'This Old House' to this new home
 BAYPORT—As a child, David Jonk spent the summer months at his grandfather's Bayport home, barbequing with the family, swimming in the nearby St. Croix River and running around the neighborhood with friends. On Monday, he was one of several volunteers from Andersen Corp. helping construct a Habitat for Humanity home, coincidentally on the same land as he and his grandfather enjoyed many years ago.
The work is part of Andersen's 100 Years/100 Homes initiative, which commemorates the company's 100th anniversary by building 100 homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Bayport home is the last to be built.
Andersen in 2003 announced the 100 Homes/100 Years plan, starting with five homes in St. Paul. Since then, homes have gone up in 17 communities across the U.S. and Canada.
Assisting the Andersen volunteers on Monday was Tom Silva, the general contractor of the PBS show "This Old House." Habitat for Humanity provides the "heart and soul" of a community, Silva said.
"It is a great, great feeling to be part of this," he said. "It's a good group of people, we've had a lot of laughs. We were glad to see that a lot of them know what they're doing."
The home should be completed in about five weeks, and once finished will offer its new tenants 1,672 feet of living space, according to site supervisor Rhonda Thorson.
"It's been coming together with so many people," said Thorson, who has worked on several dozen homes during her five-year career with Habitat for Humanity.
Habitat builds about 50 houses each year, with each structure providing a strong foundation for families in need, said Nancy Q. Brady, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity vice president of resource development and community relations.
She called the Andersen initiative a "tremendous commitment."
"We have a tagline, 'Transforming families, neighborhoods and communities one house at a time,' and that is truly what we are doing," Brady said. "Stable housing and stable mortgage payments are a foundation from which families can thrive. Then when families thrive, the communities thrive, because they can participate in the community and give back. We see Andersen people doing that everyday through Habitat projects."
Eric Ottem, a senior market analyst with Andersen, previously worked in home construction, and based on that experience decided to help out with the Habitat project. He also worked on the first five homes in St. Paul during the 2003 build.
"At first I did it more to help others contribute, but now, in addition to that, it's about helping kids," Ottem said. Ottem easily noted his most rewarding part of the job: helping construct a "nice, safe, comfortable house." "(Watching) families move in, so they can focus on other things in their lives" makes the construction time well spent, he said.
While the homes have been built all across the nation, the construction in Bayport has special significance for Jonk, a forklift driver with Andersen. His grandfather Orville Trenda worked at Andersen for 28 years, and Jonk said no one would be more proud to see the land evolve into such a caring project.
"To me it's kind of a great continuation of the spirit of my grandfather. I'm sure he's looking down on us right now, watching me being interviewed by the newspaper and just tickled by it," he said.
By ELLIOT MANN
Stillwater Gazette
October 16, 2007
Photo by Elliot Mann |
