Habitat completes construction of second North Canaan house

NORTH CANAAN — Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut has finished a new affordable home in North Canaan.

The house at 324 Salisbury Road (Route 44) shares a driveway with another, older Habitat house at 320. Habitat plans to build a third home on the site as well, according to executive director Evan Cooper, who was on site with project manager Ken Hall and Rich Herrington of Ed Herrington’s, Inc.

Herrington’s donated much of the building materials for the home, Cooper said. He thanked Herrington and other donors, including Torrington Savings Bank, the Anne and Rollin Bates Foundation, the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, the Northwest Community Bank Foundation, and all the local individuals and businesses that contributed.

The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and is roughly 1,150 square feet. The project took about 16 months, Hall said, starting with clearing the heavily wooded lot.

The site is connected to town water but has its own septic system.

A family on the affordable housing waitlist has been chosen to live in the home. They work locally and their children will attend the local schools.

In the Habitat model, the organization retains the title to the land and the mortgage is zero interest. That means 100% of the homeowner’s mortgage payment goes to paying off the loan principal, which in turn means the monthly payments are considerably less than standard mortgages.

Every Habitat homeowner puts in at least 400 hours of labor on the home and related activities.

Habitat’s next project is in Torrington. Once that is completed the crew will return to the Salisbury Road site and build the third home.