MUNCIE -- It's hard to know how 5-year-old Payton Courtney feels about the fact that her new home was built entirely by women.
Nicolle Courtney tours her new home built Habitat for Humanity volunteers after being presented with the keys on Thursday. Courtney will live at the home with her three children, Tyler, Payton and Brayden. / Kelly Day / The Star Press
Along with her mother, Nicolle, and her two brothers, Tyler, 11, and Brayden, 3, Payton stood as patiently as a 5-year-old could Thursday evening, as she listened to Greater Muncie, Indiana Habitat for Humanity's executive director
Lindsey Arthur talk about this new home, the first in Delaware County constructed as a part of the agency's Women Build program.
Truth be told, Payton had other things on her mind, such as figuring out where to put her bed in her new bedroom and, more importantly, how to keep her brothers out of her new room."Look, I can shut the door," the middle Courtney child said while taking the tour of her new Habitat for Humanity home. "Now my brothers can't bother me. Shut door means 'don't come in.' "
Payton's mother was afraid the path to home-ownership was a door closed to her and her family until she took a friend's advice and investigated the Habitat for Humanity option.A single mom working as a medical assistant, she thought she would never make enough money to move out of the family's two-bedroom apartment in Albany. That changed a year and a half ago, when Courtney learned she would own a home in the Whiteley neighborhood in Muncie."It's kind of like getting a new car when you didn't think you'd ever get one. It's exciting and fun, but it's a little overwhelming," she said after signing the 20-year mortgage on a no-interest loan. "What if the economy gets worse? What if I lose my job? Questions like that are in my head. But I know my kids are excited, and that's enough for me."
Along with Arthur, Jason Haney, the field operation manager for the local Habitat and many of the female
"We're thrilled to see a new family have a new home. What an opportunity!" said Cornelius Dollison, vice president of the WCC. "In our last meeting, we set up a one-year membership for you with the community council. We just want to make sure you're a part of a neighborhood that's excited about the changes we're making."
The Courtney boys strolled through their new home on their own and with their grandparents, hearing from their sister about her plans to keep them out of her room.
Tyler, a fifth-grader at Albany Elementary School, was understandably disappointed about leaving his friends and teachers at his old school, but after touring his new home he began to change his mind.
His family now has a house, a three-bedroom space that includes a full kitchen, a living room and a yard to play in with his siblings.
"I'll make new friends," the fifth-grader said. "I'll miss my old ones, but it'll be OK. I have their numbers, so maybe they'll come over to my house and play instead of me always having to go to theirs."
Source http://www.thestarpress.com/
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