It was Labor Day and Silas Potter and his Potter Electric crew were laboring away for free.
“What goes around comes around — you would hope when you need help, there’s people to help you,” said Potter’s brother, Luke Potter, as the 25-year-old pulled Romex wire through the framework of Extreme Build Lewis County’s four-bedroom home it is building for the McElvain family on Richmond Street in Centralia.
The Potters and two co-workers were just a few of the 100 or so people who by Monday afternoon had donated their time and effort to building a 1,800-square-foot home from the ground up for the McElvains within a week’s time. On Saturday the foundation was built. On Sunday the framing was put up. And on Monday electricians, plumbers and heating and air conditioning contractors bumped elbows as they and their workers forewent the luxury of installing the guts of a house’s mechanics typically alone to keep Extreme Build Lewis County’s schedule on time.
“There’s been a little bit of frustration,” admitted Silas Potter, who estimated he alone would spend about 24 hours working on the home at a site where the previous home had flooded in 2007.
But being able to see a family, once prevented from living in a condemned home where the monthly mortgage still had to be paid, move into a new home that is two feet higher than the 2007 floodwaters is what makes the charitable work worth it to Potter.
“You get a feel-good feeling out of it,” the 32-year-old said.
Richard Tausch has helped build many houses through his volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. And even he was surprised by the house’s sound structure and timely erection, which he attributed to project manager Allyn Roe.
“He started out with a dream and I have to say, he had the organizational skills to bring it together,” Tausch said.
Last December Roe started bringing together the labor and materials for a home that will house the McElvain family — Raelene McElvain and her kids, Lara, Calla, Natalya, and Shay.
“A house like this on the retail market would probably go for $200,000,” Roe estimated, but noting he won’t know for sure the house’s true value until retailers and contractors who donated building supplies and their time submit invoices to Build Extreme Lewis County.
Renew Lewis County, a nonprofit organization which Extreme Build falls under, has partnered with United Way of Lewis County to ensure all donations are tax deductible.
Roe said construction is ahead of schedule, with dry wall hanging starting today. But the McElvains wouldn’t know what their flood-proof home’s progress — taking place from about 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day — would look like from their rooms at the Great Wolf Lodge.
“We’re telling the family to stay away,” Roe said, noting the finished result should be like Christmas morning to the McElvains.
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Adam Pearson: (360) 807-8208
