How to Make a Dream Come True in Just 6 Days

Michael and Linda Sebo’s 13 relatives won’t have to cram into the couple’s apartment on Thanksgiving Day. This year, turkey and stuffing will be served in the dining room of their first home in Costa Mesa.

And there are 800 people to thank.

In a so-called blitz build, volunteers for Habitat for Humanity of Orange County took less than a week to construct the 1,239-square-foot, four-bedroom house. What was only a concrete foundation last Saturday is ready for its occupants today.

Some volunteers were construction novices; others expert contractors, plumbers and electricians. Together, they worked 14-hour days, starting last Saturday, to create a new home for the Sebos and their four young children.

On Sunday, the family will be handed a Bible and the keys to their home at a dedication ceremony on the front lawn of their new address, 212 Del Mar Ave. The volunteers will surround the one-story ranch-style structure, place their hands on the siding and give it their blessing.

Talking about the house makes Linda Sebo cry in front of strangers.

“That’s my American dream,” she said while surveying her property, “a house with a white picket fence.”

At the Brea apartment complex where the couple used to live, Sebo, 26, dragged a plastic garbage can of clothes down three flights of stairs and across the complex’s courtyard to the laundry room. At the same time, she toted her four children: Ashley, 5; Ryan, 3; Daniel, 2, and Caytlin, 2 1/2 months.

So she can’t wait to do laundry in her new utility room. She also plans to start a vegetable garden. And she may turn one of the four bedrooms into a sewing room, even though she doesn’t know how to sew. Now, she said, she may learn.

Habitat selected Sebo and her husband, Michael, a security officer, in August after the couple met Habitat’s low-income guidelines and other qualifications, including good credit. In addition, they had to be living in substandard housing when applying for the house.

They must perform 600 hours of “sweat equity” on the home and in office work for Habitat. This week, Linda painted the fence and installed roof tiles. Michael painted exterior trim and caulked windows.

They will rent the house until they complete the sweat equity. Then, it will be sold to them at cost, with a 20-year, interest-free mortgage and a small down payment. The cost hasn’t been determined yet.

Finishing the house before the holidays was a major goal, but the nonstop “blitz build” has another benefit: It brings attention to Habitat. The organization, which former President Jimmy Carter supports, sometimes by helping hammer and paint, has built 71 homes in Orange County for low-income families since 1988. Three of them were part of a 12-day blitz build in 1995 that helped garner attention for the group.

“We want to show people the energy that’s here and hopefully build even more homes,” said Barbara Thomas, president of Habitat’s local chapter.

The only paid employee was Ray Englert, the project superintendent, who has been working since August on the house. Before construction began, he was ordering materials, consulting with the architect and creating daily work schedules for the volunteers.

Habitat organizers worked for weeks recruiting enough people to finish the project in seven days. Englert’s job for the last week was to tell them what to do and how to do it.

“I didn’t get in their face,” he said. “I just stood back, and got inspired, and watched--and heard my name called about a thousand times.”

Jim Swanson, a self-employed contractor from Garden Grove, took the week off to help build the Sebo home. He said it has been one of the most “satisfying and gratifying” experiences in his life.

“This reminds me of the olden days,” said Swanson, 60. “No one had insurance and when something happened to someone’s house, you’d have the neighbors all come together and you’d put a building up.”

Church congregations pitched in, as did students, moms, retirees and business owners. One firm, Office Solutions of Yorba Linda, shut down business on Friday while almost all 60 employees worked on the house. Bob and Cindy Mairena, the co-owners, still paid them.

“I want people to think about something other than business supplies sometimes,” Bob Mairena explained.

The washer and dryer and most of the kitchen appliance were donated. So were the underground sprinklers, flowers and trees, carpeting and linoleum. Snyder Langston, an Irvine developer, and its subcontractors donated building materials and skilled labor that the company says is worth more than $60,000.

With its wide, green front lawn and white picket fence, the house could be easily imagined on the side street of a small Connecticut village. There was so much lumber left over that today’s volunteers will build the Sebo children a 32-square-foot playhouse.

The beige masonite siding and concrete tile roof and all the rest of it is still not real to Linda Sebo.

By Thursday, when the house began to take shape, she expressed her amazement out loud: “Oh, my gosh, there’s a house here,” she said. “Oh, my gosh, somebody lives here, and it’s me.”