Yadira Salas stood outside the house of her dreams, watching a digital clock count down the minutes until noon, when her new home would officially be completed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The four-bedroom home \u2014 dark blue, with white trim \u00a0\u2014 was a special project led by the Habit for Humanity of San Antonio & Guadalupe Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dubbed the “50 Hour Home,” the house was being built over 50 consecutive hours to celebrate the nonprofit\u2019s 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n
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From Thursday through Saturday, \u00a0Salas worked long hours with an army of volunteers, family and\u00a0friends to make the house a reality. She helped put up exterior wall siding. She hefted and laid sod on her lawn. She helped install windows.<\/p>\n
Putting\u00a0that “sweat equity” into the home she and her three children will move into was the best part of the build, Salas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOut of this whole experience, that’s what makes you feel even better about yourself, because you actually put your work into this,\u201d said Salas, 34. \u201cYou feel grateful. You see your home and you’re like, \u2018Wow, we did this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
‘The Habitat way’<\/p>\n
Salas beamed during the home’s dedication ceremony at noon on Saturday, as Habitat staff, sponsors, clergy, family, friends and volunteers joined in the celebration.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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More than 1,000 volunteers took part in building the Habitat home, said Michael Taylor, president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio & Guadalupe Valley. He said Salas\u2019 home is the first of 35 houses that will be built in the Habitat community called Methodist Meadows, off Chandler Road.<\/p>\n
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Volunteers lay sod on a Habitat for Humanity build that was constructed in 50 hours in honor of the organization’s 50th anniversary on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Robin Jerstad\/For the San Antonio Express News<\/p>\n
A volunteer works on the Habitat for Humanity build on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Robin Jerstad\/For the San Antonio Express News<\/p>\n
Yadira Salas works on what will become her home built by Habitat for Humanity on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Robin Jerstad\/For the San Antonio Express News<\/p>\n
Taylor said funding from the city of San Antonio and\u00a0Bexar County paid for the new community’s streets, drains and sidewalks. Volunteers worked two-hour shifts to construct interior and exterior walls to be used for future Habitat houses.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis is the Habitat way,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThe home stands as a testament to what can happen when a community comes together on a common goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio was founded by Faith Lytle, wife of the Rev. William\u00a0Lytle, former pastor of Madison Square Presbyterian Church. Lytle was inspired by Millard Fuller, who co-founded Habitat for Humanity International with his wife, Linda Fuller.<\/p>\n
Lytle “wanted to provide long-term stability for families,” said Stephanie\u00a0Wiese, Habitat’s chief development officer. “She thought affordable\u00a0homeownership was the solution.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ecumenical Christian nonprofit organization works with low-income families to build affordable homes at no profit and zero interest. Families buying homes are required to do their part by putting in 300-plus work hours on their homes \u2014 something Habitat calls “sweat equity.”\u00a0 Their investment includes homebuyer readiness classes and working at the construction site and other families\u2019 homes.<\/p>\n
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Each Habitat home has three or four bedrooms and two bathrooms. \u00a0The 1,500th Habitat home built by the San Antonio-area chapter\u00a0was dedicated in April. According to Habitat, more than 11,000 people volunteer their time each year.<\/p>\n
‘A big gift’<\/p>\n
Before the dedication of\u00a0Salas’ new home, the sound of volunteers hammering nails echoed across the area like hundreds of percussionists pounding on snare drums. Volunteers carried and stacked lumber. Six high school and six college summer interns from Habitat worked on the project, trudging across damp ground alongside workers like Robert Neufeld, an Oak Hills Church volunteer since 2018.<\/p>\n
Neufeld said he looks forward to meeting Habitat homeowners. He said he’s stayed in contact with the owner of the second house he worked on, even hosting the man and his family on Christmas.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s heart-wrenching stories about what they\u2019ve gone through to come to this point,” said Neufeld, 70. “This is one thing that people, like in our church, believe that helping others is a commandment in the Bible. That’s where my heart’s at, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Methodist Healthcare Ministries sponsored the build. Alan Kramer, chief financial officer for Methodist Healthcare, said housing is the bedrock on which communities are built. He thanked the volunteers who worked to make the home a reality for the Salas family.<\/p>\n
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Volunteers Joe Castillo and Hector Urtegon haul wood for a Habitat for Humanity home on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Robin Jerstad\/For the San Antonio Express News<\/p>\n
Rob\u00a0Neuwfel, a volunteer, looks over a home built by Habitat for Humanity in honor of the organization’s 50th anniversary on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Robin Jerstad\/For the San Antonio Express News<\/p>\n
Volunteers raise a framed wall for a home built by Habitat for Humanity over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Robin Jerstad\/For the San Antonio Express News<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s an amazing legacy, and I’m looking forward to 50 more years of builds,\u201d Kramer said. \u201cWe can\u2019t wait to see the future that family\u2019s going to build and the future of all the residents of this neighborhood will do for San Antonio.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Rev. Aaron Gonzalez blessed the new neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cMay these streets become places where neighbors know one another,\u201d Gonzalez said, \u201cwhere children laugh and play safely, where burdens are shared and where love is freely given.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bishop Gary\u00a0Janak of the Archdiocese of San Antonio walked onto the property and anointed the home with a sprinkling of\u00a0holy water.<\/p>\n
\u201cMay this home always be a place of faith, hope and love,\u201d the bishop said. \u201cAnd may all who enter it know your peace and your goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The road to homeownership wasn\u2019t easy for\u00a0Salas. She applied for the Habitat program twice before her application was approved. Salas said Habitat staff members helped her complete required paperwork and she was accepted on her third try.<\/p>\n
After the ceremony, Salas thanked all involved with the build for their support and hard work. She welcomed the attendees into the residence she called \u201ca big gift\u201d for her children and herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big accomplishment for myself as a single parent,\u201d she said. \u201cI’m so proud of my children, my family, my friends for all the support and everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Volunteers finish work on a Habitat for Humanity build in honor of the organization’s 50th anniversary on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Robin Jerstad\/For the San Antonio Express News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yadira Salas stood outside the house of her dreams, watching a digital clock count down the minutes until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-381073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}