Do-it-yourself housing By Matthew K. JensenNIBLEY — One neighborhood is about to receive its first residents and those who will call the cul-de-sac home didn’t find their houses through a real estate agent; they built each one from the ground up. The Neighborhood Nonprofit Housing Corporation (NNHC) celebrates the completion of its 150th Mutual Self-Help Home on Thursday, opening up seven brand-new houses in Nibley for the public to see the program up close. NNHC executive director Kim Datwyler says the agency is the first in the state to make the bench mark. “This is affordable housing the way it should be done, and the way people want it,” she said. “Most people think, ‘Low-income housing? I don’t want anything to do with that.’ But these are lovely homes.” Datwyler says each residence has between 1,500 and 1,600 square feet of living space, four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a two-car garage and front-yard landscaping. NNHC helps people who make 80 percent or less of the area’s median income achieve home ownership by providing grant money from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural and Community Development program. Datwyler says the special funding is loaned to people who build the homes themselves. “It’s not a hand out, it’s a hand up,” she said, reciting a phrase coined by a past participant. “The other thing we see is the change it has on the family. The kids will take me on a tour of their house and they are so proud. They’ll say, ‘Look what my parents did, look what my mom did. They built this house for me.’” Qualified applicants are pooled into groups which build several homes in one area simultaneously — each builder helping neighbors construct their homes alongside his or her own. Participants must complete at least 65 percent of the labor required to build their residence. Code work, including electrical wiring and plumbing, is done by licensed professionals. “It’s definitely not for the faint of heart — you have to work your butt off,” said Jessica Muir, who, along with her husband, Kevin, built one of the Nibley homes. “It’s a part time job basically.” Muir said she and her husband have worked 35 hours a week for nine months to complete the seven homes. Jessica said she enjoyed framing the houses and Kevin liked doing finish work. “This is a very, very good opportunity,” she added. “We’re going to have a home and there’s no other way we would have been able to afford a home without this program.” Datwyler says finished homes appraise for much more than the cost to construct them and that homeowners are not restricted from selling their property. “We really believe we want to make a quality product,” she said. “I wouldn’t build something I wouldn’t want to live in.” All homes are Energy Star rated to keep utility costs down. Datwyler says mortgage payments range between $530 and $580 each month. Potential home owners go through a great deal of first-time home buyer counseling, loan counseling and a post-purchase training about the importance of staying out of debt to keep their home safe, Datwyler explained. “Out of the 150 homes, we’ve had zero foreclosures,” she said. The Muir couple say the construction process has shown them a lot about each other and that they have grown closer for it. They, along with six other families, move into their brand new home Friday. What: Neighborhood Nonprofit Housing Corporation Open House When: Thursday, Feb. 5, from 4 to 6 p.m. Where: Shadow Crest Subdivision: 2600 S. 1000 West in Nibley On the Web: nnhc.net ——— E-mail: mjensen@hjnews.com | 
So we were so excited to get painting done... but we forgot about the garages and the doors. So low and behold we were prepping and painting again and will be for another week or so. Joe was so motivated to get things done that we got our garage prepped and painted on Saturday, then on Monday he set up and got the closet bi-fold doors painted and last night-Tuesday we got the other 11 doors painted. The painting is not the hard part it is sanding, cleaning them off and setting them up that takes the most time. We are hoping by this upcoming weekend we will have the last couple of garages painted. I can hardly wait to be able to move on to something else, even though I am trying to enjoy what we are doing in the moment.
