TEMECULA: Habitat for Humanity homes dedicated Saturday

Five excited families will movein later this month or early next month

By AARON CLAVERIE - Staff Writer | Saturday, May 3, 2008 11:41 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA ---- On a cold morning in January, Dawn Pleasant was standing to the side while volunteer construction workers raised the wooden frame of what would be her new home.

On Saturday afternoon, the administrative assistant was standing in front of the door to that new home, keys hanging from a stretchy green wristband clasped in her hand.

Before opening the door, Pleasant gathered together her family, which includes a teenage daughter and two teenage boys.

She dabbed at her teary eyes with a tissue.

As she reached forward with the master key, her son, Justin, said, "Wait, wait," and playfully rang the doorbell.

Hearing no response from inside, the family walked in and found an array of gifts: a scrapbook of photos taken during the home's construction, gift cards from a home improvement store, dishes, cleaning products and more. In one of the cupboards, there was a bag of flour.

The Pleasants will be moving into their new home, one of five built at the corner of Pujol and First streets by Habitat for Humanity, in about a month or so, when all of the paperwork clears.

Their neighbors will be the Castanedas, the Muros, the Alcantars and the Cabulagans.

On Saturday, all five homes were dedicated during a sometimes emotional ceremony that included speeches from Habitat leaders and the families that thanked all of the corporate sponsors and the hundreds of volunteers who worked on the years-in-the-making project.

Pleasant, who didn't know about all the gifts, said the scrapbook was especially thoughtful and the person who made it did a very good job.

In 2003, the city of Temecula's Redevelopment Agency sold the land that would become the new homes to the nonprofit Habitat for $10. A groundbreaking was held that summer and a groundmoving celebration was held three years later in the summer of 2006. After the pads were poured that fall, construction started in January.

The families worked side by side with volunteers each Saturday, helping the homes go from an idea, to frames, to 1,100-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath homes with expansive front patios.

Centex Homes, a Dallas-based homebuilder, donated one complete house. Centex donates an average of 20 houses to Habitat each year nationwide.

Donations obtained by 1,000 Friends of Habitat and the Realtor House Program will build a second house. The group 1,000 Friends of Habitat is modeled after a program created on Whidbey Island in Washington in which donors contribute a moderate donation of $50.

The recently-created Realtor House Program brings professionals from the real estate industry together in support of a Habitat house.

Bank of America funded one complete home and also provided a summer intern to support the program. Thrivent Financial funded 80 percent of the fourth house plus helped facilitate the majority of the necessary volunteers.

For Lisa Cabulagan, one of Pleasant's neighbors, the new home will mean having a measure of security that she never had while living in an apartment building.

In her garage, there's a washer and dryer, freedom from the common laundry area at her building, "Where they keep stealing my daughter's underwear," she said.

Speaking of her daughter, 9-year-old Kiah, those are her handprints embedded in the concrete steps leading up to the Cabulagan's porch. Next to the hands is the date 4-6-08.

After leading mini-tours of her new home for the volunteers and Habitat officials who attended the ceremony, Cabulagan greeted a visitor, her neighbor Dawn Pleasant, who was popping over to see her house.

"I'm visiting my neighbor!" Pleasant said, still carrying her keys.

Lisa Cabulagan was also carrying her keys on the wristband.

"I told them I didn't want to give mine back," Pleasant said.

"I'm going to hide mine I think," Cabulagan replied.

Over at the Alcantar home, Theo Alcantar, a husband and father of a growing family, was already getting comfortable in his new digs.

While he stood in the garage, shaking hands with the people stopping by to congratulate him, his cream-colored boots rested near the right corner of his patio.

During construction earlier this year, Alcantar was one of the most vigorous workers, hammering nails and putting together the frame for his house.

On Saturday, he looked serenely blissful, smiling broadly while chatting with all of his guests.

Habitat for Humanity Inland Valley's executive director, Tammy Marine, in her speech during the dedication ceremony, urged the families to use the stepping stone that is their new home to strive for even greater life goals.

Marine encouraged the families to head back to school and train for more challenging jobs if need be or take a vacation that they never thought they could take.

"You've shown that you can direct your future. So take those chances and be bold," she said.

Contact staff writer Aaron Claverie at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2624, or aclaverie@californian.com.

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