IF YOU BUILD IT …

PALMER — Tabitha Stevenson, Dawn Magera and Mary Beall may live on opposite ends of the Valley, but they have one major thing in common. They all helped build their own homes over the last several years with their neighbors in Palmer, Settler’s Bay and Houston through the Rural Self-Help Housing Program.

Although the 30 hours per week they were required to devote to the construction of the eight homes in their areas meant personal sacrifices and long days to get the job done, they wouldn’t have had it any other way.

They’re all hoping other Valley residents who normally wouldn’t be able to buy their own homes in these tough economic times will get on board with a new crop of houses going up near the new Palmer Carrs store off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway this next year.

“I never in a million years thought I’d be able to build my own home or even afford my own home until I found out about this program,” said Stevenson, a bubbly, 24-year-old mother of two who works in the Alaska Community Development Corp. office in Palmer, the non-profit organization that runs the self-help housing program. “It was more work than I had imagined, but it was so worth it in the end.”

The program, which has provided 48 Valley homes through “sweat equity” since 2002, enables those who ordinarily couldn’t afford to buy a home able to make that dream come true through special low financing and no money down.

With income maximums of $46,300 for one person, $52,900 for two and so forth, applicants are given an opportunity to clean up their credit with help from Alaska Community Development Corp. and assisted with qualifying for low-interest loans through Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union, which keeps monthly mortgage payments at an average of $700 — lower than many pay to rent an apartment, said ACDC Group Coordinator/Loan Packager Phyllis Shafer.

“Homebuyers put in about 65 percent of the labor in building their own home and those of their neighbors, so that cuts down a lot of the costs of building the homes, which makes them more affordable,” Shafer said. “The last two groups we had ended up putting in somewhere between $40,000 and $60,000 in equity into their own homes where the average appraisal is about $220,000. And these are five-star energy-rated homes when they’re done. They’re quality, well-built homes that look great.”

The prospect of getting out of her parents’ house in Peters Creek and standing on her own two feet was too hard for Stevenson to resist.

But as a single mother of a 3-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son when she first began helping to build her new home in August 2009 off Felton and Felicia streets near the Tsunami Warning Center in Palmer, Stevenson had to brace for a tough year of long, hard days — some which involved working outside in sub-zero temperatures in the dark of winter.

“I had to pick up my kids after already working eight hours at my regular job and drop them off at the babysitter and then go right to the construction site,” she said, adding she had barely even used a hammer before beginning the project. “Although the work itself was really hard sometimes because I’m not that strong and didn’t know anything about construction, being away from my kids was the toughest part. But they were really excited we’d have our own home and they’d even get their own rooms.”

Stevenson and seven other homeowners on the same street worked together to get the homes done with the aid of a construction supervisor, completing all eight homes in about 13 months.

Although the floor plans vary and designs range from ranch style to two-story and tri-level homes, they all have attached garages, in-floor radiant heat, and attractive siding that blends into an assortment of neighborhoods, including those with covenant restrictions.

It’s the shared load and old-fashioned community spirit that especially impressed those participating in the program.

Mary Beall was a divorced mother of eight who had six children living with her in her Settler’s Bay rental home when she first noticed homes going up in her neighborhood in 2006. She took the plunge a year later.

“I hated renting, so when I heard how this program worked, I was ready to go for it,” she said. “I had a full-time job with the state, so we kind of had to put our life on hold to get this done. I didn’t know anything about construction, but I was a quick learner.”

Beall said that by that time, she only had two daughters living with her, but it was still hard because they basically had to live in their van while she worked on the houses in the evenings and on the weekends.

“The girls were only 8 and 10 at the time, but they were so great,” she said. “They didn’t complain at all because they knew we’d have a nice house eventually.”

And like Stevenson, Beall became close to the others in the group and is still friends with a few of them.

The bonds formed became even more apparent after both women experienced their own medical emergencies. In March 2009 — exactly two years from today — Beall was in a hit-and-run accident on the North Eagle River ramp that left her back and neck broken in five places and her skull fractured in three places.

Although one of her sons was driving and there were two other sons in the car, she’s the only one who was injured, she said.

“I knew my boys couldn’t have handled what I’d gone through, so I’m glad it was me and I’m fine now,” she said with a sigh. “Not only were my neighbors very helpful when I was in my turtle shell, but the ACDC folks even had volunteers come out to clear away the rocks in my yard and put down six truckloads of dirt for grass seed. I was so overwhelmed and blessed by that. It was really cool.”

When Stevenson’s son Zek fell out of a second-story window and fractured his skull, the neighbors were there to help her get through it.

“It’s so nice to know you have the support out there,” she said. “Not everyone can say that.”

Dawn Magera became emotional Monday when discussing the Houston home she built with her husband, Allen Berglund, their two teenage sons and their neighbors near Big Lake Road.

The family had been renting a 30-year-old mobile home infested with rats when her mother saw an ad in the paper about the self-help housing program.

“This is such a wonderful program,” Magera said. “I tell everyone about it. And I now have the kind of close neighborhood I wished I’d had as a kid.”

For more information on the Rural Self-Help Housing Program at the Alaska Community Development Corporation in Palmer, call 746-5680 or visit alaskacdc.org.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.