When asked what color she wanted us to paint her house, Natasha, the woman we were building the house for, said without hesitation, "purple." So that’s the color we painted it and she’s absolutely delighted. Within a few days, after we complete some basic landscaping and install a fence around the back yard, she’ll be able to move in. As a Habitat volunteer it has been wonderful to work on a house for someone who really needs a place to live and to do it from start to finish...even if it is purple!
Natasha is a single mother of a six-year-old son, Reynard. She works for the city of New Orleans’ water department and comes out on Saturdays to work on her home and receive her "sweat equity" hours. She can hardly control her enthusiasm for her new home. "I love it!"
The foundation for her house was poured last fall and we started working on framing it the first week of January. I’ve been working on it since that time and have been able to use some of the skills I learned while building the Morgantown house years ago and have acquired a mess of new skills – framing, roofing, siding, painting, trim work and block laying to name a few. Of more importance than learning some new building skills has been for me the opportunity to meet so many volunteers from around the country. A group from St. Mary’s College in California even bought Natasha a purple gazing ball when she said that she wanted one for her new backyard.
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