Volunteers to ‘Blitz Build’ Home in a Week

Volunteers from Habitat for Humanity will build a house in a one-week “Blitz Build” expected to get an Orange County family into a new home by Thanksgiving.

Two crews totaling 80 people will work day and night starting Saturday to build the home at 212 Del Mar Ave. Construction, including carpeting and painting, is expected to be complete by the following Saturday, and the family should be moving in soon afterward, according to Habitat’s Orange County director, Ron Blake.

“It will be a very well-constructed house, but it is simple,” Blake said. “It will be just covered with people doing things.”

This is the group’s second Blitz Build.

The home will be sold to Mike and Linda Sebo of Brea and their four children, who qualify by fitting into a low-income bracket, possessing good credit and currently living in substandard housing. They also must put in 600 hours of “sweat equity,” including work on the home itself and office work for Habitat.

The home will be rented to them until they complete the 600 hours, at which time it will be sold at cost, estimated in the $70,000 range, with a 20-year, interest-free mortgage and 1% down payment.

Costa Mesa donated the land as a contribution toward low-income housing and is dedicating a building inspector to the project all week, Blake said. That will allow the home to receive its occupancy permit quickly after completion.

Helping sponsor the project are Auto Trader magazine, which is donating $50,000 toward the construction, and the engineering firm Snyder-Langston, which is donating $20,000 worth of time and materials.

Habitat for Humanity, an international nonprofit organization, has built 75 homes in Orange County since opening an affiliate here 10 years ago. The parent group has built 70,000 homes worldwide and is the fifth-largest home builder in the United States, according to Blake.