DEMOPOLIS – Lavon Blount no longer has to imagine her new home, she can see it. Well, she can see some of it.

Saturday at 7 a.m. 25 volunteers began Demopolis’ first Habitat for Humanity project for Blount and her three children.

After carefully attaching boards for the exterior walls, the home’s right wall was raised moments after 8 a.m.

The left was up by 8:30 a.m. and before the volunteers knew it, the house had front walls and a doorframe.

By quitting time at 3 p.m., the crew had raised not only the exterior walls, but the interior walls as well, marking the divisions for Blount’s three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a living room and kitchen.

“This week we are going to put up the wafer boards around the outside walls and put the trusses on the roof,” Lindsy Gardner, library director and Habitat organizer said. “I am tickled by our progress. The guys worked hard on the house and the ladies worked hard in the yard.”

When the women decided to dig buried bricks and rocks from the yard, instead of doing construction work, they found a treasure.

A perfectly good concrete walkway was found under the years of grass and dirt.

Although the end of the walkway doesn’t lead all the way to Blount’s future front door, she said she wants to see if the landscapers could save it and build up to the door.

“We are also thinking about trying to restore the fence since that’s how the neighbors’ is too,” Blount said.

Female volunteers also cleaned off the sidewalk and cut the tall grass and weeds with a weedeater as the men finished the interior walls.

Overall, Gardner said the volunteers have “made great improvements on the lot.”

She also said it is never too late to help with the Habitat home.

“We can always use more help,” she said.

To help with the home on the corner of Washington and Chestnut streets, call Gardner at (334) 212-0685.