Four homes going up for Habitat for Humanity

By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 18, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.

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Photo by Ken Papaleo © The Rocky

Javier Rangel applies drywall compound in a closet at a home in Aurora. The project is part of the Habitat for Humanity Home Builders Blitz 2008.

Photo by Ken Papaleo © The Rocky

Abdelhai Bachir Belmehdi installs insulation Monday at his Habitat for Humanity home in Aurora. Habitat requires owners such as Belmehdi to invest "sweat equity" in their new homes.

With dozens of carpenters, drywallers, electricians and plumbers hurrying across plywood-covered muddy fields, a little stretch of road east of Interstate 225 and north of Colfax Avenue in Aurora may be the busiest home-construction site in the Denver area this week.

"This is the only home we're building right now," said Tom Hall, president of Renaissance Homes.

Renaissance typically builds homes priced from $650,000 to about $900,000, but on Saturday workers started a seven-day project to build four starter homes along East 18th Place.

It's part of the Habitat for Humanity Home Builders Blitz 2008.

This is the second time local home builders have volunteered in the nationwide, biennial event. In addition to Renaissance, others participating are Fuller Custom Homes, Sattler Homes, Malibu Homes, Austin Signature Homes and Harvard Communities.

Building the small, energy-efficient homes normally would take three months, said Heather Lafferty, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver.

And the blitz comes as builders are struggling with the worst home-building climate in about 20 years.

"On one hand, they are not quite as busy as usual, so it's easier to find the time to devote to this," Lafferty said. "But on the other hand, they have been hit pretty hard by this downturn, so they have smaller crews to call on. What they all have in common is they stepped up to the plate."

The event kicked off at 7 a.m. Saturday but ended early because of lightning.

"We were rained on but not rained out," said Habitat spokeswoman Robyn Burns.

On Sunday, the workers were back for a 12-hour day. And on Monday, one insulating team arrived at 4 a.m., leading to one of the lighter moments so far.

"It was dark when they got here, so they ended up insulating the house we were building, when they were supposed to be insulating the house next door," Hall said.

"So when I got here at 6, I was surprised to find our house was already insulated. But it's cosmic justice because the guys next door keep borrowing our supplies."

Although all the builders pitch in on each other's homes, they also compete like they were going for the gold.

"There's a lot of guys, a lot of testosterone here," Hall said. "You can bet there's competition."

But for Abdelhai Bachir Belmehdi, Dalila Hocine and their three children, it's not about getting their home built first. It's about moving out of a cramped apartment into their first home. Belmehdi came to the U.S. 18 years ago from Algeria. He drives a taxi.

Habitat for Humanity requires "sweat equity" from low-income people who get the homes at a huge discount to the market rate, in this case about $115,000 for a house that would have a market rate of about $180,000.

And sweating was what the 48-year-old Belmehdi was doing beneath his hard hat Monday morning. He and Hocine need to put in at least 250 hours each at Habitat sites, but they've already probably exceeded that, Lafferty said.

But Belmehdi thinks that is a small price to pay, and he plans to volunteer at other Habitat for Humanity sites after his home is completed.

"Habitat for Humanity is my family," he said.

• August 19, 2008

  5:10 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ColoNative writes:

  I like the work that HFH does. It is good all the way around. However, with all the foreclosuers in Denver, is it really practical? Do we need to build more or would it be more prudent to use what is available at the costs of new construction?

• August 20, 2008

  8:24 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  RobertB writes:

  The Habitat houses are kind of special. The time and material to build them is donated, and "costs of new construction" don't really apply.
  I was there Saturday. The day started out not too bad, but the weather quickly degraded. About mid day, the conditions were extreme, but everybody tried to stick it out. Then it just got impossible. I saw extremely dedicated people give up, not because they wanted to, but because they had no choice. You could see the frustration in their eyes. Everybody kept going until they were absolutely forced to stop, because we could not maintain power for the tools. I am very proud of all that were there.
  My own crew of plumbers were preparing to pull out, when the rain slowed down. We were in the Renaissance house, and the framers had made some unique preparations, which combined with an extra effort from their onsite foreman, allowed us to continue, and complete our task.
  Dan, Reuben, Javencio, you guys rock. You too, John, thanks for the plastic.
  We finished this house today (Wednesday).
  I have plumbed hundreds of houses along the Front Range, but none of them means what this one does. I am immensely proud of our crew, and being a part of this.

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