Upper Cumberland Habitat for Humanity dedicated a new home on Cookeville’s Jake Hoot Drive Thursday.
Habitat for Humanity began constructing the 1,400 square foot 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom home one year ago. New homeowners Michael and Jalesa Ford said having the home built for them has been a true blessing.
“To see it from just a concrete slab to this at this point, it’s amazing,” Michael Ford said. “The Lord has definitely blessed us, and I’m ready to be in now, you know, especially with our kids. They will be able to actually play and have a home and not just in an apartment, is a huge gamechanger for us.”
Jalesa Ford said she is in love with the house as the family got to be a part of the design process. Michael Ford said the family had been searching for affordable housing for over three years, and at times had given up.
“We quit looking more times than we could count, just so you know it’s like it happens when it happens, and then our family kept growing, and it just made it harder in the apartment that we were in,” Michael Ford said. “And then we heard about Habitat, and so we put in an application and we waited a couple of years and then they were like ‘Hey, we have something for you come on in.’ So here we are.”
Upper Cumberland Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Jeremy Byrd said he is excited to be finishing up the project.
“When you have a family that has worked as hard as they have, they’ve been just tremendous volunteers and have worked so diligently to help others, and now they get to celebrate it themselves, it’s an awesome feeling,” Byrd said.
Byrd said all that is left is some dirtwork to level out the yard. Byrd said that once the house is completed, Habitat will be constructing two more houses on Jake Hoot Drive and will begin building a house in Overton County starting late this summer.
