How to Build a Cape Cod Home in Just One Week

Photos provided

This week in Harwich, more than 50 members and friends of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Cape Cod (HBRACC) will come together to help build a Habitat for Humanity home for a local family in need of affordable housing. Building commenced on Monday, September 21st at 7 a.m., and is projected to be complete by Saturday afternoon. 

Plans include a two-floor, three-bedroom home with two bathrooms, a back deck, and white cedar siding. Building materials, supplies and labor will be donated by local companies, including, among many, White Wood Kitchens, who will contribute the kitchen and countertops, Anderson Framing and Remodeling, who will take over all framing work, and Shepley Wood Products, who will donate materials for the shingles, trim, doors, hardware, and deck.

“We are hugely grateful the HBRACC membership has so enthusiastically embraced the challenge of fully funding and then building a Habitat home in just five days. Aside from the opportunity it offers to the local family purchasing it, the Blitz home has served to build awareness of the tremendous affordable housing need here on Cape Cod,” Victoria Goldsmith, Executive Director of Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod, said in a statement.

The home is one of seven affordable homes being built on a parcel of land just over two acres in size, purchased by Habitat with funds awarded by the Town of Harwich. The other six homes are being built according to a more moderate eight-month schedule.

As it is with all Habitat homes, future Blitz Build home owners Olivia and Alberto Vasquez have been working their Habitat-required sweat equity on their neighbors’ Habitat homes and have nearly completed their 500 hours.  

The Vasquez family will purchase their Habitat for Humanity home at cost, and the affordable monthly mortgage will allow them to continue to work and raise their three children in Harwich. 

The exterior plans for Blitz Build. Photo provided.