Have y’all been by the ReStore lately? The small house is really coming along! Until yesterday, it looked like a big platform with not much else going on. To be fair, the class has been working really hard to build a good floor system and to plan out all the walls. But, there’s nothing like a big, dramatic all-raising to make a platform start to look like a house. Yesterday, the class raised three walls!
It’s always rewarding to see walls going up on the job site–it’s the beginning of the exciting part of building a house.
Watch the class raise the third wall of the day:
We’re really excited about this small house, and hope that you are, too.
We’re hoping to spark a conversation in Chatham County about how small housing can be another option that Habitat could offer. For a single adult, senior, disabled veteran, adult with a disability, or even young couples, a small house is a much more affordable way to own a home. The house will cost around $40,000 total, so a 10 year mortgage would only be a monthly payment of $333. For 15 years, the payment would be $222, and for 20 years, just $166. That’s a (low) car payment for many people, and that’s really exciting for us at Chatham Habitat.
The house will have one bedroom, a “great room” including a full kitchen and sitting room, and a full bathroom. The home will also be built in a way that will make it easy to build on to in the future–a second bedroom could be added, and every wall could be bumped out to create extra space. The home is 100% handicap accessible–meaning that each room has at least a five-foot radius for a wheelchair to turn around, even the bathroom.
We believe that small houses have so much potential to help families of different shapes and sizes to own safe, decent homes.
Listen to Harvey and Jerry’s interview on WCHL about the small house:
Stay tuned as we keep building!