Habitat Executive Director Lisa Cooper, at left, created an extraordinary Habitat entry for this year’s Festival of Trees fundraising event in Fraser. It included cardboard house ornaments that each contained a gold foil-wrapped Ferrero Roche chocolate. Beautiful, and delicious! Thanks to Cooper, board members Martin Smith (at right), Nina Healy, and Dick Schamberger for helping create a memorable evening at the Treefest.
Our favorite parts of the Habitat experience are the home dedications, when staff, volunteers, clergy, elected officials, and Grand County’s newest homeowners gathered to celebrate the completion of Habitat’s newest home. The Grand Quilters presented Lacey Sparks and her there children with custom-made quilts as a welcome gift, including one for Lacey’s daughter made from her favorite T-shirts, and Pastor Brian Bergum of Lord of the Valley Lutheran Church in Granby delivered a humdinger of a benediction. The event made the front page of the Sky-Hi News, which has reliably spotlighted Habitat’s work for many years.
Subzero temperatures and deep snow did not slow progress on House #14 in Hot Sulphur Springs. With lumber generously donated by Colorado Timber Resources in Parshall, our team was able to build storage sheds for House #13 and House #14 through December and January, and install insulation in House #14 to prep for drywalling. (That’s prospective House #14 homeowner Lacey Lund on the shed roof and in the foreground of the interior photo.) The crew hopes to break ground on House #15 in the coming weeks.
The Roofing Company of Granby arrived this week to install the roof on House #14, and just in time! The installation happened just a day before a big snowfall. We’re grateful for their generosity and willingness to partner with Habitat to seal in the house so our crew can work in warmth through the winter.
Eleven volunteers from Credit Union of the Rockies showed up Sept. 24 to help with House #14. They came to work! They labored alongside prospective homeowner Lacey Lund (front and center of the group photo) to install timbers for the driveway, build a gravel-and-flagstone berm on one side of the house, and help install windows. We’re grateful for all that they did, and to marketing specialist Jessica Lind for sending along photos of their time with us. They also marked their work by inscribing one of the wall studs — a grand Habitat tradition!
Thanks to large group of volunteers, we made terrific progress on House #14 during the weekend of Sept. 23 and 24. With many of the regular crew unavailable, volunteers Bryan McCay and Jon Letendre (in photo), along with prospective homeowner Lacey Lund and contractor George Davis from Maple Street Builders, spearheaded a busy weekend in which we finished the siding and timber work on the driveway, installed all of the windows, and prepped the roof for installation by the good folks at The Roofing Company. We hope to have the house dried in by the end of next weekend so the furnace can be installed. Then we’ll break ground on House #15 before the snow flies! If this momentum continues, we’re on track to nearly quadruple our normal capacity in 2022-2023.
Habitat volunteers in Grand County also find time to help needy homeowners with short-term repair projects. If you think you might qualify for that kind of help, please contact us to discuss the details.
Habitat for Humanity of Grand County board member Lisa Steen and past president Chuck Chladek recently helped a Granby homeowner repair the rotted and unsafe stairs from her deck. Need help with short-term projects such as this? Contact Executive Director Lisa Cooper at lcooper@habitatgrandcounty.org.
Despite the intensity of the mid-summer sun, Habitat for Humanity of Grand County’s fourteenth house is rising at 240 Nevada Street in Hot Sulphur Springs. It’s the first project in a busy summer for the affiliate, which also hopes to break ground on House #15 within the coming weeks. Prospective House #14 homeowner Lacey Lund has been a hard-working partner so far, and HFHGC supervising contractor George Davis of Maple Street Builders has worked through both knee replacement and eye surgery to meet the affiliate’s ambitious construction deadlines.
The foundation, footers, and crawl space are rising on a Hot Sulphur Springs lot adjacent to the two homes Habitat for Humanity of Grand County has completed since 2017. The small but energetic volunteer workforce hopes to break ground on yet another house along the same seven-lot stretch by mid-summer, aiming to complete both by spring 2023. To make that dream a reality, HFHGC needs more volunteers willing to pitch in. No experience necessary! Please contact Executive Director Lisa Cooper if you can help in any way. Let’s rise to Grand County’s urgent need and get hard-working families into these affordable homes ASAP.
With the snow mostly gone, workers have been excavating the lot for House #14 and preparing to start framing. Today was foundation-pouring day, even as work continues to finish up House #13 next door for Michael Bunker and his family.
