Meet the family

 

Last night we met Yvonnne and her daughters Mandy and Stephanie. What a lovely family! Yvonne is a bank teller, and her daughters are in high school and middle school. They came to the house with Frito Pie for dinner and told us their stories. To qualify for the habitat house their family income had to be lower than 40% of the median in the county. Since I know bank tellers have the hardest jobs for the least pay, I'm not surprised she made the cut.

By the time the house is finished Yvonne will have 500 sweat equity hours, including her dinners, working on the house on the weekends with her daughters and her daughters grades in school. It's a good plan.

This particular 1100 square foot house will cost $96,000 and have a value 2 times that because of the donated materials and labor. Yvonne will have a 30 year HuD loan and earn out the equity over 15 years. She also has to make a down payment to bring the loan to $90,000.

The family leaves two miles from here in a trailer she rents from her brother. This house will be their home in just a few months. She said she learned that she was accepted on her birthday January a year ago, and over the last months has gotten over her shyness in talking to groups. She's also starting to pay it forward, doing things for others that might not have occurred to her before she saw so many people giving without asking to her and her girls.

The night with the family has been the best event of the build.