HABITAT DEDICATES LATEST HOUSE, PLANS TWO MORE

Members of Cape Area Habitat for Humanity dedicated one house in a ceremony Sunday and plan to start work on two more houses Saturday.

Habitat for Humanity is an international ecumenical Christian ministry dedicated to building and rehabilitating housing for people who otherwise could not afford to build a new home.

Kathleen McGill and her three children plan to move in to the modest three-bedroom ranch house at 1518 Rand St. as soon as city inspectors approve it and her family can move its furniture in. She now rents a home on Good Hope Street.

The McGills have worked alongside volunteers every Saturday since last summer doing all but the most skilled work.

The next two Habitat homes are planned for adjoining lots nearby on Centennial and Green Acres.

McGill's home cost $30,000 and took nine months to build. McGill will pay off her 0 percent loan to Habitat with the money going to build other homes.

Miles White of Habitat said the organization has never done two houses at the same time before. He said that with the exception of a house that Target helped build while it was building its store here, Habitat completed McGill's house faster than any it had before.

With the next two houses, Habitat plans to work six days a week June 9 through 21 relying heavily on volunteers from Cape LaCroix Methodist Church and others from the community, said Bill Cheeseman.

White said that other Habitat chapters started slowly and then "broke through" and started building more houses more quickly. "If we get two houses done this summer, then we'll really break through."

The organization has two families already selected for those homes. Bertha King, a claims processor at Blue Cross Blue Shield, will move into one of them. She worked on McGill's home. All Habitat homeowners must put 350 hours of labor into Habitat projects.

Like the volunteers, King said she gained skills from working on McGill's house.

McGill couldn't stop smiling at the ceremony.

"The best thing about it is it's going to be mine," she said of her new home.

When she moves in, McGill won't have a landlord to call to fix things. But she's not worried. "Everything's under warranty and I can probably do a few repairs myself now," she said.