Save the dates –  Calling All Women of Gallatin Valley     join us in the 11th Annual Woman Build.

Postpone Women Build until August 2012

It’s sad but true….we are going to have to postpone our 11th Women Build due to unexpected delays in getting all of the approval process completed.   Keller-Williams Real Estate agents will once again spearhead this event for our affiliate.  We still plan on building the first passive home by a Habitat affiliate in the state of Montana. We are expecting to begin the excavation in May. Look for notice of our ground breaking event at our Facebook page.

Those of you who are reading this, and sharing with your friends know that we rely on volunteers to do much of our work on getting affordable housing built in this community.  Such is the case with our first passive home.  We have reached and passed several deadlines to make his year’s Women Build a success.  Rather than push for this to happen and putting more pressure on the volunteers who have committed a great of time,  their personal resources (financial and others) to meet the certification process we now know that to hold our event this year is unrealistic. And, cold weather is just around the corner.

So – while we want you to join in the fun of swing a hammer, driving nails, and feeling good about putting up walls, framing windows and building a decent affordable home, we invite you to join us next spring when we can do it with success.

Meanwhile, keep coming back to this website as we’ll be adding more information about Passive Homes and what that all means.  We’ll be posting links to video’s that will help us all understand the impact a Passive Home will have on those living it and how they life styles will be different from what you and I are doing right now.

So – come on back….check in….continue to support our efforts to bring decent affordable housing to our service area.

Hedgerow presents come real challenges due to a high water table and loose soil conditions. After a year of working with various engineers and soil experts we have designed a foundation that will ensure that water stays out and the crawl space remains dry.

Thanks to the volunteers and TLC we have been able to complete the foundation before this real cold weather we are now dealing with came in. Carlton is getting his volunteer crew ready to begin the next step of getting the crawl space covered.

Stay tuned to our website here for updates….Find out where we are at and what we need in terms of volunteers.

Keep coming back to our website to learn how we are doing; what we need help with; and where we stand with the building process.

Just last April – April 1st to be exact, we broke ground for Joe. It was a cold and windy morning, just like most mornings in Gardiner when the backhoe scratched the ground laying out the ditch for the foundation.

Little did we fully realize all of the challenges that needed facing. Thank goodness for all of the volunteers who effectively met them head-on. This included the various trade professionals who donated some of their time and supplies in order to make this house affordable for Joe.

We would like to especially thank the Cumberland WI, Augustana Lutheran Church, Northwest Synod group that came out in July 2010 to pitch in and make some major headway on getting the house’s exterior up, completed, and sealed in.

As winter was fast approaching this year we called upon the volunteers from Bozeman to come down twice a week to help out. With their dedication and commitment to working side-by-side with the local crew we were able to place Joe in the house by the 17th of December. What a great place to celebrate his first Christmas.

Now our next step is to dedicate this home for Joe, and to the glory of God who through his people – our volunteers and trades professionals, made this house a home. Since Northwest Synod of Wisconsin with leadership from Augustana Church, Cumberland, WI, played such a major role in accomplishing the completion of Joe’s new home they need to be part of the dedication service. This will take place in July 2011 when they join us again for another Habitat Home Build.

Look for the announcement on our new website and consider joining us in this celebration!