Ice storms froze home owner's dreams

Winter weather caused delays in helping Jennifer Farris' dreams of home ownership come true.

Thursday, January 10th 2008, 12:44 pm

By: News 9


By Doug Warner, NEWS 9

Jennifer Farris waited for years to own her first home. She helped many other families realize their dream of home ownership by volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. And then the non-profit organization decided it was Farris' time for a new home.

Dozens of volunteers from Habitat for Humanity began building her home in December last year. But winter weather put a freeze on the project and Farris had to wait a little longer for her dreams to come true.

"The worse ice storm in our state's history and my house is being built," said Farris, who continued to smile throughout the wait.

Habitat for Humanity started building Farris' house rapidly. Farris even told NEWS 9, "It's amazing how fast they are going to build it."

But within a few days, rain began to fall on the unfinished project, literally. The rain froze and became ice. The more rain that fell every day, the more the project came to a standstill. Progress on the house froze, just like the landscape across much of Oklahoma did last December.

Her house was part of Habitat's new Hope Crossing Neighborhood project and was set to be built in a record 100 hours. The house was erected in the right amount of time, but those hours became spread out over weeks and not days.

Despite the winter weather woes, the house was finished and Farris moved in with her two children.

"The kids love it and I'm so thankful for Habitat," she said.

When Habitat is done building the Hope Crossing neighborhood on the west side of Kelley Avenue, just north of Wilshire Blvd., some 210 families will have new homes.

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