Finally, a place to call home

The mother applied to Habitat for Humanity for eight years. It paid off.

By CHANDRA BROADWATER, Times Staff Writer
Published November 19, 2007

Antoinette Aboagye, left, stands with Wayne Cordova, a minister at Crosspoint Church, while Cordova blesses her new home built by Habitat for Humanity. Aboagye will live in the house with her daughter Erica.
	[Keri Wiginton | Times]

BROOKSVILLE - Antoinette Aboagye knows exactly how she wants her new kitchen decorated.

As her home on Boca Raton Street was under construction by Hernando County Habitat for Humanity crews this past year, the 39-year-old Aboagye and some friends settled on a vineyard kitchen theme in the house she'll share with her daughter, Erica.

She found sheer purple curtains to add a splash of color to the windows, and has ordered a few porcelain plates depicting fields of grapes that she plans to display on the walls. In the corner, where she'll place her kitchen table just in time for Thanksgiving, Aboagye plans to set up a cast-iron shelf unit decorated with vines on the side.

In a plastic bag sitting on the counter Saturday morning, grape-themed hand towels poked out the top. Aboagye proudly watched as others toured her new home after a dedication ceremony that took place on her driveway, next to the front porch of her tan and white-trimmed house.

"I'm not sure about how I want the rest of the house," she said, looking around the sunlit kitchen. "But I've got the kitchen figured out. It's so exciting."

Aboagye's home is the 27th Habitat home built in the county. The locally run affiliate is part of an international group that works in partnerships to build and renovate affordable housing for people who qualify. Homes are then sold to people like Aboagye at no profit and with no interest charged.

Volunteers provide most of the labor, and individual and corporate donors provide money and materials, said Hernando Habitat president Bob Jillings. Partner families are also required to take part in the building, logging at least 300 hours of sweat equity. Their mortgage payments go into a revolving fund that then goes into building more houses.

Aboagye's home was built for $71,000. She will have an interest-free 30-year mortgage that she begins paying in January.

"We're looking for families like Antoinette's who are looking for a hand up, not a handout," Jillings said. "She's one of the most excellent examples of who we're looking for."

Aboagye had applied for the program several times over the course of eight years before she was finally picked. Habitat had given preference to bigger families; Aboagye has only one child, 12-year-old Erica.

In the meantime, Aboagye put herself through school and earned a teaching degree from Pasco-Hernando Community College. The Brooksville native is now a first-grade teacher at Deltona Elementary School.

With Habitat homes next door and across the street from Aboagye's, Jillings said the organization has 23 more plots in the area off California Street to build homes on in the future. The group is also looking for a few 55-and-older applicants who might need a two-bedroom home rather than the usual three-bedroom ones.

As the crowd of congratulators began to thin out Saturday, Aboagye said she hoped to begin moving in later in the afternoon. Besides the kitchen, she and her daughter have also picked out their bedrooms.

"It's a really wonderful program," Aboagye said. "I'm so glad I kept applying."

Chandra Broadwater can be reached at cbroadwater@sptimes.com or 352 848-1432.

See for yourself

For information about Hernando Habitat for Humanity, go to www.habitathernando.org or call 754-1159.

[Last modified November 18, 2007, 19:33:37]