Habitat house already feels like home: First wall goes up Saturday on Stanley Street

BY MARY CAREY, STAFF WRITER
[ Originally published in the Gazette on: Monday, October 16, 2006 ]

KEVIN GUTTING

Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity partner Kathy Perry nails a board in what will be her home on Stanley Street in Amherst Saturday morning. Crews worked over the weekend to raise the first wall at the house for Perry and her daughter, Rachel, 11. Pictured here, Perry, who is new to the home-building trade, was laughing after her more experienced brother, Richard Perry, told her she only had 'eight more minutes to get that nail in.'

AMHERST - Kathy Perry and her 11-year-old daughter, Rachel, are going to get a house of their own, thanks to Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity and Perry's own hard work.

Perry, a clinical social worker, has rented for 37 years, having lived in the same apartment in The Boulders since 1976.

Her new house is a contemporary three-bedroom on the corner of Stanley and South East streets designed by Kuhn Riddle Architects of Amherst.

On Saturday, about a half dozen volunteers, including Perry, raised the first wall.

It is the first of four houses planned for the 3-acre site donated by Amherst College to Pioneer Valley Habitat. All of the group's homes are built with volunteer labor and donations of material, supplies, land and services, and are sold with a no-interest mortgage to a low-income family. The family becomes an active Habitat partner by contributing 'sweat equity' during construction.

The house should be ready to move into in a year, Perry said.

Stan Brown, of Hadley, co-chairman of the building committee, said it's coming along a little slowly, because Habitat relies on volunteers.

'You take it, when you can get it. You don't get to pick.'

A number of local construction companies have agreed to send some of their employees to help with some of the work, said Jess Wallis, volunteer coordinator for Habitat. Among them are Thayer Street Association, Teagno Construction Inc., Integrity Development and Construction and Haydenville Woodworking and Design.

The Perrys have painted a dedication to Perry's late partner, David Micha Mysona - who died two years ago - in the concrete floor in a north room. It says, 'For Daddy ... For David, Forever in our Heart, Forever in Our Home.'

Mysona would have loved this house, Perry said.

'He's smiling down and helping us along the way.'