HOMES WITH HEART

PALMER — Sarah Winter has her own room.

Having your own bedroom isn’t unusual, nor does it typically make news. But for this 8-year-old Palmer girl, it’s enough to make her do cartwheels and daydream about how she’s going to decorate the room that’s all her own.

“I think, maybe, that I’ll make it look like an outside place,” she said. “Really exotic.”

Bounding with excitement, Sarah Winter energetically showed off her new room Saturday to Habitat For Humanity Mat-Su board members and volunteers who dedicated the new home she’ll share with her mother and three siblings.

For Beth Winters and family — daughters Sarah, Cathy, 19, and Becky 16, and 13-year-old son Ben — cutting the ribbon on her new 1,400-square-foot home near the Alaska State Fairgrounds was an emotional and humbling experience.

“It’s all pretty overwhelming,” she said. “It’s amazing how the Lord works through everybody.”

For the Winter family, that work was channeled through the local Habitat For Humanity, a faith-based organization that builds homes for families that otherwise could not afford a house of their own.

Habitat holds zero-interest mortgages on the homes built with contributions and what Mat-Su board member Bob Pickett calls “sweat equity.” Each family is required to put in at least 500 hours of work on their homes or other Habitat For Humanity projects.

“That’s the best way to go,” Pickett said about homeowners buying into the program with labor. “That really makes it yours. … It’s not a

hand-out, it’s a hand-up.”

For the Winter family, that has meant a lot of after-hours time, Cathy said.

“I helped with the foundation, and painting was a lot (of work),” she said. “We got pretty good at painting.”

That local volunteers and businesses contribute so much of their time and hard work to build homes for others “has been really cool to watch,” Cathy said, adding she agrees with the philosophy of families putting in sweat equity. “The way that program works has been really great.”

Tale of two families

No one understands the value of sweat equity better than Carl Farwell, who has worked nights and weekends on his new Habitat home next door to the Winters. Saturday’s ceremony also cut the ribbon on his new home that he calls a liberating experience for his family — wife Chanelle, daughter Isabel, 5, and sons Chandler, 7, and Cody 12.

Nearly ever day after putting in a full day of work, Carl spent nights, weekends and even holidays working on his home. Even on Thanksgiving, when most families were gathering to celebrate together, he was getting his new house ready for his family.

“Even Thanksgiving, but it’s all worth it,” he said. “Chanelle brought me a plate. I ate, then got back to work.”

In addition to the support from Habitat For Humanity Mat-Su, Spenard Builders Supply played a large role in building the Farwell house, Carl said.

For the Farwell family, having a house of its own means a place to call home, rather than simply a place to stay, Chanelle said.

“It’s a permanent home, a place to plant roots,” she said. “I love it, and to meet everybody (who volunteered) has been so much fun. It’s awesome. The house is energy efficient, there’s more space and it’s handicap accessible.”

Designed to accommodate a wheelchair, complete with front and back ramps and a specially modified bathroom, means 5-year-old Isabel can get around her new house — and even outside to play — without help.

Suffering from cerebral palsy, Isabel sometimes requires the use of a wheelchair or walker, but had plenty of energy to scurry from room to room of her new house. Until Habitat For Humanity came along, the Farwells lived in a trailer that had hallways too narrow to accommodate Isabel’s walker, Chanelle said.

For Carl, all the late nights, weekends and even a missed Thanksgiving with the family is all worth the work when he sees what his sweat equity has bought for his family. Watching Isabel move through the house and play in the yard by herself is the best reward, he said.

“You should just see her face light up.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.