Wall raising a milestone for Habitat

A CREW OF volunteers worked Saturday to frame and raise the walls of Habitat for Humanity Ozaukee’s newest home at 1028 Portview Dr. in Port Washington. This is the 13th house Habitat has built in Ozaukee County, and the 10th in Port Washington. The other three are in Grafton. Photo by Sam Arendt
There was an old-fashioned barn raising of sorts held Saturday as Habitat for Humanity Ozaukee raised the walls of its 13th house being built in Port Washington.
About 35 people gathered at the corner of Portview Drive and South Spring Street to help raise the walls of the 1,100-square-foot, ranch-style house, Habitat Executive Director Diana Eggold said.
“That’s a good number of people,” Eggold said, noting almost all the walls of the new home were installed Saturday. “Visually, this is a big milestone. Bam, suddenly the walls are up and you can see it’s a house.”
But, she said, the bigger milestone will occur in the coming weeks as the trusses and then the roof are put up, then the doors and windows installed.
“We’re counting the days until the snow comes,” Eggold said. “We want to get this house sealed up so we can work there all winter.”
The goal, she said, is to have the house sealed up by the end of December.
The house is a little behind schedule and over budget, in large part because of soil issues discovered when crews began excavating the site, Eggold said.
Because of that, the foundation work was more costly than expected, so Habitat is hoping to raise an additional $35,000 for the project, she said.
The group has a number of large fundraisers coming up in the next month or so — including the Nov. 9 Fare and Flair event at the Ozaukee Nonprofit Center, the Dine to Donate event at Inventors Brewpub on Nov. 18 and the annual Thankful-giving campaign — and is hoping to reach that goal with those events, Eggold said.
“Then, hopefully, we can start raising funds for our next house and we can start on that project right after this house is completed,” she said.
Habitat has land in Port Washington for its next house, but will have to start looking for land after that, she said.
Construction is being overseen by Andy Normile, who has taken over for former construction manager Bob Meier. Meier is still working on the project, Eggold said, but is no longer heading up the build.
Even as construction of the house takes off, Habitat is continuing to look for a family to buy the house. Habitat offers no-interest mortgages to families, who are expected to provide 250 hours of so-called sweat equity in return.
That sweat equity often includes working on the house as well as helping with fundraising, Eggold said, adding that volunteers working on the build may have their hours contribute to that sweat equity.
Eggold said that Habitat’s first round of applications for the house did not yield a successful candidate, someone who the organization believes could handle the mortgage.
Families need to have a gross income of $4,000 to $6,000 a month to handle a mortgage and escrow payment of about $1,200 a month, she said.
“We want to make sure the owners succeed,” she said. “And with the economy the way it is, we’re being very careful.”
This is the 13th house Habitat has built since its first home on North Park Street in Port Washington was constructed in 2003.
Three of the houses it has built are in Grafton and the rest of the homes are in Port.
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Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.
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