Wentzville family gets its house just in time for Thanksgiving
By MICHELLE MEYER
11/27/2002

A HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS--Family gets its house in time for Thanksgiving

Turkey, gravy and stuffing. Green bean casserole, broccoli and cheese casserole, corn. Sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls. Pecan pie. Pumpkin pie.

Angela Jones of Wentzville has had her Thanksgiving meal menu planned for weeks. This will be the first Thanksgiving dinner Jones has cooked for her family.

This year, for the first time, Jones has an oven that works. This year, for the first time, Jones, 26, and her family - husband David, 28, daughter Matayha, 3, and sons David II, 5, and D'Angelo, 1 - have a home of their own.

Her Thanksgiving menu "is what I always had as a kid growing up," Angela Jones said. "I want my kids to have that."

The Jones family is thankful this holiday season for a three-bedroom, tri-level house built by Habitat for Humanity, a not-for-profit organization that builds affordable houses for families in need.

David Jones works as a paramedic with Abbott Ambulances. Angela Jones plans to finish an associate's degree at St. Charles Community College next year and eventually hopes to teach art history at the secondary level.

"We could only afford for one of us to go to school at a time," she said. "If you don't get educated before you start having kids, you get stuck."

Before moving into the house on Dale Avenue, the family spent five years living in a 23-year-old mobile home in St. Peters. Besides not having a working oven, the home had other problems. Opossums tore through the floor in the bathroom, and the roof leaked.

"When you got up in the middle of the night, you'd kick a bucket of water," Jones said. "I got depressed living there."

Jones applied for help with Habitat for Humanity after learning about the organization from her mother-in-law, Diane Jones. David and Angela Jones worked alongside the volunteer workers on their home every Wednesday and Sunday.

"We would help with framing, siding, putting up drywall," Angela Jones said. "We laid the concrete in the front. We put our initials in it. Me and David did a lot of bonding."

The family moved into their house Sept. 25.

"The night we moved in, it was a surreal experience. We couldn't sleep," she said. "We stayed up until 4 a.m. unpacking. We would try to go to sleep, but we couldn't."

Since Habitat for Humanity formed in the county five years ago, the organization has completed 17 homes. All the homes lining the west side of Dale Avenue were built by Habitat for Humanity.

The Jones family plans to put up a Christmas tree this weekend.

Angela said she works hard to make do with what the family has. The children's closets and toy boxes are neatly organized with many goods bought from consignment shops.

Matayha sleeps on a small pink bed that Angela found on the street, deserted by a neighbor.

The boys sleep on a bunk bed given to them by friends.

Inside the house on a recent afternoon, David played video games while Matayha amused herself with a doll. D'Angelo napped in a bedroom. Jones sat at her kitchen table - the one she recently painted with gray fleck paint to resemble a granite surface - and watched her children.

"They love the house," she said.

David said the new home "looks great."

"My back yard is the funnest part," he added. The family installed an outdoor play set last weekend.

When asked if he was looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner in his own home, David shook his head. "I'm looking forward to Christmas," he said.

Reporter Michelle Meyer: E-mail: mmmeyer@post-dispatch.com Phone: 636-255-7208