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Families Move Into Homes Built With Own Hands

by KREX News Room
by Amanda Brandeis

Story Created: Aug 30, 2012 at 7:04 PM MDT

Story Updated: Aug 30, 2012 at 9:12 PM MDT

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.- After months of hard work, 10 families are finally seeing the fruits of their labor. The Housing Resources Mutual Self-Help Program gives people the opportunity to construct their own home and perform about 70 percent of the construction labor.

On Thursday morning, 10 families moved into their new homes in Palisade.

The homeowners come from various backgrounds. NewsChannel 5 caught up with one of them. Born in Germany, Crystal Woolen is an Army brat.

"My father was in the military, so I traveled a lot as a kid," Woolin said.

She too joined the service, and several years later, is ready to establish some more permanent roots.

Woolin said, "It's a huge transition for anyone who goes through war. War is a very different type of scenario. To come back to living civilian life is of course has its challenges."

She and nine other families have been given the opportunity to embark on a rare journey, building their houses from the ground up.

"You build together as a group. You build on each others' homes and no one moves in until they're all done," she said.

Woolen says there are several things she's looking forward to.

"I'm painting the walls whatever colors I want. Having your own piece of land that's yours, I'm pretty sure in general, that's the American dream, everyone knows that. I'm just really glad I was able to get mine."

Not only did the families build their homes, they had to learn how to own them.

"They help you with credit counseling, they help you get completely on track and ready to go into the house with a lot of homebuyer education," said Woolen.

In addition to homes, the families also gained invaluable friendships.

"I've met some really amazing people. Generally, people who aren't hardworking don't do this program."

Woolin says her son is most excited about getting a dog. First, they will need to build a fence.

Now, 10 homes are ready for 10 families to start their new lives.

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PowerOfChoice said on Monday, Sep 3 at 8:34 PM

Under the law there are certain requirements (1) Housing Resources would have Fiduciary Duty in that any change benefits all owners and not be “self-serving” (Do you think lowing the square footage benefitted the marketability of the owners properties who had already purchased or was it self-serving benefitting only Housing Resources?) and (2) they should have received 67% of the owners, other than themselves, to agree to any change in the CCR’s in order to increase the right to build something other than already implied and expressed, which the other owners had reliance upon when they purchased.

PowerOfChoice said on Monday, Sep 3 at 8:24 PM

I know for a fact that in the CCR’s for Wine Valley the Declarant (a.k.a. Developer) did not “Reserve” the right to change the square footage of homes. In Colorado a Declarant/Developer is required to “reserve” items they want to change. The reason CCIOA requires a developer to reserve the right to change items is so the consumer can make an informed choice whether or not to purchase based upon what has been “implied and expressed” in the documents. If a developer could change anything they wanted then there would be no reasons for CCIOA to “require" them to reserve the right to change items. Without such a provision there would be no Consumer Protection Rights required under the law regarding the sale of goods to a consumer. The purchase and sale of all goods are covered under consumer protection including property.

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