Habitat for Humanity of Grand County received a donation of property and has selected a family for its 11th Habitat House in Grand County. Shelly Heckerson will partner with Habitat to build the 2014 Habitat House on property donated by the late Dawn Cone.

Prior to his death in 2013, Cone expressed his wish to donate his Granby property to Habitat. Respecting his wishes, his heirs, Blaine Cone, Lona Merrill and Sherry Merrill, signed over the house to Habitat at the end of 2013.

The property has a prime Granby location, across from the elementary school. The existing structure is a 60-plus years log house. While Habitat had hoped to renovate the house and expand it to meet the needs of its 2014 family, that has proven to be cost prohibitive, according to Grand County Habitat Executive Director Joan Boyle.

“Instead, we will remove the existing structure and build an Energy Star compliant home that also meets existing county zoning requirements,” Boyle said. “This means that for our 11th Habitat house, we will be back in Granby where we built our first three Habitat houses.”

In the next month, Habitat will meet with Jim Pool of James K. Pool Architects, AIA, Granby, and Dave Clingman of Imagin3 Energy Solutions to draw up plans for the house. As soon as weather permits, Habitat will begin actual work and will be looking for construction volunteers.

2014 Habitat Family

Shelly Heckerson currently lives in Granby with her 5-year-old down syndrome special-needs son Maxim and 17-year-old daughter Sierra, who is a senior at Middle Park High School. Shelly works at Granby Elementary as a preschool teacher and assistant director. She has lived in Grand County for 18 years.

“We look forward to working with Shelly and our volunteers to turn her dream of owning a home of her own into a reality,” Boyle said.

To qualify for a Habitat house an applicant must have lived in Grand County for at least a year and be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, have sufficient income to pay a monthly mortgage payment but no more than 50 percent of the area median income, live in housing conditions that are not adequate for the family’s needs, and commit to contribute “sweat equity” toward the construction of the house, which is 200 hours from each adult in the family.

“Our short term goal is to consistently build one house per year, completing each house in one building season,” Boyle said of the Grand County nonprofit Habitat. “Our long-term goal is to collaborate with the Grand County community to build a stock of affordable housing.”