
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994                   TAG: 9406300117
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOUSE LOOKS AT HOME IN NEIGHBORHOOD

Nestled among decades-old homes in the 2000 block of Moorman Avenue in Northwest Roanoke is a pale-yellow, two-story house. From a distance, the house looks just as old as those around it, with its pitched roof and columned porch.

But up close, the spotless appearance and smell of paint offer clues to its true age. The house is new, built for Habitat for Humanity in the Roanoke Valley.

A project of the young adult group of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Salem, the house is Habitat's first with two stories.

The 31 other Habitat homes in the Roanoke area are one-story prefabricated structures.

Though the first floor of the Moorman Avenue house was prefabricated and just required finishing, the second story had to be built from the floor up.

The house was built on a lot donated to Habitat by the city of Roanoke, said Sue Given, a member of the St. Paul's group. The group decided on a two-story structure because the lot was too narrow for a one-story house with sufficient floor space. The group also wanted to ensure that the house blended with the neighborhood, Given said.

Habitat clashed once with a group of Roanoke residents who opposed the construction of homes that, they contended, did not fit in with their neighborhood.

Sybil Philpott was up at 3 a.m. one day this week, eating watermelon and cereal at her kitchen table. The Roanoke woman, chosen from Habitat's waiting list to purchase the Moorman Avenue home, was nervous.

"It all hit me," she said. "I was buying a house. You know how you want something for so long, and when it happens ...?"

The $32,400 house will be Philpott's first. She and her two children - Shauna, 8, and Jerome, 6 - have lived in an apartment "for years," she said.

St. Paul's raised about half of the construction costs. Habitat matched those dollars. Construction started last September and was completed last weekend.

by CNB