Terry Smith, center, helps volunteers raise the first wall of her house Saturday, Feb. 11, 2012 at 216 N. Comfort Lane in Lawrence.

Terry Smith, right, smiles as she and daughter Erica watch volunteers put up the frame of their Habitat for Humanity home in North Lawrence on Saturday in a nail-driving ceremony, which signifies the start of construction for the home. Terry and her husband, Eric, had applied for a Habitat for Humanity home after their daughter, Erica, was in a 2008 rollover accident that left her paralyzed from the mid-chest down. They discovered their application was approved in November 2008. Two months later, Eric died of stage 4 lung cancer.

It will be a place to share meals, spend holidays and track the growth of her grandson, Rocco, without fear of forfeiting a security deposit. Terry Smith and her three adult children are the recipients of the newest Habitat for Humanity house.

“Now that it’s going to be a house that I own, I won’t have to worry. … I’m going to move soon, so I’m going to need to paint that and wash it all off,'” Smith said. “We’ll be able to make memories, and … the kids will be able to come and have Sunday dinners and holidays.”

On Saturday, about 30 people gathered in North Lawrence for a nail-driving ceremony at the structure that will become Smith’s home. It was cold outside, with temperatures hovering about 10 degrees, and a biting wind that whipped hair, numbed fingers and froze faces. About 9 a.m., Tracie Howell, executive director for Habitat for Humanity, launched the event by first acknowledging how cold it was.

“I don’t think we’ve all mentioned it enough, but thank you for gathering on the absolute coldest day of the year,” Howell said.

Howell was impressed by the number of people who trudged outside at the early hour despite unpleasant weather conditions to witness the nail drive.

“The nail drive is the beginning of everything we do,” Howell said.

Sort of like a ribbon cutting, this nail drive signifies the start of real construction for the home that was slated for development back in November of 2008.

Smith and her husband, Eric, had applied for a Habitat for Humanity home shortly after their daughter, Erica, was in a rollover accident. On Aug. 5, 2008, Erica was a passenger in a car whose driver swerved to avoid another vehicle, abruptly ramming into a drainage culvert and rolling over multiple times. Erica was ejected from the vehicle. The violent discharge broke Erica’s back and left her paralyzed from the mid-chest down. She was 17 at the time and just about to start her senior year at Free State High School. She was flown to Kansas University Hospital, where she remained several months for recovery and rehabilitation.

The Smiths knew that when Erica came home, their house would not be a sufficient place for her to live: It lacked any sort of wheelchair accommodations. So Terry and Eric applied for a Habitat for Humanity home. They learned that they had been approved in November. But two months later, Eric died of stage 4 lung cancer, of which he had been diagnosed with in 2006.

Brandishing a hammer, Terry said a few words before she drove a nail into a thick plank.

“We just want to say thank you, and we actually want to say thank you for my husband, Eric. He really wanted us to have a home and because of Habitat we are,” she said.

While waiting for their new home, Terry and Erica will live in a duplex that is not ADA accessible. They have had to remove the door to replace it with a shower curtain so that Erica can enter and exit unhindered.

Construction for the Smiths’ new home is expected to be finished by June. The Habitat for Humanity home is a project for Women Build, a group that aims for 80 percent of labor to be completed by women. The women have also raised the money that will be used to build the home.

“I have a great group of women who have … worked really hard raising the funds for this house,” said Kate Blocker, chairwoman of Women Build. “(Fundraising) is done, and (the house) will be built in no time flat.”