HELENA – Helena Area Habitat For Humanity plans to build a house in just five days, and work started at 7 a.m. sharp on Monday.
“It’s going pretty well,” says John Wallis, project superintendent for Diamond Construction, about an hour after the work began. “As you can see, we got our sips panels up, just dropped all of the interior walls inside, going to set trusses here in about a half an hour or so, get it sheeted, dried in today and at least get the house up so we can start pushing sub-contractors through.”
This week, seventy Habitat For Humanity organizations are taking part in the blitz nationwide. For Montana, it’s a first.
“This is the first time that Montana has hosted a Habitat for Humanity Blitz Build, “ says Helena area Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Jacob Kuntz. “And we’re actually the last state not to have hosted a Blitz Build.”
Volunteers are a vital part of making this project work. Jacob Kuntz estimates there will be about 50 people here on the project for this first day. But by the time it’s all said and done, in 5 days, more than 125 people will have come out to help.
“Contractors, suppliers, volunteers, who have come out – we have a group of NCCC, the national civilian community corp, they’re out here with us, as well as a group of youth build students who are going to be with us later in the week,” says Kuntz.
The house is one of six that Habitat is building in Helena in 2018.
“This is the second house that we’re in the process,” says Kuntz. “All the homes are completed in sequence, with none of the homeowners moving in until all of the homes are completed. They act as each other’s building force, or labor force, when it comes to building.”
Diamond Construction is one of several community partners helping out with the blitz and you can be, too.
Wallis says, “We’re just proud to be a part of it and hope that anybody in the community who wants to come down and give us a hand here is more than welcome to, and if you do, we’ll see you down here on the job site.”
The Builder’s Blitz is also being live-streamed; click here to watch.
