SAN BERNARDINO: Volunteers help create home for family of five

SAN BERNARDINO: Volunteers help create home for family of five

A vacant lot, a remnant from the Old Fire in 2003 that destroyed hundreds of homes in this citys northeast corner, is being transformed into a three-bedroom, two-bath home by Habitat for Humanity of the San Bernardino area and its dedicated corps of volunteers.

The beneficiaries of this project will be Gus and Melissa Calderon and their three children, Arianna, 16, Isaac, 11, and Johnathon, 7, who along with friends and relatives are putting in 500 hours of sweat equity themselves to see the home finished.

Habitat for Humanity depends on organizations and individuals who donate their time, talent and even building supplies to help see this and other similar projects to fruition.

On Feb. 7, eight volunteers, five of them from First Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Redlands, were on hand to hammer, saw, measure and cut building materials as the 1,170 square-foot house with a two-car garage takes shape.

They continued to put the finishing touches on framing the rooms inside the house and install a thermal barrier on the roof in preparation for installation of roofing, wiring and insulation and other chores that precede putting up sheetrock and closing in the house.

First Lutheran member and Redlands resident Jeanne Fortier said this is my fifth or sixth house. Allan (Griesemer) and I worked on the roof the last time.

Normally Rick Miles, with the church, is one of the last ones in and the last one out on Habitat homes because he specializes in phone and computer wiring, but he was present this day to help with nailing wood support beams and wall stud stabilizers.

Griesemer, another Redlands resident and First Lutheran member, was the dean of the group. My work with Habitat goes back 15 or 20 years. Ive been involved in helping build six or seven houses. Ive been involved in all stages, including digging trenches.

Church member Gerri Licke drove from her Corona home hoping to either get in on drywall installation or paint. I like to paint, she said. The house hadnt progressed that far so she chipped in helping carry wood beams, holding nails for long-time volunteer Barbara Herold to hammer into the wood.

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SAN BERNARDINO: Volunteers help create home for family of five