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Home - Local News Sports Obituaries Editorial Social Archives |
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Local News - April 2002 |
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Celebration marks completion of 11th Habitat home By JACQUELINE CASEY, LTN Staff Writer April 8, 2002 - PUMPKIN CENTER — The words were simple but they signaled the beginning of a new life for Diana Forney Nixon and her two daughters. “Bless, Lord, this house and fill it with the gladness of your presence,” Rev. Ron Taylor of St. Peter By-The-Lake Episcopal Church said Sunday afternoon as about 30 volunteers gathered to celebrate completion of Lincoln County Habitat for Humanity’s eleventh project, a gray frame home in the Ashlee Meadows subdivision. Holding a Bible presented to her by Habitat, the homeowner beamed as she expressed gratitude to those crowded in her small living room. All had helped make her dream of home ownership come true. “Thanks to all of you who touched this home,” Diana Nixon said. “We’ll never forget because we have all this love wrapped around us in this home.” The celebration was also a chance to “pound” the family with food items to stock the kitchen cabinets. Ron Hoover brought several jars of home canned green beans and spaghetti sauce. Hoover, a professional builder, volunteered his skills on the project — his first Habitat home. “It’s great,” he said of the home’s completion. “I’m real proud for her. Everyone worked real well together.” So well, in fact, that the 1,088-square-foot home was completed in just three months. “This is the shortest construction period we’ve ever had,” said Jerry Park, president of the Lincoln Habitat chapter. Volunteer coordinator Celia Deese — herself a first-time Habitat volunteer — credits those who turned out to build. “We couldn’t have had a better group,” she said. Typically, around 30 people volunteered each Friday and Saturday, starting work early in the morning and continuing until late afternoon. Some pounded nails or hung sheet rock; others provided lunch. The project attracted workers from several churches, including Denver United Methodist, St. Peter, Unity Presbyterian, Hills Chapel United Methodist and Salem United Methodist. Members of the Leadership Lincoln class helped out as did many first-time builders. Rodney Leathers, a Lincolnton insurance salesman, spent hours pounding nails into shingles. He joked that he still feels a twinge in his back whenever he even looks at a roof. Still, he added, seeing the completed home, every ache was worth it. “Our efforts turned out better than I expected,” he said. “The house is very lovely and livable.” Though compact, the home is well laid out, with a combined living/dining area, a galley kitchen, three bedrooms and a bath-and-a-half. Nixon’s 17-year-old daughter, also named Diana, decorated the full bath with a cheerful ocean theme. “I like it,” she said of the home. During the building process, the teen learned how to hang sheet rock and helped paint as part of the “sweat equity” Habitat families must invest in their homes. Diana Nixon, a Bartlette Nuclear employee, will make interest-free mortgage payments on the $80,000 home at less than she was paying in rent. She will also help with Habitat’s future building projects to fulfill her obligation to put in work hours. The Nixon’s home is one of three Habitat will build in Ashlee Meadows. The home is set at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac. It is surrounded by trees. From the back steps, Anderson Mountain is visible. It is a world away from the Lincolnton apartment where the Nixons recently lived. “It’s so beautiful here. It’s so peaceful,” said Diana Nixon. A home of her own, she said, is the answer to prayer. “I always had hope that it would happen. I just didn’t think it would be so soon.”
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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