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A home to celebrate the holidays

With the hard work of Women Build, a Habitat for Humanity group, a mom and two sons have a house.

By LARITA JACOBS, Times Correspondent
Published December 19, 2007

Pam Yauch is elated after signing mortgage papers Tuesday with attorney Joe Lang and receiving keys from Barbara Inman of Habitat for Humanity.
	[Douglas R. Clifford | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Douglas R. Clifford | Times] Pam Yauch, left, gets a hug and kiss from Jackie Tatsak, director of Executive Village, where Yauch lived with her two sons for five years. "We are so happy for her," Tatsak said Tuesday in Largo. "This is the goal to help people get back on their feet." [Douglas R. Clifford | Times] Michael Yauch, 15, leaves for school after his mother, Pam, signed mortgage papers and received keys to their new home in Largo.

No, it's not holly with red berries. Nor is it a poinsettia. But it is red and green.

This unlikely Christmas greenery is called a firecracker plant. And Michael Yauch, 15, shows it off with pride.

It grows in a place of honor near the front door of the new home Michael will share with his brother Ryan, 12, and mother, Pam.

On Tuesday, Habitat for Humanity volunteers and a lawyer in a Santa hat gathered with the Yauch family to close on their new home near Rosery Road in Largo.

The Yauches picked up the keys in time to move in and celebrate Christmas in their own home.

And the firecracker plant was part of a new Habitat partnership with the Pinellas County Extension Service's Master Gardeners Program.

"We volunteered about 150 hours to do all the design and labor for landscaping Pam's home, and we remembered that her son wanted a firecracker plant," said Linda Culhane, committee chairwoman for the master gardeners project.

The 1,100-square-foot house itself is the work of more than 437 women from all over Pinellas County and beyond. Most were new volunteers to Habitat.

The organization's Women Build program is designed to encourage women to participate in Habitat projects by providing a chance for them to learn building skills while helping a family.

"From the beginning, I said this was going to be awesome and wonderful, but I didn't really know how good it would feel," said Pam Yauch, a single mom who works full time for the State Attorney's Office.

"One day I was driving to work and I thought, 'People are volunteering on my house, right now. People I don't even know are working extra to get us in by Christmas,'" she said. "When I'm in the house and I think of things like the messages people wrote on the internal walls as they were going up, messages wishing us well, it just feels unbelievable."

The three-bedroom, 11/2-bath house is made with interlocking foam blocks, reinforced with steel bars and filled with concrete. The resulting wall is sturdy, but includes extra inches of insulation.

And the yard is landscaped in a Florida-friendly way.

"We choose plants that require less watering and are less susceptible to bugs and disease, and we carefully match the plants with the levels of sun and shade," Culhane said.

Although some plants were donated by local nurseries, most of the plants were grown and donated to the project by the master gardeners. Florida Cracker roses, three types of ferns and jasmine along the fence are some of the plants the Yauches will enjoy.

Ryan Yauch didn't request a specific plant for the yard but was there to help the master gardeners spread composted leaves beneath the mulch.

"I like plants, but I don't know much about them," he said. The master gardeners' mission of teaching gardening to others will come to Ryan's rescue.

"I will be giving them a booklet with pictures of all the plants in their yard and information on how to care for them," Culhane said.

To start the move, Yauch brought in four important items, each with its own meaning.

"First in the house is a Bible because God made it possible," she said.

"This is a loaf of bread so we are never hungry.

"This penny is so that we always have enough money.

"And this is a broom so our home is always clean."

As the crowd in the house sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas, the Yauch brothers had a chance to ponder what their new home will mean to them this Christmas:

Having their own bedrooms.

Living in a real neighborhood near their school.

And maybe talking mom into getting a dog.

[Last modified December 18, 2007, 20:23:26]