THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 28, 1994 TAG: 9410270175
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS, VIRGINIAN PILOT/LEDGER STAR
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
It took 39 days and hundreds of volunteers to build Portsmouth's newest Habitat for Humanity house.
The 1,050 square-foot home has three bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a combination living and dining room.
``It's a small house, but there's no wasted space at all in the house,'' said project director Nancy Tew.
A dedication ceremony was held Saturday at 906 Lincoln St. for the home that now belongs to Rachel Hodges, a maintenance worker at Old Dominion University, and her two children, Horace, 13, and Rachelle, 8.
About 150 volunteers from 13 local churches and a Norfolk-based Navy ship worked weekdays from 8 a.m. to sundown and every Saturday until mid-afternoon until the Prentis Place house was complete.
In lieu of a down payment, Hodges was required to contribute 400 hours of ``sweat equity'' in her own home and other Habitat houses.
``There's no way someone who's working full-time can put in 400 hours building their own house because then they wouldn't be able to work, and they wouldn't have any money to pay the mortgage,'' Tew said. ``So she (Hodges) works the 400 hours, then she has an interest-free mortgage.''
The selling price of the house was $33,000. That works out to a mortgage payment of about $200 a month, plus taxes and insurance, over the next 17 years, Tew said.
Volunteers from the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge and the following congregations helped build the Habitat home: Churchland Baptist Church of Portsmouth, Aldersgate United Methodist Church of Chesapeake, Centenary United Methodist Church of Portsmouth, Park View Baptist Church of Portsmouth, Covenant Methodist Church of Chesapeake, Park View Christian Church of Chesapeake, First Presbyterian Church of Portsmouth, Green Acres Presbyterian Church of Portsmouth, Monumental United Methodist Church of Portsmouth, New Hope Baptist Church of Chesapeake, West End United Methodist Church of Portsmouth, St. Andrew Lutheran Church of Portsmouth and Trinity Episcopal Church of Portsmouth. by CNB