Brand New Day

Ana Nan and her young son are moving into a new home thanks to the volunteer work of friends and strangers.
Times globe October 18,1999

Ana Nan and her young son are moving into a new home thanks to the volunteer work of friends and strangers. Photo by Peter Walsh, Saint John Telegraph-Journal.

By John Mazerolle

Yesterday, Ana Nan took a key and opened the home that generosity built.

The 38-year old registered nursing assistant and her six-year-old son Sammy celebrated with about 60 other people yesterday as Habitat for Humanity, Saint John Inc. dedicated its second home built for a hard-working, low-income family.

Standing on the porch of her new two-storey, West Side home, Ms. Nan said she never would have been able to afford one on her own.

“I’m overwhelmed today,” she said. “We’re really happy that we were able to finish.”

Ms. Nan earns about $25,000 a year at the Loch Lomond Villa, and outgoing president Susan Logan said the house is valued at about $75,000.

But thanks to more than 20 corporate sponsors, the labour didn’t cost a dime, and Ms. Nan only has to pay off a 20-year interest free mortgage- at about $160 a month.

Ms. Logan says the money Ms. Nan pays will go toward other Habitat for Humanity housing.

Sammy and his mother were chosen from about 80 applicants, and Ms. Logan says the duo are a good example of the “ Habitat family”- hard working and considerate.

To be eligible for a Habitat home, you must pay a $500 down payment and put in 500 “sweat equity hours.”

Ms Nan is no stranger to hard work. She worked as a registered nurse in her home country of Romania for 11 years before coming to Canada in 1990 with just a suitcase in her hand and $100 in her pocket. She than struggled to learn English before completing a geriatric course and an RNA course.

She said she appreciated all the people who helped on the home, whether they worked on it for an hour, a day, a week or the 12 weeks the project had taken up until yesterday. (The downstairs and the landscaping are still incomplete, she said.)

More than 5,000 hours of work went into the home.

During the dedication ceremony, which included the blessing of the house by Rev. Gordon O’Coin and a few words from Mayor Shirley McAlary, building committee chairman Tim Ryan said he’d never built a house before.

“ I don’t even own a tool box;” he said.

Nevertheless, the home was completed, much to the delight of 71 year-old Len Joudrey, a close friend of the family who decided he’d help on the project for a week or two.

“It turned out to be 12 weeks, but I tell you what - it was 12 weeks of blessing.”

While one Habitat home is completed worldwide every 48 minutes, the Saint John organization just hopes to build one a year. For 2000, however, it wants to build a duplex so they can help two families.

The third Habitat home is planned for next spring.

You can contact the organization to make a donation of time or materials.