Lynn Parris arrived at Wellborn Manor Monday, ready for this week’s Jimmy Carter Work Project. He’d been prepping for the past month, and now it was show time. But when a group of local electrical and plumbing contractors ditched at the last minute, he wasn’t about to let a glitch like that threaten the week’s progress.
Homeowners would be moving in soon.
The 22-year-old Heflin resident worked ’round the clock and well into Tuesday night — calling in a few favors — to get the 36 homes wiring and plumbing.
“We were set up for disaster, but I had some dedicated people stay with me, and we made it up,” Parris said.
Anniston’s progress is on schedule, sources with Habitat for Humanity said Wednesday. Parris, director of construction for Calhoun County’s Habitat for Humanity affiliate, estimated the project to be three hours behind. However, some Habitat officials said it was slightly ahead of schedule.
“I was told today that that we were farther along than most other five-day, blitz-build projects, as of Wednesday morning,” said Dana van Ekris, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Calhoun County.
The goal in Anniston is 3 p.m. Friday, when the home dedications take place.
The other two legs of the Jimmy Carter Work Project, in Valdosta, Ga., and LaGrange, Ga., are close to being on schedule.
In Valdosta, Habitat volunteers are trying to build 27 homes, and organizers had to start two extra houses to keep the volunteers busy.
Robert Jackson, executive director of the Habitat affiliate in Valdosta, said the building is going well despite torrential rains earlier in the week.
“When you’re building this many houses simultaneously, you plan for them to stay about the same,” Jackson said. “But you have to leave a little time for some wiggle room.”
In LaGrange, Walter Hendrix, executive director of that affiliate, said its 32 houses are on schedule.
His volunteers worked through rain Monday. They also did a little work Sunday night.
“Lord willing, I believe we’ll be very close,” Hendrix said. “We may take off an hour ahead of time.”
As a nondescript French voice blared out a table prayer across Wellborn Manor, workers started trickling to the food tent, which relieved the homes of their human constructors for a few minutes.
The majority of homes had shingled roofs, vinyl siding, wooden decks and trim by Wednesday’s end. Some workers then took their saws, hammers and screwdrivers inside to finish interior walls, hang doors and install cabinets.
Workers at a few homes started laying sod, a job normally scheduled for Thursday.
Arlan Roszell of Jacksonville, a block leader in charge of house numbers 1, 2, 25, 34 and 35, bartered a few packs of insulation from another block leader nearby. He needed them to finish a home so he could direct workers in the interior work.
Roszell, who owns Quality Gutter and Siding, said 90 percent of the houses are ahead of schedule, and part of the reason is the volunteers.
“Most of them are skilled to the point to where we really don’t have to tell them what to do,” Roszell said.
Roszell scurried off, calling instructions over his cell phone to one of his house leaders farther down Turpin Street.
Another block leader, Will Berkeley of Charlotte, N.C., delivered the packs of insulation to one of Roszell’s houses and hopped on a golf cart to head back to his group of homes, numbers 26, 27, 28 and 29.
Berkeley, 26, had to overcome some obstacles this week, namely a XXL Habitat T-shirt.
“I felt like I was wearing a nightgown,” he said. “I’m a medium-type guy.”
His crews were already inside the homes, sanding dry wall and getting ready to prime it.
Princie Couch, who’s putting in her sweat equity on a Habitat home along Turpin Street, took a short walk through her home and showed off its three bedrooms. She spent the morning sanding walls and applying vinyl siding.
She had small beads of sweat rolling down her forehead, and she looked a little tired.
“This is my first time ever seeing a home built this fast,” Couch said. “It’s a challenge. I don’t have no more words for it. It’s just a good feeling.”
