"I've always wanted to have a garden with roses, I grew up on a council estate and we never had a garden" so says Claire standing in amongst the brick, wire and plasterboard that will soon be her new home.
Claire's husband Simon and their son Nathan had despaired of having their own home, they'd been turned down for a mortgage and were making their way through the council housing system. Then they heard about Habit for Humanity, a charitable organisation who help families who don't have the finance to buy their own home instead they help families to build one. "we thought we would end up on some council estate we never dreamed we'd be owning our own house" says Claire.
All the houses in the scheme are built by volunteers supervised by professional builders. The prospective Homeowners have to put in 400 - 500 hours of what is called "Sweat Equity" not only building their own house but also helping their neighbours.
Although Claire and Simon were a bit nervous about tackling some of the building jobs the support and encouragement from the professionals soon had them welding hammers and saws with ease. If fact one supervisor Noel was so encouraging even reporter Sue Elliott Nicholls had a go and hopefully the screws she put in the wall will stay there!
The whole family is getting more excited as the house takes shape and doors and window appear in what were holes in the brick work. When they first heard that they'd been accepted on to the scheme Simon says "we opened a bottle of Pomagne" Home Truths hopes that when the house is completed they can celebrate with Champagne.
