Volunteers from Story County will unite Saturday to begin construction on the 15th Habitat for Humanity home to be built since the organization came to central Iowa in 1996.

Habitat for Humanity is a “Christian ministry open for people of all faiths or no faiths” that relies solely on volunteer work to complete its projects, said Anjeanette Perkins, executive director for Story County Habitat for Humanity.

She said the new house, for which construction starts Saturday, will go to the Atroon family, a two-parent household with five children.

“We had the groundbreaking [on April 12] and the kids were running around ready to dig the basement by hand,” she said. “Mom and Dad were just beaming.”

The lot for the home, located at 234 Dotson Drive, was donated by the Cochrane Foundation, she said.

In a statement from the foundation, directors Ev and Marge Cochrane, Ev Cochrane III and Michelle Cochrane said, “We at the Cochrane Foundation are proud to be supporters of the Habitat for Humanity program. We appreciate that Habitat is able to help give Ames families committed to our community the opportunity to own their homes.”

Perkins said the United Church of Christ-Congregational, 217 6th St., is paying for building materials and doing much of the construction work.

“The church has their own renovation project and in their bylaws it states anytime they do a renovation, they have to raise 20 percent over the amount they need to give to outreach,” she said.

Steve McDuff, pastor at the United Church of Christ-Congregational, said they have set aside $75,000 for construction materials. The church is adding an elevator tower, making the church accessible to all people, he said.

McDuff said giving part of the outreach money to Habitat was an obvious choice.

“The church has always been interested in affordable housing in Ames and had a long history with that,” he said.

McDuff said volunteer work is an important component of the donation.

“We wanted to be a hands-on part of the project also,” he said.

Jerry Chase, Habitat volunteer and member of the United Church of Christ-Congregational, said he has done some work on almost all of the 15 houses built by Story County Habitat for Humanity and expects construction on the Atroon home to be “very much like the others.”

Chase said he thinks members of the church will play an important role in the construction process.

“I think because we’re providing the funding for the materials that we’ll have a presence on the site most weeks,” he said. “I think there will be church involvement in all phases.”

Despite donations and volunteer labor, families don’t receive Habitat homes; they buy them, complete with a mortgage, Perkins said.

“In Story County, we sell the houses for about $40,000 below market value because there is no volunteer labor in the sale price,” she said. “We also act like the bank and give mortgages that are zero percent interest because even if you buy a house at a low interest rate, you still end up paying for it about two times.”

Perkins said Habitat selects three to five families a year to receive a home within the next year and a half.

“Sometimes it takes longer if a family really only wants to live in one town and we’re not able to get land there for awhile,” she said.

The buyers of the house must put in 100 hours of “sweat equity” helping build other Habitat houses before work begins on their own. A total of 500 hours must be completed overall, Perkins said.

“If it’s a two-adult family, their extended family can do 100 of the 500 hours,” she said. “If it’s a single-parent family, 300 of the hours can be done by family and friends.”

All buyers then sit down with volunteer architects to design their homes, Perkins said. “They have as much choice as we can give them in layout and colors within our construction layout,” she said.

Work on the Atroon home will continue on Saturdays throughout the summer and pick up pace during the Blitz Build as part of Iowa State’s Homecoming Week Oct. 12-18. Perkins said she hopes the house will be finished and ready for dedication in mid-October.

“The dedication is really tear-jerking because by that time the house is done, the family worked so hard and finally gets to move in, and everyone’s proud of what they’ve done,” she said.