Building blitz puts up Habitat home in 3 days

House is finished ahead of schedule

Even with the sudden reality of having a new home, Melody Adams already has plans.

“This is Avery’s room here,” she said, pointing at an empty, freshly-painted room.

Before this weekend, her son’s future room didn’t exist. The fresh paint and windows and doors were all a dream.

But by Sunday afternoon, the whole house was there, light switches, landscaping and all – the result of the pure hustle and muscle of area contractors.

The “blitz build” project sent construction crews Friday to a concrete foundation at 915 Homewood St., charged with working together to build Adams a home of her own before the weekend ended.

The project was part of a national push to erect 400 Habitat homes nationwide in a week.

More than 100 Lawrence Home Builders Assn. members and Lawrence Habitat for Humanity volunteers showed up, framing the house in hours, setting the plumbing and electrical systems just as fast – all so Adams and her two kids could move out of her mother’s home, ready to start a new life on her own.

Frank Salb power cleans the living room floor one final time at a new Habitat for Humanity home. Salb organized the job site and helped the crew with the final touches Sunday.

“Everybody showed up,” Bobbie Flory, executive director of the home builders association, said. “Everybody brought extra people.”

So many, in fact, that the home was finished ahead of schedule, with the final construction phases ending Saturday night.

Which left Sunday for city inspectors – who scrambled over the weekend to inspect all phases of construction – to do a last walk-through and for Adams to dream about what the home will be like when she gets to move in.

But to move into the new, 1,080 square foot home, Adams must fulfill her 225 “sweat equity” service hours, a Habitat requirement.

Typically, future homeowners earn those hours while building their home. But with the whole house flying up over the weekend, Adams will have to spend time at other home construction sites – possibly at Habitat’s new Comfort Neighborhood in north Lawrence – or at the Habitat store.

“What she’ll do now is complete that balance of hours,” Flory said.

But Sunday, walking through her new home, Adams could already imagine what it will be like.

She’s excited for her kids, she said, who have been sharing a single queen-size bed at their grandmother’s house in McLouth.

“It’s a nightmare every night, I swear,” Adams said.

Now Avery, 4, will have his own room down the hall. Autumn, 5, will sleep in the room across the hall from mom, so she’ll be close by in case a real nightmare sends her searching for comfort.

“She has that stronger attachment thing,” Adams said. “She can just hop in bed with me.”

Adams wasn’t quite sure to what degree her kids understood the move or how their mom was able to do it. But looking at her new, complete home, Adams knew whom to thank.

“I’m so grateful,” she said. “If it weren’t for Habitat, I don’t think I could afford this.”