ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOUNT VERNON — For five years, Jodi and Brian Ouellet and their three children lived in a school bus.
So when an application for Habitat for Humanity mysteriously showed up in their mailbox last year, they had no idea it would lead to a new house.
"We knew nothing about Habitat or how they got our name," Jodi Ouellet said. But she and her husband sent the application in and waited. "It was pins and needles for months waiting to hear. Then they came to our bus and interviewed us," she said.
A few more months passed, and then the call came. They had been approved. By March, they were so eager to move into their new home that for the first few nights they camped out on the floors of their bedrooms in sleeping bags, before they even had any furniture. The family was completely moved in a few days later.
"We’d call out, ‘Hey, where are you?’ because it was the first time we couldn’t see each other," Jodi Ouellet said. "It was so big, and we were in our own rooms!"
The Ouellets are among eight families who have moved into houses at Habitat Place, near the intersection of North 29th and East Division streets in Mount Vernon.
Skagit Habitat for Humanity launched the construction project in 1998. What began as a field of grass on land donated to the organization has become home to 14 adults and 26 children.
"Thousands of people helped make this happen," said Hardy VanRy, executive director of Skagit Habitat. "It takes a lot of sweat, time, money and prayers."
As the final touches are put on the last few homes, VanRy said it’s incredible to think that the organization’s first house took a year to complete.
The group is faster now. Habitat built five houses in one year. In 1993, local citizens began organizing Skagit Habitat in response to the pressing need for affordable housing.
By 1994, the organization had received official affiliation with Habitat for Humanity International, and the first family moved into a home in 1995.
Families for Habitat houses are chosen under the guideline that Skagit Habitat works only for people who are willing to work for themselves, VanRy said.
"This is not charity," he said. "Our bumper-sticker saying is that we build houses with people, not for people. The families have to work 500 hours building their house, as well as on other projects, and they have to pay us back with a zero-interest monthly mortgage."
Jodi Ouellet said it was fun to watch her house come together from foundation to finish. But what meant the most to her was seeing the community pitch in.
"I almost cried every weekend because there were tons of people out here on Saturdays giving their time to help build our home, when I’m sure there were a million other things they could have been doing," she said.
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