• Email
• Post a comment
• iPod-friendly
• Print

For seven years, Edye Cable and her three children from ages 12 to 17 have been surrounded by the white walls of their two-bedroom apartment.

In the cramped space, Cable, a single Lawrence mother, only dreamed of owning a house for her family.

By applying to Habitat for Humanity more than a year ago, the Cables are about two weeks away from moving into a new home in the Comfort Neighborhood, a community of several Habitat homes in North Lawrence.

On Saturday, about 40 women volunteers from the Habitat for Humanity Women Build program helped Cable make a second dream a reality: adding color and spice to her home, as part of National Women Build Week.

“I’ve been in apartments all my adult life, and most apartments you get into are white,” she said. “My first vision of my house when they were asking me, ‘What color is your house going to be?’ I thought white because that’s all I knew.”

But in her heart and in a dream, Cable envisioned a vibrant home, with a color scheme inspired by a bright chili pepper scarf she owns.

“I had a dream, and I was looking through a gray house, and I walked up and looked through the window and saw the colors,” Cable said.

In one day, the volunteers transformed the white walls of the four-bedroom house into a home with bright yellow, red, green and blue walls.

A local artist and acquaintance added a unique feature to the house. The artist used Cable’s description of her scarf and painted a multicolored bathroom door.

“The women have just been great,” Cable said of the volunteers.

The local Women Build has worked with Habitat for Humanity since 1999 to help build homes every other yearfor families in need.

“The purpose is to empower women, to get out there and actually be on a construction site, learn to use power tools, partner with homeowners, people who are in need,” said Tina Spanos, a volunteer on the Women Build steering committee.

Cable’s home was the fifth to be built in Douglas County through the program, which is sponsored by Lowe’s. Lowe’s employees provided technical assistance and funding.

“I think it’s a wonderful program,” Cable said. “Just looking at this block and realizing there is, what, eight houses down there or more, and those are eight families that wouldn’t have had their own home if it wasn’t for Habitat, so for me to be number nine on the block. I’m like, yes, this is exciting; this is a blessing for folks.”