Neighbors Sprucing Up Neighbors : Community: 40 volunteers spend day making over four homes to improve area’s image.

David Wai Ho was one of more than 40 volunteers who plowed, painted and cleaned his neighbor’s home on Saturday during the first Paint-Plant-Clean-Up-Day at the Freedom Homes-Canyon Park neighborhood.

“I was determined to do it. It’s an important thing,” said Ho, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1988.

Four homes in the neighborhood were spruced up to give the area a better image and to show pride in the community, organizers and volunteers said.

The neighborhood was built in the early 1950s and is located west of Placentia Avenue, between West 19th Street on the south side and Victoria Street on the north.

Mary Fewel, editor of Freedom Homes-Canyon Park newsletter and one of the organizers of the cleanup, said the homes on West 19th Street were chosen for a make-over because they were most visible and they need the repairs.

“We picked these homes because the entire west side drive past these properties,” said Fewel.

But some residents were unhappy because one of the homes chosen was a rental property and its owners live in San Clemente, Fewel added.

Megan Bogart, another event organizer, said the volunteers were forced, in a way, to choose that particular house.

“It was an eyesore,” she said. The house had broken windows and doors and was painted blue, bright green and turquoise, she said.

The house is now painted beige with a white trim.

Jeff Williams, a landscape contractor and a neighbor, said he and volunteers added an automatic sprinkler and irrigation system, a split-rail white fence on the front yard and a planted shrubs that flower year round.

Williams said the work was easy but getting the homeowners to agree to let them work on the house was an unexpected obstacle. “They thought we were going to attach a lien against their property after we do the work and try to collect money from them,” Williams said.

Anne Stanbrook, who owns the house along with her husband, Robert, and another couple, said, “I’m 70 years old and I was very skeptical because I never heard of anybody doing this before.” Stanbrook said she spoke with one of the event organizers and was convinced that the work was being done to improve the neighborhood.

Money to improve the homes came from the neighborhood’s fund-raising event last year in which $2,500 was collected. Fewel said 14 residents held a “Home and Garden Tour” in which they invited people to view their homes and gardens for a donation of $5.

Fewel said local businesses also contributed by donating money and supplies such as paint, lumber, trees, plants and hand tools.

Rosa Andrade, 25, who rents the home with her husband, Eduardo, 26, and their children Maritza, 5, and Anthony, 2, said she did not believe the news that the house was going to be remodeled at no cost to them.

“My husband even called in sick today so he can join everyone,” said Andrade, who was painting a fence.

“Now it looks like a new house. When my friends come over they won’t believe it,” she said.

Organizers said they will have another fund-raiser this summer to continue the home improvement efforts in the neighborhood.