New Home for Christmas

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Story Published: Dec 24, 2008 at 11:23 PM MDT

Story Updated: Dec 24, 2008 at 11:23 PM MDT

By Justine Beauvais

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BLACKFOOT - Working full time and raising three kids, Laura Bouse and her husband struggled over the last year.

"To finally see this be done it's like a whole lot off our shoulders," says Bouse.

And all of their work paid off just in time for Christmas.

"This is the best Christmas we've ever had having a new home for Christmas," she says.

After living in an apartment for nine years a new home is just what Bouse was asking for.

"Just everything the lighting, the walls, the exterior, the driveway, the mailbox everything it's just one big Christmas gift," says Bouse.

Bouse and eight other families teamed up and participated in the Mutual Self Help Housing Program.

"It's a program designed to help families get into a home without a down payment. By doing that they have to do 65% of the labor on their home," says loan specialist Tammy Golder.

The program requires each family to work 30 hours a week doing everything from flooring to framing.

"They build everything from the floor up," says Golder.

And for Bouse it wasn't easy.

"Where you have to measure twice cut once. You're working in the dark and your cutting in the dark half the time so of course you're gonna mess up," says Bouse.

But after late nights and long hours Bouse can now enjoy the finished product.

"We get the house at the end so its very rewarding," she says.

And the new house is not the only reward.

"That we would have the weekends together as a family without working on the houses, we get to do fun stuff again."

The Eastern Idaho Community Partnership is now accepting applications for anyone who needs a hand and is willing to lend a hand in order to have a new home.

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