It’s been only a few weeks since the local Habitat for Humanity committee held the key presentation ceremony – marking the end of the first build in Estevan – but the committee has already started to prepare for its next new house in Estevan.
The committee held a meeting on Thursday evening, its first since the key ceremony. Committee chair Doug Barnstable said the committee discussed fundraising and timetables for the next home.
“Several of our committee members have stepped down because of other commitments and so on, so we’re looking at getting some people involved in various areas,” said Barnstable.
“Then we’ll be looking at the fundraising process that we’ll be going through this year, and timetables for various parts of that fundraising process, including the purchase of the lot, as well as getting to the point where we can select the family and do the actual house plan selection.”
He hopes all of those tasks can be finished by the end of this year, so that construction on the new home can begin in the spring of 2019.
The committee is in need of a new treasurer to replace Dan Jenish. They also need people to head up the publicity and the partner family selection committees. Habitat could look internally to fill those needs, or it could turn to people from the community.
Meetings are typically held on the third Thursday of the month.
The first fundraiser is already planned. It will be a wood sign workshop at the Fired Up Grill on Feb. 3.
“People sign up for it online, and then they attend that workshop, and work on producing their wood sign,” said Barnstable.
The committee still has some bills to pay from the last build. A couple of tasks need to be done at the house, including the installation of eavestroughs and parging the foundation of the home. Parging can wait until spring, while eavestroughs will likely be done in a few weeks.
“Then once we get those things done, we’ll write the final books off, and get onto the fundraising and building and constructing costs for budgeting the next one,” said Barnstable.
The committee expects to carry over at least $20,000 in seed money to the next project build, which will give them a head start for the next build.
The next lot will likely cost anywhere from $80,000 to $100,000, depending on the location in the community.
Barnstable said the committee learned a lot from its first build, and they hope to carry those lessons to the next one.
“Some of those things relate to timing, and they relate to the process of fundraising, and even the build process that we went through, how we might improve on some areas, or how we might be able to involve more volunteers or involve more local people,” said Barnstable.
A build with better timing would give the committee more access to the gifts in kind that are available through Habitat for Humanity Canada.
Since the construction started last summer, it limited the materials the committee had access to through the national sponsorship.
Still, he was pleased with how the first build went.
“Hopefully you can learn from some of the things you’ve done, and make some improvements and go forward from that,” he said.
