Family at Home in House Built by Volunteers

The ornaments are the same ornaments that Debbie Schrader has been collecting for her three daughters. But this year, they decorate a 9-foot Monterey pine, thanks to the cathedral ceiling in the living room.

The Christmas lights that Mitch Schrader hung outside their Thousand Oaks home are the same ones that once adorned the window of their public housing apartment. But this year, in the house that volunteers built them, there are eaves and a garage door to decorate.

In the summer, the Schraders moved into Thousand Oaks’ first home provided by Habitat for Humanity of Ventura, the Christian organization that builds affordable homes for low-income families with donated materials and volunteer labor.

This year, the family pinned their Christmas stockings to the wall without worrying about plugging up the holes because now they own the walls.

There’s still cookies to be made, and cakes for the girls’ school requested at the last minute, as usual. But Debbie now has enough counter space in her kitchen to do the mixing and baking.

“I’ve got my dream kitchen,” said Debbie, who works for the city of Thousand Oaks as a school crossing guard. She laid the floor tiles and did other work during construction.

The Schraders are well past the new home awe. Instead, there’s deep satisfaction and comfortable intimacy--the kind that comes with knowing where every water pipe is because you helped put it there yourself. Habitat for Humanity requires that each of the families buying a home through the program put in 500 hours of “sweat equity” building the place.

“It’s mine,” Debbie said. “What more can you say than it’s your own when you literally did it yourself?”

The best part of being in a house instead of an apartment? No more noisy neighbors.

“You know, [Christmas is] going to be more relaxing,” said oldest daughter, Lisa, 17. In past years, the loud music next door drove the family to relatives for some peace on the holiday.

The only blot on the peace and quiet was that big old tree. Shortly after the family brought it home a couple of weeks ago and decorated it, the tree toppled because of the soft carpeting.

“We’ve never had a padded carpet,” Debbie said.

The tree has now been wired to the wall and a hard board slid under to steady it. Debbie looked at the accident philosophically: “It will make the first [tree] more memorable.”