HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Click on the links below to learn more about each of the Habitat projects we have done
| Jones House | Edwards House | Narvaez-Stewart |
| Dawson House | Golphin House | Lynch-Wright House |
| Davis Home |
Jones House back to Habitat's home page
In 2005 Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity asked one of its volunteers, St. Basil parishioner Dick Schulte, to organize a group of volunteers from the parish in order to build a home from the ground up. Meetings were held that spring with interested parishioners. In May 2005 Habitat for Humanity teamed St Basil and St Matthias volunteers together in this project.
Volunteers from Habitat for Humanity, St. Basil, St. Matthias, two local unions, countless youth groups from schools and churches, and Americorps (plus a few paid contractors!), began building the Jones Home on Gaylord Ave in June 2005. Prospective homeowners Anthony and Anleka Jones also volunteered throughout the ensuing months.
Those of us who volunteered on this project learned a whole lot about building a house, but more about who we are and what we can do. It's amazing that so many volunteers (many of us with little or no house building skills), along with several very capable leaders, could actually build a house that we can be proud of...and easily passed building inspections as well!
In April 2006, Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity celebrated the completion of the Jones Home with a dedication ceremony and handed over the keys, and the mortgage to the Jones Family…they are now happily living in the house with their children.
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Edwards House back to Habitat's home page
As construction came to a close on the Jones Home, discussion among some of the St Basil volunteers took place and it was finally decided to take on a new home for another family. Tameata Edwards, her children and fiancée Clarence are the prospective owners. As some volunteers on the Jones Home went on to other activities, new volunteers from St Basil and St Matthias joined the core team and framing for the new house took place the week of April 3, 2006.
Through the summer and fall of 2006 the St Basil/St. Matthias team worked on the Edwards house. Tameata and her fiancée Clarence and members of their families helped on Saturdays as often as they could. This home progressed quickly as we had many more volunteers coming on a regular basis every Wednesday and Thursday AND, since we had done this once before, many of us had a better idea of what we were doing! Experience is a wonderful thing!
Many thanks to these wonderful volunteers – Dick Schulte, Bruce Esson, Willie Friedrich, Jim MacAvoy, Mary Filipic, Ray Turk, Bill McNamara, Greg Marke, Pat Fellure, Joe Yankel, Matt Brejer, Rebecca Waliga, Craig Comstock, Dennis Borecek, Shirley and Tim Calvey, Dennis Chalupa, Debbie Tkac, Harriet Francko, Jon Linhart, Bruce and Ellen Noggle, Anthony Pacholewski, Nick Vespoli, Henry and Jeff Wessel, Al,Carol and Shawn Weiler…..as well as all the other volunteers from other organizations and Habitat for Humanity that worked on the Edwards House.
In September 2006 Tameata Edwards and Clarence were married….and saw their home moving fast toward completion. By Christmas it was essentially finished and in January 2007 all the city inspections were made and finally, on Saturday February 3, 2007 the dedication of the Edwards house took place with many volunteers, Habitat staff and family members in attendance. Fr Doug Brown of St Basil the Great blessed the house as part of the ceremony. Tameata, Clarence and their children moved in shortly afterwards.
Email Mary at Habitat for Humanity to get on the Habitat Project Email list or find out how you can contribute to the next home. Get on the email list now so you'll know when the next work party takes place!
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Narvaez-Stewart House back to Habitat's home page
The Narvaez-Stewart House was built in Garfield Heights. Although it was framed in the spring of 2006, just after the Edwards house was framed, it unfortunately never had an assigned volunteer group to work on it. On occasion, throughout 2006, various groups would go and work on putting windows in and other tasks and some outside contractors began work on the mechanicals, but progress was slow.
When the St Basil/St Matthias team completed the Edwards home, they asked Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity if they could be assigned to the Narvaez-Stewart house. Some of the team had met the future homeowner, Luz Narvaez -Stewart when she had volunteered at the house on Gaylord Ave. in 2005 – so there was already a personal connection that could be built on. Cleveland Habitat agreed and in January 2007 we ventured to the house site. John Opalko from Garfield Hts joined us for awhile as we worked on this house.
For a few weeks in January we worked at Luz’s home, but then it became too cold to work on the outside of the house, and too cold to work on the inside too! So Habitat for Humanity asked our team to help finish two homes being managed by the WomenBuild project of Habitat for Humanity in Cleveland. So we worked on those two homes putting in the finish woodwork, baseboard molding, doors, tile floors, cabinetry, lighting fixtures, and finish plumbing. By mid May of 2007, however, we returned to Luz’s home in Garfield Hts.
We welcomed to our weekday team Tom Rymarczyk from St Matthias and John Tupa from St Basil the Great , Monica Cheriyan from Avon Lake and Len Molloy from Shaker Hts. In May we also bid farewell to one of our team leaders, Dick Schulte, who decided to move back home to Minnesota. We miss Dick and his willingness to teach all of us neophytes in construction, his steady nature and good humor, his interesting stories at lunch time, and, not to be forgotten, his wonderful white panel truck with all the wonderful tools inside!
By mid August 2007 most of the exterior of the home was completed. Permits were sought to complete the mechanicals and drainage issues were discussed and solutions proposed. In the meantime, we began working on our next house off of Woodland Ave in Cleveland.
Throughout the winter and spring of 2008 we continued to work on Luz's home. Dedication of the home occurred in July 2007. Luz and her family are very happy new homeowners.
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Dawson House back to Habitat's home page
While still working on Luz’s house, we also began working on Reese Dawson’s home on East 110 on Saturdays beginning early in 2008. Her home had been framed in late summer of 2007 and we had participated in the framing.
Three homes were built on East 110, one right next to another, and volunteers from various groups including St Paul’s church in Shaker Heights, and another group of volunteers led by Heath and Pieter. In late spring of 2008 we completed Luz’s home and were working regularly at the East 110 site. We worked closely with the group from St Paul’s, helping them on their house as we completed the various components of the Dawson house. Every Saturday a group of St Paul’s volunteers would bring the work crews a fabulous lunch…and they also provided the three groups with a microwave oven. We were in construction heaven!
In June, a dedication of the homes was made even though there were still several months of work yet to be completed….by the end of August our team had completed their work and we were ready to move on to another home. Reese and her family moved into their home in January 2009. During that year two additional homes were built on East 110 through Habitat making a total of 5 Habitat homes constructed in that neighborhood.
Besides our regular work crew, many volunteers helped us with Reese’s house: Amy and Steve Piotrowski, Annette Busse, Christa Jo Abood, David Telischek, Henry Wessel, Marilyn Kurcz, Matt Kan, Erin Joyce, Cheryl Palidar, James Tait LaFever, Tom Revis, Ryan Bellmore. Our semi-regular crew included Mary Filipic, Bruce Esson, Willie Friedrich, Jim MacAvoy, Ray Turk, Craig Comstock, Joe Yankel, Debbie Jasany, Katie White, Kim Meyer, Martin Prellwitz, Tom Rymarszyk and son, Jackie Burton, Monica Cheriyan, Pat Fellure ,Matt Brejer and Len Molloy. We also began working on a frequent basis with Case Reserve students on Saturdays.
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Golphin House back to Habitat's home page
Our crew was then sent to East 79 near St Clair to work on a home for Brianna Golphin. This home had been framed the previous year and various groups had completed some work on the house, including the window installation. We quickly began working on the outside of the house re-building part of the porch and working on the vinyl siding. Our goal was to complete as much outside work as possible before the cold weather set in.
By now our regular crew had acquired a lot of experience building houses and we flew through the rough plumbing, rough electrical and HVAC. By the end of 2008, we had completed the drywall installation. North Coast Insulation helped us tremendously by donating and installing all the wall and attic insulation. When we began painting in January 2009 we realized that a little more work needed to be done on the mudding of the drywall joints…luckily, one of our new volunteers, Gary Wiltshire, contacted Mike McGarry & Sons painting contractors, who came out and spread a finish coat of mud on the drywall for us. After sanding, painting took place and the walls sparkled!
By spring we had completed the house and Brianna only had to wait until Habitat was able to complete the cement work- driveway and sidewalks – and a few other minor issues, so that she could move in. Unfortunately, on one fateful weekend the house was broken into and $5000 worth of materials was stolen. Thankfully, insurance covered the loss. Another volunteer group is now putting the house back together again. Brianna hopes to move into her new house soon.
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Lynch-Wright House back to Habitat's home page
In the spring of 2009, the St Basil/St Mathias team was asked to return to East 110 to help with the construction of another house with volunteers from St Clarence in North Olmsted. Throughout the spring and summer we vinyl sided, installed windows, built porches, ran the rough electrical, rough plumbing and HVAC. After installing the insulation, Greater Cleveland Habitat for Humanity informed us that work on the house would have to stop because of financial issues caused by the economic downturn. No money was available for drywall purchase.
Luckily for us, the Case Reserve affiliate of Habitat, with whom we had been working for over a year, was able to procure funds to purchase the drywall. Along with the CWRU students we installed the drywall in short order. But, again, because of financial hardships, Habitat was unable to hire a contractor to mud and tape the drywall joints, so instead of halting work, our crew taped and mudded for the first time. We were fortunate in having some expert volunteers who had done this work before and were good teachers. By July we were painting the interior of the house.
But we again came to a halt because additional funds were not available to complete the house. We boarded up the house; made sure the security system was in operation and temporarily stopped working in construction. Some of our crew spent a few weeks working at the ReStore, preparing donated items for sale.
And then we were told that Wal-Mart had donated money to work, not on the Lynch Wright House, but on a rehab at West 81 near Lorain Ave. (See Davis House)
In late January 2010 we returned to the Lynch Wright house and worked on installing the water heater, outlets and switches, and some duct work when we again ran out of materials. The St Basil/St Mathias team went on hiatus beginning in February 2010 while waiting for the water/gas hook-ups to be completed and funds available for materials to complete the Lynch Wright house.
During 2009 we welcomed a new volunteer, Judy de Francesco, who worked with us until Sept 2009 when she found a new job. Gary Wiltshire worked with us for part of the year while searching for a new job…in February 2010 Gary let us know that he too found a new job. Debbie Boyne and John Gibb from the Bay Presbyterian group also joined us frequently when Habitat for Humanity ran out of work for their group to do. Bruce Esson of our group invited Ron Kollar to join us this year when he met him on another volunteer project for the diocese. Katie White left our team in the 6th month of her pregnancy…we miss her, but she keeps us posted with pictures of her little baby!
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Davis Home back to Habitat's home page
In August 2009 an unexpected gift from Wal Mart enabled the St Basil/St Mathias team to begin work on a rehab house in the City of Cleveland on West 81 St. The previous summer this home had been selected for rehab. Demolition by a group of teens from New Jersey, and their adult leaders, had been completed during the summer of 2008. Moneeke Davis and her family had been waiting over a year for work to begin on her house!
Plans were drawn up quickly; the roof was replaced as well as half of the foundation. Because Wal Mart wanted the house to be completed quickly, they sent out volunteers from their various stores to help us and hired outside contractors to install the vinyl siding, windows, drywall, mud and tape, paint, and tiled floors. The insulation was installed through the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Corporation. Dedication was scheduled for the week before Christmas…and it was a very busy week installing fixtures, the water heater, laminate flooring, touch up painting, kitchen cabinets and wood trim.
After the holidays our crew came back to finish up some details and in January the house passed final city inspections and Moneeke Davis moved in immediately afterward! She and her family are thrilled living in their new, warm home.
Without the financial support from Wal Mart, this home could not have been completed so quickly. Thanks Wal Mart!!!
Don Bain and John from St Clarence parish in North Olmsted, joined the St Basil/St Mathias team at the Davis house. Debbie Boyne and John Gibb, from Bay Presbyterian, also continued to work with our team. And the CWRU students faithfully came to help us on Saturdays….
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Saint Basil the Great