Habitat Builders Blitz: From house to AmeriCorps home in just four days

The months of planning that have gone into the 2018 Habitat Builders Blitz will pay off this week as a Wyoming house is built in four days.

Work began Tuesday at 6:15 a.m. and is expected to end Friday on a five-bedroom, three-bath residence for members of the AmeriCorps Delaware program. By Tuesday night, predicted Dan Lessard, owner of Lessard Builders in Camden, insulation will be up and the building would be ready for inspectors to approve work on the interior.

"If you blink," said Lessard, "you might miss something." 

The project is borrowing a page from the once-popular television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." 

Dan Simpson, the executive director of Central Delaware Habitat for Humanity, said he will have a hard time resisting the urge to yell "move that bus" this week. That's how the Extreme Makeover team revealed the new home they provided to a needy and deserving family at the end of each show, after a frantic week of remodeling.

With many build partners, funding from numerous area businesses and more than 25 volunteer builders, the new 2,322-square-foot home will be on Pine Street in Wyoming.

The land for the project was donated by WSFS Bank in 2015. WSFS representative Vernita Dorsey was there Tuesday morning to announce an additional $8,000 to help further fund the project. 

The AmeriCorps Delaware members who will live in the house are performing their year of service with Habitat and other local nonprofits.

Susan Davis, an AmeriCorps member who has served in Delaware for the past three years, will be one of them.  

"It will immediately impact my life and the lives of those who serve in AmeriCorps," she said.

Davis said Tuesday that a young AmeriCorps member with building experience and unique skills will now be able to travel from California to work with the organization in Delaware because he will have a place to live. 

"We wouldn't be able to house him here without this new home," she said. "It's something we'll be able to do more of because of this important project."

Habitat currently hosts more than 500 AmeriCorps members in 41 states and the District of Columbia. About 200 AmeriCorps members worked on various projects in Delaware in 2017.

Last year, AmeriCorps members provided nearly 9,000 service hours, mobilized, trained and managed more than 220,000 volunteers and raised more than $5.7 million in cash and in-kind resources. 

Central Delaware Habitat for Humanity, based in Dover and serving Kent County, has helped 53 homebuyers move into affordable housing since being founded in 1990. Nearly 240 adults and children live in those homes.

Now they are building their house. If all goes as planned, "the doorbell will be working and the lights on Friday night," Simpson said.

"Everyone has been so willing to help and the progress has been amazing," he said.