Habitat helps a single mother achieve her dream of owning a house
Halfway down Andy Street in northeast Columbia, the road looks like a dead end. The pavement remains unfinished and a brown Dumpster sits across from two modest houses. The unfinished subdivision looks more like an abandoned project than an ongoing construction site.
But beyond outward appearances is something greater than what can be seen from just a quick glance down the road.
Inside one of those small houses, Jennifer Lively and her two children, daughter Morgan, 9, and Craig, 15, celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time in a home they can truly call their own.
Lively applied to become a home- owner through Habitat for Humanity in May 2004, and her application was accepted the next month. The house was scheduled to be finished a week before Thanksgiving of last year, but development was postponed because of delays from road construction and lack of utilities, Lively said. Her house, which was built by volunteers from various churches over the course of several weeks, was completed in June.
“It is just extra special because we’re finally in our own home,” Lively said. “To be in it just makes it that much sweeter.”
Surrounded by family and friends, Lively hustled around her kitchen on Thanksgiving morning to finish last-minute feast preparations, simultaneously attending to the turkey and various dishes on the stove. Elton John’s song “Tiny Dancer” played softly in the background as Morgan chose songs from the family computer near the front door.
“You never know what’s going to come on next,” Lively said jokingly to her friend Erin Keebler. “It could be anything from 50 Cent to The Beatles.”
Lively’s new home had been decorated with years of family photos that graced her refrigerator and lined the bookshelves in the living room. Two small sofas and a coffee table made up the living area, and a wooden table and chairs made up the furniture in the kitchen.
Max, Lively’s 5-month-old kitten, leaped onto the counter to examine a nearby casserole, but Lively quickly shooed him into the bathroom.
For this Thanksgiving, Lively was content with being surrounded by loved ones and said she’s most thankful for her family and friends, as well as a home where she can finally plant roots.
Lively is no stranger to moving. Growing up in a military family, she was frequently uprooted, living in Germany, where she attended high school, and Texas, Alabama and North Carolina, among other places.
“I hated it,” she said. “About the time you get settled, you have to resettle, readjust. But at the same time it was a good thing. I got to see places I wouldn’t have otherwise had the chance to see.”
Lively said her family had no specific holiday traditions because they were usually away from relatives. During their first move to Germany, when their belongings were still in the process of being shipped overseas, she said, “My mother cut off the legs to a pair of women’s pantyhose, and she put an orange in the bottom. They literally hung from the ceiling to the floor.” Lively said these makeshift stockings eventually became a family tradition.
“It’s funny how little things you do to make do turn into the norm after that,” she said.
Since her youth as a self-proclaimed “Army brat,” Lively decided to move from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to Columbia in 1991, to be closer to her family. She now works at Woodhaven Learning Center and part-time at Michael’s Arts and Crafts.
Lively started volunteering for Habitat for Humanity in 2002 after hearing about the organization from a friend. After her application for a home was accepted, Lively worked a required 250 “sweat equity hours” as part of the completion process.
“You have to work 50 hours on somebody else’s home before you can start on your own house,” she said. “Knowing that you’ve helped somebody else is a good feeling.” Lively said during that process she did everything from painting to framing to hanging sheetrock.
“I admire what they do,” she said. “It’s an affordable way for families who cannot own their own home to have a home, and obviously it was the best opportunity for me to own a home as a single mother.”
Lively said the best aspect of owning her own home was that “there’s still home to come home to. It’s nice to have something that’s ours for years to come,” she said.
Moving around the kitchen on Thanksgiving morning, Lively was all smiles as she put the finishing touches on her first holiday meal in her new home. As she filled styrofoam plates with turkey for her guests, she joked with friend and former co-worker Kristina Rice about Chevy Chase movies and family vacations.
And though her four-person table wasn’t big enough to seat her nine guests, no one seemed to mind filling the couches and gathering around the coffee table in the living room to eat.
“When I have a bigger house, I’ll have a bigger table,” Lively said with a smile.