Habitat seeks 'push' to finish home

KOOTENAI — A nail drops and bounces on the front porch as it is passed from Miranda Bowman to her husband, Chuck.  The couple bends down to pick it up, nearly bumping heads in the process.  When they come up with the nail clasped between their joined fingers, they laugh.

The tiny object they retrieved represents a much larger part of their lives together — it is a piece of the home they are helping to build and hope to move their family into this fall.

The Bowmans’ abode will be the 11th house completed by Idaho Panhandle Habitat for Humanity since that local organization was formed in 1991.  Donations have been down in a rough economy, but the group keeps building on faith, confident that the money will come, just as it always has.

“The bottom line on this particular home is that we’re about $20,000 short of what we need to finish it,” said Curt Hagan, who oversees real estate procurement and fundraising for the local Habitat chapter.  “We’re still hoping to have the new family ready for occupancy by October, but it would be nice to have a push here at the end.”

Corporate donations have remained steady this year, “but it’s those little $25 donations in the mail that make the difference,” Hagan said.

The Bowmans have invested almost 400 hours of “sweat equity” in building the four-bedroom home that will house them and their four children.  Before that, they put in another 100 hours helping to build the home before theirs.  In all, it has been a two-year commitment for the couple.

“They’ve got a great work ethic,” said Dan Wimberly, vice president for Idaho Panhandle Habitat for Humanity and construction foreman for the project at Schissler Meadows — a 15-lot Habitat housing development in Kootenai.  “I had them shoveling sand one Saturday for four hours and they never complained.  They just kept shoveling sand.”

“I love it,” Miranda Bowman said as she stood inside the unfinished interior of the home she will call her own.  “It’s not even like work.”

As she spoke, a crew of Habitat volunteers unloaded siding in the driveway as the future owner of home No. 12 pounded nails to build a set of wooden stairs leading up to the back door.

Including the Bowmans’ new residence, there will be six homes at Schissler Meadows, named in memory of one of the original founders of the local chapter, homebuilder Mike Schissler, whose construction experience and abundant positive energy lifted the chapter off the ground more than 18 years ago. 

Last summer, the group opened a 6,500-square-foot Habitat for Humanity ReStore on North Boyer. The store sells new and used building materials, tools, paint, appliances and furniture at 25-50 percent of retail cost.  If sales grow as planned, the ReStore is expected to net about $60,000 next year — a little less than the amount needed to build the average-priced Habitat home. 

“We’ve been on a one-a-year trajectory for new homes, but we’re hoping to ramp that up to two-a-year with help from the ReStore,” Hagan said.

With nine lots remaining at the 5-acre Schissler Meadows site, doubling the rate of construction means that Idaho Panhandle Habitat for Humanity will need to plan ahead for future building.  For that reason, the organization procured a 7-acre site on McGhee Road in Kootenai, giving it room for as many as another 21 Habitat homes going forward.  Just as has been the case at Schissler Meadows, the land is paid for, according to Hagan.

“Financially, we’re a conservative group,” he said.  “We do everything on the free and clear.”

Financial considerations have been the sole limiting factor in how quickly Habitat builds homes in Bonner County, where the chapter works with lower-income families to provide housing.  Although Hagan invariably takes exception to the term “affordable housing” — too vague, he argues, and too prone to misinterpretation — he does agree that there is a constant need for decent housing that falls within the means of working families.  That’s especially true, he noted, in a region that has experienced rocketing home prices due to its attractive location.

“If people feel that supplying a steady home for children is worthwhile, then, as a community, we need to step up,” Hagan said.

“There’s this flashy resort in Bonner County and underneath that, there is a huge underbelly of poverty,” he added.  “Habitat is not flashy; we’re not front-page news.  But we’re real steady and consistent — we just keep building houses.”

For more information about how to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity or to make donations to the local chapter, write to: Idaho Panhandle Habitat for Humanity, P.O. Box 1191, Sandpoint, ID, 83864.