Habitat Wake Happenings

Professional builders would rather build than talk, so in that spirit, I’ll keep this short.  Thanks to Savvy Homes, Regency Centers, A.R. Nix Construction, Williams Realty & Building, and the Triangle Builders Guild for showing up with their subcontractors and suppliers last week on our sites in Augusta Crossings in Raleigh and leaving the week with four completed and beautiful homes.  Several other companies also  participated by supporting all 4 homes:  Stock Building Supply, PlyGem, and Baker Roofing.

At a recent house dedication in Augusta Crossings, Pastor J. Vincent Terry of SE Raleigh’s Mount Peace Baptist Church shared with us a quote that really spoke volumes to me:

“We all drink from wells that we did not dig and we eat fruit from vines we did not plant.”

This past Saturday, I made an early trip out to our Morrisville site to congratulate our newest home buyer, Amy on the completion of her home.  I couldn't stay for the house dedication that morning because we had five other dedications happening across town in East Raleigh.  Nice problem to have.

"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them."

Matthew 18:20

Last week, Habitat Wake closed on a partially-developed subdivision near the historic section of downtown Apex that we will complete and provide homes there for 16 families. Habitat Wake has not built in Apex since 1990. Wake County government has provided the funds for acquisition of the property and completion of the infrastructure.

Heather and her family moved into a Habitat house in Wake County 16 years ago.  Heather was 10 then.  Today, Heather serves on staff at Durham Habitat as their volunteer services manager, coordinating the thousands of volunteers for their program.

It’s always an exciting day when you get to participate in a house dedication—a time to celebrate with the homebuyers, the volunteers, the sponsors, and the Habitat staff who have worked so hard, in partnership, to create this incredible new opportunity for a family.

We are dedicating two homes later today—with the Pender and Johnson families—on Skycrest Drive in NE Raleigh close to our offices and Raleigh ReStore.  It will be a great celebration, as they always are, especially in this beautiful, early spring weather!

I just had the distinct privilege of attending the closing for Ricky Mitchell and the house we built together with him in Long Acres in Raleigh.  Habitat is a partnership, not a charity give-away.  And with Ricky this couldn’t be truer.  Ricky himself was actively engaged in all aspects of the construction.  Ricky’s brother, a professional roofer, installed the roof shingles.  Ricky’s co-worker, a trim carpenter, installed all the interior doors in a matter of hours and then cut the baseboards which Ricky installed.

This past Sunday was our 11^th annual Holiday Home Tour fundraiser and the crowd gathered was not only treated to some good food and music, but also to hearing from our current homebuyers in Garner, Michael and Waldrena Robinson and their experience with Habitat Wake.  As we approach Thanksgiving, I find myself grateful and blessed to be a part of an organization that can make such a huge difference in people’s lives in such a simple, but profound way.