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After six long days of hard work, the north Omaha neighborhood at 18th and Ohio Streets has been transformed.
Foundations for three brand- new houses were in place a week ago. By Sunday, those homes were move-in-ready — and three families received the house keys, thanks to the Habitat for Humanity 2010 Builders Blitz.
Three Omaha companies — Kiewit Building Group, M Group and Vantage Design & Construction — teamed up with Habitat for Humanity of Omaha for the third annual building blitz.
“It feels like a miracle,” said Amanda Brewer, executive director of the local Habitat group.
“It's not just the houses that transform the neighborhood,” she said, “it's the love that goes into them. ... It just adds life.”
Joe Rongisch, president of Vantage Design & Construction, worked six 19-hour days last week to complete one house. A normal home takes about three months to build, he said.
“It's very rewarding,” he said. “It's a good feeling.”
Mayor Jim Suttle said the project will help improve the quality of life in Omaha.
“It's going to change this street, from a street of vacant lots, to a street of families and kids,” Suttle said.
The homeowners will move into the houses in August. They will make mortgage payments for 20 to 30 years. Every payment goes back to Habitat for Humanity to build more houses.
Rebecca Pagmayan and Augustino Mamer, who moved to Omaha from Sudan in 2004, stood in their new living room Sunday, a “Welcome Home” banner hanging behind them. A crowd of people helped bless their new home and congratulated them with a tool kit, a bucket of paint, a Holy Bible, a key chain and a framed family photo.
Their children explored the family's new five-bedroom home — which is quite different from the South Omaha housing project apartment where they now live.
Pagmayan is excited to move away from the crime-ridden neighborhood.
“That means that God loves me, that's why they give me this,” she said.
“I wait for a long time for my new house. My life is not going to be messed up anymore.”
Contact the writer:
444-1543, sarah.reinecke@owh.com
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