JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The community celebrated the completion of 25 newly built homes and 25 renovated homes in New Town. Saturday morning was the culmination of a week-long home building blitz.
More than 30 private home builders and 1,500 volunteers came together with Habitat for Humanity of Jacksonville, the Northeast Florida Builders Association and Builders Care to make the dream of owning a home a reality.
Landon Homes built Brandi Francis' new home.
"It was amazing. Shocked. I love it. First time able to have my own house, kids get to have their own room instead of sharing a room," said Francis.
The renovation of Margie Cody's home meant that she would get to stay in the home her parents bought and she has lived in for the last 10 years.
"It's just great because I'm looking at things and remembering my mom," Cody said. "I knew I couldn't do it all at one time so we were going to have to spread it out over a period of time and it would have proved to be an extreme financial hardship,"
Cody is grateful for the organizations and volunteers who stepped in.
Matt Wilford, executive director of Builders Care, said they started planning last November, then the builders came together.
"Got them in one room and said who's taking what? That's essentially what we did. And everybody stepped up in a major way, and said what do we need to do and basically it's went from there," Wilford said.