Lots of Love, Lots of Nails
By Kyle Hunsberger, Habitat Construction Manager
Habitat homes have always been built with plenty of love and lots of nails. You can never have too many nails, right? Over the past seven years that I have worked with Habitat, I have seen a lot of changes to the design of our homes. It is safe to say that we will continue to see changes in the homes that we build for various reasons, such as neighborhood design, city regulatory specifications and cost efficiencies. However, no matter what the exterior design, our ultimate goal is to provide a safe, healthy, easy-to-maintain living environment for our families so they can live and grow into all that God intended. With that in mind, Habitat’s Construction Committee has developed a “Home Design Criteria.” The purpose of the design criteria is to keep us focused on our ultimate goal, which is to provide a simple, decent, affordable place to live. Let’s examine those three factors.
A simple place to live can be defined as a home that is space efficient and has as little negative impact to the environment as possible. Our homes typically have between 1,150 to 1,200 square feet of living space, not including the basement, which are often remodeled by the homeowner to provide additional living space. We strive to use building products that are recyclable and reduce the strain on the world’s natural resources.
What does decent place to live mean? A home that’s designed and constructed to promote a healthy living environment for the homeowners. This is achieved by applying building practices and materials that offer the most health benefit to our homeowners in the long run, like sufficient and continuous ventilation systems to reduce the risk of moisture and mold. We are also including a passive Radon system, which provides resistance to Radon and other toxic ground-released gases.
And finally what does affordable mean? It means that we strive to build the most energy-efficient homes that we can with the funds and resources available to us, while at the same time keeping the home maintenance costs low. Our wall insulation will never drop below an R-17 value. Insulation in the attic will never drop below an R-30 value. Additionally, we will continue to use the most high-efficiency furnaces, air conditioners and hot water heaters available to us. We also use products such as vinyl siding, vinyl flooring and handrails, which require no painting and no to low maintenance.
Habitat is a faith-based housing ministry, and as such, our goals are not profit focused, but focused on the overall well being of our families. We are committed to building a better home. So next time you’re onsite and notice that we may be doing things a little different than your traditional builder, you’ll know that it’s because we’re building simple, decent, affordable homes, built with lots of love and, of course, lots of nails.
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