to break ground for the 25th Habitat for Humanity house in this community.  It’s a Silver Anniversary House and that’s a very big deal for a small, rural affiliate like Orange County Habitat for Humanity.

Spirits were a bit soggy, and then, “This is the day that the Lord has made.”  As the service went on, smiles came out and a sense of great excitement.  The beginning of a big project, the beginning of a new home for a family.

April, 2010 - A series of sunny, beautiful days…cool in the mornings, warming to downright hot by mid-afternoon.  Perfect days for working on the foundation and the subfloor.  Perfect days for building and raising the walls.  Thanks to many volunteers including the new partner

family and her friends, the work was done amid smiles and laughter.  New friends made, and old friendships renewed.  Materials delivered, donations offered. 

Now come offers from a plumber, an electrician, and a roofer to donate their time. Oops…can’t count on all sunny days…so we take the spring showers in stride and work around the rainy days.  Once the plywood is on the roof, we all breathe a sigh of relief.  No one wants too much rain till that roof gets covered up!

We are thankful for all our volunteers and especially for Bill Nowers and Bud Dominick who lead the charge and are at the Habitat house almost every day.  They order materials, and coordinate subs, teach volunteers the skills they need, and they do it with good humor and patience.  There are not enough thank you words to convey how much Bill and Bud mean to Habitat for Humanity.

May, 2010 - Wow!  Progress on the house!  The siding is going up on the outside and all the interior walls are up.  We can see where each room will be, and our newest partner family is getting really excited.  She can see where the furniture might go and how the house might look. And we received a big donation from a family that wanted to give all the fixtures for an accessible bathroom…what a blessing!  Thanks Joe & Phyllis!

June, 2010 - The plumber is done with rough-ins (thanks, Paul!), as is the electrical, and the heating/air conditioning.  Shingles are nailed down (thanks Richard).  It looks like a real house now!

Habitat Sponsors Big Band Dinner Dance
            Habitat’s annual dinner dance fund raiser gathered 69 people for dinner and dancing at the Lake of the Woods clubhouse on March 27.  In addition to the usual food and great music from the Big Band of Fredericksburg, the group was treated to a surprise presentation to longtime organizer and promoter of Habitat, John Henry. 

State Senator Edd Houck from the 17th District read the resolution passed by the Virginia State Senate acclaiming the long history, dedication, and fund-raising accomplishments of Mr. Henry. 
            John was pretty stunned, but was not made speechless!  He took the opportunity to describe the happiness generated for Habitat homeowners and to ask the crowd to continue to work for Habitat and its goal of creating affordable housing for low income families. 

Our New President
            Hi everyone…my name is Cindy Reid, and as of March, 2010, I’m the new President for Orange County Habitat for Humanity.  I feel so lucky to have started this volunteer job with a new house just starting.  That’s the most exciting time to be a part of Habitat!  I look forward to a house dedication in the near future, and then we’ll start the work of raising funds for the next house and the next family.

Be a part of this wonderful organization. Please contact us with your talents and skills.  If you can swing a hammer, then great.  If you don’t want to swing a hammer, there are many, many other jobs that go into the process of helping a partner family become a successful homeowner. Call us and let’s talk. You don’t

The Worth of a Volunteer

            Much effort goes into trying to determine the monetary value of a volunteer hour.  Currently it runs about $20.85.  But can a volunteer hour be reduced to a monetary value?  As someone famous once said, “Not everything that counts can be counted.”
            How do you count the selfless giving of someone who gives up their day off from work to work for someone else?  Our country has a grand history of helping others, of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.  We have seen it time and time again, and we still see it today.  Ordinary people working to help others, working to improve their communities.
            When I think about Habitat for Humanity, I certainly think of all the wonderful volunteers that have made this housing ministry a mission in their lives.  At Orange County Habitat for Humanity, we are all volunteers.  There are volunteers who search for affordable land, volunteers who do the selection of qualified families, who mentor, who work with families on their sweat equity.  There are volunteers who spend countless hours doing fundraising, and putting articles in the paper or producing a newsletter. 

Anything OCHFH does, it’s done by a volunteer!
            There are also volunteers who wield hammers and help us with the physical work of building a house.  Many times we need willing volunteers, not necessarily skilled workers.  Sometimes we need very skilled workers, like masons, plumbers, electricians, roofers, heating people.  There are times we need many bodies and times we need very few bodies.
            And sometimes that can be frustrating for someone who wants to volunteer…it’s all part of the house building process.  When the skilled workers are doing their jobs, there is very little for us regular folk to do.  Don’t be discouraged! 
            Contact us and tell us you want to volunteer.  It’s not a promise that you’ll come out every time we call you.  But it is our promise to let you know when there is a volunteer house building job that needs you.

Partnerships Vital to Habitat

            Habitat for Humanity depends on partnerships at all levels to accomplish their goal of building homes for families in need.  At the national level, there are companies who help Habitat for Humanity affiliates all over the country get the building materials they need.
            Whirlpool provides a range and refrigerator for every Habitat home, and they sell us a washer & dryer at their cost. Yale provides interior and exterior locks and deadbolts for our latest house and Square D provided the panel box and breakers.  These are valuable partnerships that help us keep the cost of our Habitat for Humanity homes affordable.
            Here at Orange Co. Habitat for Humanity, we have a number of local partnerships that are critical to our mission.  On the home we our building now, we have partnered with 84 Lumber and they are providing building materials to us at cost.  This results in a huge savings!  We have partnered with Glen Tolbert to build the foundation, and with Paul Breeden to do the plumbing.
            We partner with many, many individuals who give a day or many days to help us build. We particularly depend on our partners, Bill Nowers and Bud Dominick who are overseeing the building of this home.  And we partner with individuals who help us raise money for the things we have to purchase. 
            Churches are another valuable partner.  They pray for our mission and they hold fund-raisers and they include us in their mission budgets.   Habitat for Humanity is a Christian ministry and our church partnerships mean a great deal.
            Habitat for Humanity also believes in building a house in partnership with a family in need of a house.  Habitat does not build a house “for” someone; they build it “with” someone.  We work side by side doing the labor needed to build a house.  We call this sweat equity for the partner family, but it is all part of tying us together into one community.  And that is really our goal…to build community.
            If you or your church or your civic organization wants to become a partner in this ministry of Habitat for Humanity, please email us at ochfh@ochfh.org.

Many hands make light work, and community is a goal we can all work towards.