Habitat homes get a lawn... plus

Bob Mowers (center-left), Ron Gregg and Paul Janssen prepare to place sod at one of two new Habitat houses in Sisters. Dawn Roberts, owner, looks over the fence from her new house. photo by Tom Chace

Members of the Lutheran Church from all over Central Oregon converged on Sisters on Saturday, September 13, to help finish two Habitat for Humanity houses.

They landscaped the two houses on Tamarack Road near Sisters Elementary School and also went across town and put in a sod lawn at another Habitat house on St. Helens Avenue that was "finished" and occupied, but needed grass and bark to be really complete.

They came from First Lutheran Church of Bend, ELCA; from the Nativity Lutheran Church in Bend, ELCA; from the Faith Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod in La Pine; and from Sisters' own Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church.

Ruth Peterson, landscape project manger/board member of Sisters Habitat for Humanity, said that in addition to the Lutheran volunteers two "caravaneers" showed up to help.

"Judy and Susan (last names unavailable) came from California and camped at our community park for a week, living in their RV. There is a caravan newsletter that goes out telling where various Habitat projects are in the works and these two wonderful women came to help us out," she said.

Dawn Roberts and her 12-year-old son used oversized rakes to take away pile after pile of rocks to prepare the soil before the volunteers arrived. They had the yard well raked and watered and ready for the sod to be put down by the designated hour of 9:30 a.m.

Pastor Ron Gregg from Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church put on gloves and toted roll after roll of sod grass ready to be placed. Bob Mowers and Paul Janssen, both residents of Black Butte Ranch, also carried the 40-pound rolls until the pallet was emptied.

Habitat provided three pallets of sod and a pallet of bark in bags.

"Each homeowner can personalize his or her own place with rocks, trees or other ornaments, at their own cost," said Peterson.

Bob Harris, head of the volunteer crew that remodeled and finished the houses on Tamarack Road, said that these particular houses were "trucked in from the Deschutes River Ranch when they wanted to upscale their development. They were donated to us scot-free.

"We even didn't have to pay for the moving," Harris said, "as we only had room here for two and we were given six. The movers took four and brought our two here without cost to us."

This brings to a total of 26 the number of Habitat houses in the Sisters area.

"We've put down five this year," he said, "three from scratch and these two."

Candy Park is one of the new homeowners with her twin 10-year-old boys.

"I extended the deck and put much of it down myself or with the help of friends," she said.

She picked the exterior colors of "seafoam," a pleasant gray-green with purple trim.

"There were boulders where the driveway was to go in back and I moved them out here in front of the house and placed so I can plant flowers and trees in among them," Park said.

"Someday we're even going to put in a pond running from the front of the house to the boulders out front."

Dawn Roberts, a hair stylist with B-J & Friends, chose an olive-khaki color for her house with terra-cotta red as the trim.

Each Habitat homeowner is given $300 to finish the exterior and landscaping. Park said she will probably spend over the allowance, covering the rest out-of-pocket as, she said, "I want more trees and other things around my house."

A friend gave her two dozen pavers that now form a small circle at the center of the connecting walkways leading to the front door and side deck of the house.

"I would like to buy others to make it more like a patio," Park said.

"I was given quite a few plants by F&F Nursery at the Hurtley Ranch and I got others from Sunny Days in Panoramic Estates," she said.

Central Electric Cooperative did a major electrical realignment in the area, without cost to the property owners, when the new houses and other conditions required additional equipment.

Habitat of Sisters was awarded the Jimmy Carter trophy three years ago for having the most Habitat houses of any city in the United States per capita.