Elgin Habitat blesses first home rehabbed by women only

When Pilar García looks at her new home at 355 Moseley Street in Elgin, she doesn't just see a two-story historic house with green paint. She envisions the place where her kids will grow up and her grandchildren will play.

In flashes of memory, she sees the whole process that made the house hers: applying with Habitat for Humanity of the Northern Fox Valley, first seeing the rundown home and then working for more than a year with approximately 125 women volunteers to fix the place up.

The finished home has undergone a remarkable transformation since it was first purchased with federal Neighborhood Stabilization Home program dollars by the city of Elgin and given to Habitat. But it's so much more than that to García.

“It's not just a beautiful house,” García said. “It's all the people who came in to do the best for my family.”

The first all-women build group associated with the Northern Fox Valley Habitat built a garage from the bottom up, they put in all new electrical and plumbing, added new drywall and built a porch on the front and the back. The inside was gutted and built back up, transforming the crumbling, vacant eyesore that once stood at 355 Moseley into García's dream house.

The local Habitat chapter can rehab or build about 10 homes a year, according to Bill Klaves, development director. The group got four homes from Elgin's Neighborhood Stabilzation purchases and is hoping to get another three from Kane County in coming months.

Klaves said the money has allowed the group to boost its capacity, pushing the number of finished homes to almost 70 in the Fox Valley. To do its work, the group needs three things:

“We need homes that we can rehab, money and volunteers,” Klaves said. “The additional money certainly has been a boon to us.”

García, like all Habitat homeowners, had to put at least 250 hours of sweat equity into building of her house. Being involved every step of the way allowed her to choose her own cabinets, counter tops and flooring as well as develop deep bonds with the other women involved.

“We got very close,” García said.

Marlene Hensrud was the project manager leading the all-women build group. She said there were some men who helped with specific trades throughout the process but for the most part, women rehabbed the house.

Many of those women volunteers had very little construction experience before starting in on García's house.

But none of them can say that now.

“There's so many who come in that have no skills at all and they're just amazed when they leave at what they can do,” Hensrud said.

Some final touches with the outside paint and landscaping have to be finished in the spring but García is free to move in after she closes on March 8. García, a Larkin High School in-school suspension supervisor, and her two children are already looking forward to the new home and their own rooms.

A house blessing ceremony Sunday brought together volunteers, neighbors, Habitat employees and García's family to celebrate a job well done.

García, for one, could hardly stop smiling.