The Montanez Family says it’s ready to move it!
(Seguin) – Guadalupe Valley Habitat for Humanity is celebrating its fastest build ever. Two months is all that it took to build a home for Annette Montanez and her two daughters. For Annette, getting her family into the home that she prayed for has been incredible.
She says it was ever since that initial call when they told her that she had been selected that she realized God was in charge.
“How good God was, how amazing God is, how amazing that no matter what happens, he’s faithful and don’t give up because he is not a liar and just keep hope in that. He just gets all the glory. When I got the call, I just said, ‘God, you always surprise me.’ God always surprises me every time he has worked miracle after miracle after miracle and this one right here, topped it off because he is a detailed guy and I was very detailed and very specific when I prayed for a home and every detail that I prayed for is in this home all the way from the color to the amount of space. It’s crazy. It’s crazy,” said Montanez.
Montanez recently joined members of the local chapter of Habitat as they dedicated her new home at 957 Allende Street.
During the ceremony, Habitat volunteers say they couldn’t help but notice Montanez’s faith throughout this home building journey. They say most times, it was Montanez who kept inspiring them.
The respect, however, was mutual. Montanez says Habitat volunteers dedicate hours of their own personal time to ensure the futures of others.
“Habitat is a program that I didn’t know too much about but when I started becoming a part of it like coming to the actual home and putting my sweat and using my hands and learning how to build a home – not only that — just the core volunteers – they want you to know how to build your home They spend their time, their hours, they spend their every Saturday, every Thursday faithfully here with their hands and their sweat to build me a home and just to meet a goal for you and your family so that you can have a place to call home and when you have your hands a part of it – watching it and seeing how it goes up, there’s just no other feeling like it. Being a part of building your own home, I don’t even know what words to use. I just have so much gratitude for this program. I do and I’m glad that they make you a part of building your home,” said Montanez.
Montanez is looking forward to sharing the home with her two daughters, Zamari, 10 and Elani, 4. She says after living in a small apartment or having to share a home, her family finally has a place to call home.
“For my daughters to be able to have their own rooms and for them to be able to have a backyard to run into – not to have to share a restroom with me because I take forever (laughs), to just be able to be them, to be able to write on their wall if they want to – not that we will do that but just to build traditions and if I want to host something for my church with my girls because I’m a youth leader and I love to have my girls around me and to be able to invite them into my home so they can have a safe place as well because not only am I a real mother to my daughters, I’m a spiritual mother to a lot of young girls and to be able to invite them into my own home, it’s going to be awesome,” said Montanez.
Amazed but not shocked by the two-month feat is Executive Director Madeline Zwicke Dalman.
“I don’t know if we were really trying to beat a record. I think our last home took us like three or four months, but we did a nine-week build schedule this go around,” said Dalman.
Dalman says building a brand-new home in 60 days just clearly spells out one thing.
“It just means that we can build more this year. We are going to build four houses this year in Seguin and so we are planning on starting our next home actually on April 1. So, we are going to build the walls for it next weekend, March 25th and then we will raise the walls on April 1 so we can just jump right into the next one. We are able to keep chugging along. In the past, we’ve struggled with finding available lots in Seguin. We have a lot that is ready to go. We’ve been working closely with the city of Seguin to get permitting done and so, we have our next partner family over here. So, she’s ready to go and has been doing sweat equity hours and so we will be able to start right away on the next one,” said Dalman.
Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit housing organization that provides affordable homes for local families. The homes are sold to them through no-interest loans. The program defines itself as “A Hand Up Not a Hand Out.”