Since starting our Homeownership Program last year, she’s finished 350 hours of Sweat Equity on Habitat’s construction sites and at the ReStore. That’s on top of working and raising her two sons, Kenneth and Malachi. “I’ve got some things going,” she says with an easy laugh, which might win for biggest understatement of the year. And for anyone who’s new to construction work (especially if you’re no longer in your 20’s), she recommends a couple of must-have tools. “Epsom salt and Tylenol. I keep them in the medicine cabinet now. Other than that, the little aches—they come with the territory!”
So Pam is quick to list the ways homeownership will be a good thing for her family. Besides finally having enough space, “we can always go into the house and close the door, so whatever’s going on outside, we’ll have that feeling of security from being in our home. And Kenneth and Malachi will have their own rooms. They get to be themselves that way—we can be together here, but they can always branch off and do their own thing by themselves. Sometimes Malachi doesn’t want to be bothered with his little brother, and I understand that!”
Pam and her family have been in their home since April of 2016, but she still makes time to swing a hammer with Habitat whenever she can.