Builders caring for Kara

CASEY RESSLER

Frontiersman Valley Life Editor

Kara MacIver faces an uncertain future, but one professional organization is making sure she faces that future in comfort.

The Mat-Su Home Builders Association is building MacIver a new house, worth nearly $200,000. MacIver has chronic myeloid leukemia, and is scheduled to have a bone marrow transplant in June in Seattle. She will be in Seattle for six weeks following the transplant.

"And then, that's where we kick in," said David R. Owens of Owens Inspection Services, who will be serving as the general contractor. "She will have a new home to come home to."

Following the transplant, MacIver has to be totally isolated from germs and bacteria. That meant that until the offer to build a new home was received, her family faced a total renovation of their current house.

During an interview last winter, her mother explained that they would have to rip up all the carpeting and put down hardwood floors because of the potential of "black fungus."

"Even if you have spilled one Coke on your carpet, you've got it," Dawn MacIver explained last year.

The house being built for MacIver will have several extra features that make it more sterile than other similar construction projects.

The family owned the lot where the house is being built, located on Melanie Drive off of Lucus Drive in Wasilla. Not counting the lot, the 1,400-square-foot home is valued at $180,000. It has four bedrooms, and MacIver will live there with her parents and her 1 1/2-year-old son, Aaron.

The project is being worked on by several Mat-Su Home Builders Association members.

While Owens Inspection Services is overseeing the project, numerous contractors, including Guy Turner of GT Construction, Dana Frey of Newf Construction and Jeff Clements of Great Northern Homes and Construction are helping.

Many of the contractors with the Mat-Su Home Builders Association are chipping in, either by donating supplies or offering in-kind donations of time and services, making it a true community effort.

"We are very excited about it," MacIver said. "Somebody called us and told us they wanted to build us a house. We were very excited."

At a press conference Thursday, Becky Day, a family friend of the MacIvers, told the members of the Mat-Su Home Builders Association that their generosity won't go unnoticed.

"God is going to so bless you guys. Thank you so much," Day said.

Frontiersman reporter Bob Martinson contributed to this story.