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With winter closing in, Thomas Hughes knows that the banging hammers soon will be quieted at Habitat for Humanity construction sites. Volunteers won't be needed. Home building will pause until spring. For Mr. Hughes, 73, of Buffalo, Butler County, the break is not particularly welcome. "It gets boring," he said of the slow season. .
Jodie and Paul Samala's long journey from a cramped, overpriced apartment to the joys of owning a roomy, affordable house began soon after Hurricane Ivan's arrival two years ago."We were in a rental at the time," said Jodie Samala. "My husband and I almost bought a house before Ivan. But after the storm, the owners backed out."In the immediate wake of the hurricane, Paul Samala lost his job at the Crowne Plaza Pensacola Grand hotel, which is set to reopen in November after months of storm repairs.The couple and their small child were forced to move in with relatives.Because Ivan destroyed some 2,000 rental units in the greater Pensacola area, finding an affordable unit was a major challenge, Jodie Samala said.Eventually the Samalas found a rental apartment, but their monthly payments soared from $675 to $1,100, well beyond what they could afford."We knew we had to do something," she said.What they did was approach the City of Pensacola's Housing Department and apply for down-payment assistance through the state's Hurricane Housing Recovery Program.Because the Samalas' gross income was about 80 percent of the median average for the Pensacola area, the family of three qualified for a $50,000 grant, which would be held by the city and treated as a second mortgage.That grant money, coupled with the Samalas' conventional first mortgage, helped them purchase a new home in June and effectively lowered their monthly payments to a figure that, by general rule, must be less than 30 percent of gross family income.And to sweeten the deal, $10,000 of the Samalas' $50,000 second mortgage will be forgiven after the first year if they decide to sell the home, according to Jimmie McFall, manager of the city's SHIP (State Housing Initiatives Partnership) program.The remaining $40,000 will be forgiven once the mortgage is paid."We probably would have left Pensacola had we not be able to buy an affordable home," said Jodie Samala, a 1993 graduate of Catholic High School.McFall says Hurricane Housing Recovery Program money, which may run out within the year, is being maximized in the Escambia and Santa Rosa area.Using those funds, and taking advantage of several in-fill vacant lots, McFall says the city has more than 30 affordable housing units under construction, with more on the way.A home of her ownKaren Incera is another grateful recipient of Hurricane Housing Recovery Program money and was one of the fortunate ones to be given, at no cost to her, a vacant in-fill lot acquired by the city.The former Miami resident, who works for Deep South Crane Rentals Inc., said she expects to move into her new home on Coyle Street early next month."Someone mentioned the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program to me, and I called, and they gave me a pamphlet," said Incera, a single mother of three.
LOGAN - Though it will play differently when it airs on national television, the arrival of the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" bus in Logan on Sunday will hardly be a surprise to those involved.
Cleanup already has begun at the home of the winning family - whose identity is being kept hidden - to prepare for the project, which calls for removal of the existing house and construction of a new one in one short week.
On Friday the trees surrounding the home had been trimmed to make way for the heavy equipment.
When ABC's Ty Pennington and his crew roll up Sunday, operators and their bulldozers will be on site to raze the home. Construction workers and hundreds of student volunteers from Utah State University and Logan High also will help with the fast-track project.
The new Datamax H-Class is a family of printers set to revolutionise thermal and RFID label printing. Providing outstanding performance, sound durability and accurate print quality, the H-Class is one of the most flexible labelling solutions offered in the industry to date. The Datamax H-Class is available in Australia through Label Power. .
October 16, 2006 From any tall building in almost any major city, dozens, possibly hundreds of roofs can be seen which carry free space which is not being employed the owners benefit. The free space on top of buildings has never been ascribed much value, and rarely gets any consideration on a balance sheet, but offers a major opportunity because in some locations, it represents very valuable virgin real estate indeed. Last week we wrote about the pre-fabricated Loftcube which can be made-to-order and helicoptered into position, commisiioned and fully functional in 24 hours, with prices starting at US$138,000. The Loftcube is a modern construction and doesnt suite everybody, as in most such instances, additional construction must be in sympathy with existing, important buildings. St. John's Wood Court is a century-old double winged mansion block directly opposite the W.
THE proposal by Redland Shire Council for a new infrastructure charges on new developments has been described as an outrage by Master Builders. The charge on the Bay Islands could be up to $13,000 per buildingblock. Master Builders executive director Graham Cuthbert said the adoption of the policy would result in a continued decline in housing affordability because of the new home construction costs. "Such a policy would be totally unacceptable in light of the fact that some of these roads and traffic lights will be nowhere near the development vicinity." "Master Builders vehemently opposes such a policy as it is not fair and equitable to new homebuyers in the Shire. "However, Master Builders would applaud a solution which saw such infrastructure establishment costs being spread across all residents who equally use the services," said Mr Cuthbert.
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