C-Falls Habitat project completed

“I’m so excited, I can’t wait,” Michelle Wieglenda beamed. “I have a home for my son Johnny.”

In a few days, Wieglenda will move into 1 Mitchell Way in Columbia Falls. She’ll step into a brand new home that she helped build with her own hands, thanks to Habitat for Humanity.

Wieglenda and neighbors Zach and Kimberly Lindsay and their three children, Marly, Scout and Myles, were the final families to move into the neighborhood, the largest Habitat for Humanity project ever in the Flathead Valley.

The neighborhood now has 16 townhomes, a project that took four years to complete through 50,000 hours of labor and more than 6,000 volunteers as well as a host of donations of money and supplies to build the homes.

Homeowners in the program were required to work on the homes as sweat equity. Wieglenda, a single mom, and the Lindsays broke ground last fall and worked through the winter and spring to get their homes completed.

“This is the first time we’ve built this many homes in one location,” Habitat board vice president Hap Peters said.

But there’s plenty of work to do, he said.

“We calculate there’s 1,000 families in the Flathead living in substandard housing,” he said. “We’re done here, but we’re not done.”

The Columbia Falls project kicked off in May of 2011 and today is home to 19 adults and 33 children, Habitat executive director Erin Falcon said. One of the original families had to leave due to a medical condition.

Homeowners have a mortgage to pay, but the loan is interest-free. The homes are built with energy efficiency in mind to keep costs down. Habitat selects families based on their need, ability to pay the mortgage and their willingness to partner with the organization.

The organization will next break ground on a new project off Three Mile drive in Kalispell, Falcon said.

During the completion ceremony, young Marly couldn’t stop smiling. Asked about her new bedroom, she smiled and exclaimed, “It’s pink.”

Habitat for Humanity holds build days every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. No building experience is necessary to help out.

Habitat’s on-site professional construction site supervisor will assign tasks and supervise all construction. For more information, call 406-257-8800.