Walls Go Up On Habitat Home

HOME MUST BE FINISHED BY JULY 1

LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Ed Walker of Johnson and Ashley Merrill, manager of Harp’s in Prairie Grove, volunteer on the new Habitat for Humanity home in Prairie Grove. This is Merrill’s first time to work on a Habitat house. Walker has been volunteering for eight years.
LYNN KUTTER ENTERPRISE-LEADER Ed Walker of Johnson and Ashley Merrill, manager of Harp’s in Prairie Grove, volunteer on the new Habitat for Humanity home in Prairie Grove. This is Merrill’s first time to work on a Habitat house. Walker has been volunteering for eight years.

PRAIRIE GROVE -- It is called "Walls Up" day for a reason.

By the end of the day, all interior and exterior studs were in place and plywood sheeting covered the outside of a new Habitat for Humanity home in Prairie Grove. It is the first home outside Fayetteville and Springdale metro areas.

More than 40 volunteers worked throughout the day April 5 in two shifts hammering nails, cutting boards and pushing up walls into place.

Rebecca Ponder, who will live in the home along with her three children, showed up about 7 a.m. that morning and worked until the end of the day alongside other volunteers.

Her emotions were all over the place, she said.

"I'm amazed. I am really excited. I'm nervous, anxious, grateful. I'm very appreciative," Ponder said.

Her new home will have a two-car garage, front porch, three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a living room/kitchen area and a small covered patio. It is located on a corner lot in Battlefield Estates subdivision.

Ponder's favorite space, she said, is the front porch.

"It's so big. I have so many plans," she said, adding that she can picture two Razorback rocking chairs sitting on the porch.

Gary Denzer of Springdale knows how Ponder feels. He has volunteered for the program since 2005 and he and his family are living in their own Habitat home in Springdale.

"As far as our family, it changed our lives tremendously," Denzer said, as he worked on Ponder's house. "It's amazing when you don't have to worry about shelter and a place to live."

This is the 51st house for Habitat for Humanity of Washington County and the second one certified as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) house, according to Derek Hillyer, Habitat's construction manager.

The Prairie Grove home is under time constraints, Hillyer said. A grant being used for some of the costs requires the house to be finished by July 1. Most Habitat homes take about four months. Hillyer said volunteers will have to work four to five days each week to meet the deadline. His goal is to have it ready for occupancy by the middle of June.

Patrick and Susan Moore of Prairie Grove, both habitat volunteers, have been the driving force behind the Prairie Grove project. Susan Moore said they first started with Habitat for Humanity when they lived in Colorado and have been active with the Washington County group.

"There's more of a community feel to this house than the others," Susan Moore said.

The Prairie Grove "Walls Up" day had a lot of first time volunteers, including Ashley Merrill, manager of Harp's store in Prairie Grove.

"This is awesome," she said. "I'm not from here and this gives me the chance to get involved in the community."

Other groups signed up to help with future work days are Optical Lab with Walmart, Inner Fraternity Council from the University of Arkansas, Starbucks, UA Mechanical Engineering Honor Society, Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, Sam Walton School of Business and UA architecture students.

Habitat homes are not free to the new owners but are built at a discounted shared cost through fundraising and charitable contributions, material and skilled trade donations and supervised volunteer labor, said Jason Kindall, executive director. Ponder had to meet certain qualifications to be eligible for a house.

Completed homes are sold to partner families through Habitat's in-house, not for profit mortgage program. Habitat for Humanity carries the loan at no interest. The sale price of the house depends on actual expenses after material and labor donations.

To sign up to work on the Prairie Grove home, go to www.habitatwashingtoncoar.org and click on the volunteer link. Donations to help with construction costs can be made to a designated Prairie Grove Habitat Home account at Arvest Bank.

General News on 04/16/2014