Standing in the master bedroom of the home she built, Rebekah Mickelson said she felt slightly overwhelmed by the visitors walking the halls of her newly constructed Heber City townhome.
Mickelson opened her doors to the public Thursday morning before she even moved in herself. That’s because she built her home with help from the Mountainlands Community Housing Trust self-help home building program. She wanted to give other future homeowners and neighbors the chance to see what can be done with one year’s hard work.
“It’s crazy to think this is actually my house,” Mickelson said.
Right now, the walls of Mickelson’s townhome are white. There’s marbled dark gray countertops in the kitchen and grayish speckled carpet in the living room downstairs and four bedrooms upstairs. The two upstairs bathrooms feature big, well-lit mirrors. There’s ample closet space in every room and hallway.
Mickelson, a single mother, said she and her daughter are already imagining how they’ll decorate.
“We’re already thinking of phrases we can put in vinyl lettering up there (above the mirrors). Like a motivational saying … and then downstairs above the sink,” Mickelson said. “It’s beautiful. And it’s so empowering to tell my daughter, you know, I did this.”
Mickelson’s home is the 176th self-help home built in partnership with the Mountainlands Community Housing Trust. The program gives applicants the opportunity to purchase deed-restricted homes. But there’s a catch: They have to help build the house.
Program participants put in 30 hours of work on the home per week. They must personally complete 15 hours per week, and the other 15 hours can be outsourced to friends and family members. All the homes in Mickelson’s area are townhomes.
Meredith Mortimer of Mountainlands said she thinks of it as an “old-fashioned barn raising.”
“We start as a group, and we finish as a group, and everybody does all the jobs,” said Mortimer, surrounded by a group of homeowners and applicants. “Rebekah is a teacher, and so she is just God’s gift to masking and prepping for painting.”
Then Mortimer points to Amber Ellis, a forester with U.S. Forest Service who lives in Heber City and is an applicant for a future round of home builders.
“Amber, of course, climbs trees and fights fires,” Mortimer said, adding that the process is different for each individual. “It’s really personal. It’s her home.”
And Ryan Gaskill, a 28-year-old ski patrol recruiter at Deer Valley Resort, comes from a family of experienced carpenters. Gaskill, who will start building his home with the next round of applicants after Mickelson’s, said he is up to the challenge.
“I’m going to work four 10s, essentially. Four days on and then three days building my home,” Gaskill said. “And hopefully I’ll have some friends that will be able to come and help me. … I have no family here, so I’ll have friends helping me for, like, one day a week.”
Gaskill said he had no thought of becoming a homeowner by 28.
“The idea of anyone owning a home before 30 is just not realistic,” Gaskill said.
But the concept has become a reality for him. Originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Gaskill said he appreciates the Heber Valley because of its small, rural feel. He moved to Utah so he might learn to ski, which he did nearly 10 years ago. Now he enjoys working for the resort and fly fishing in the valley on the Provo River.
Owning a home here is ideal for someone like him, he said.
“I like the energy here,” Gaskill said.
Gaskill is in the same group of applicants as Christy Warfield. They will start building their townhomes on Nov. 1. Walking through Mickelson’s open house, Warfield said the space was bigger than she expected.
“Because I have three kids I was, like, really nervous about the space,” Warfield said.
Standing in the carpeted living room, Warfield talked through what she’s imagining for the home’s interior design. She gravitates toward soft, calming colors like light grays and blues, and she likes the natural light let in from the townhome’s west-facing windows overlooking Mount Timpanoogos.
“I’ll definitely paint,” Warfield said. “I’ll probably do just a couple walls and try to figure it out.”
Warfield and her family are living in the Heber Valley, just around the corner from their future home. For more than six years, they’ve lived in a three-bedroom rental just big enough for her family of five.
When her home is complete, Warfield will have enough space for everyone to have their own bedroom. She’ll have her own walk-in closet and bathroom, too.
Jason Glidden, executive director of Mountainlands Community Housing Trust, said the self-help program helps weave Heber Valley’s community fabric.
“When you’re a homeowner, you’re much more invested in the community, right? You’re less transient,” Glidden said, adding that homeownership is also a financial bonus for families and more. “For generations, home ownership has been one of the best savings accounts people have.”
Mickelson’s loan added up to just around $450,000 at the end of the program. With the application of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development 502 direct loan program, Mickelson’s interest rate will remain between 1% and 5.25% for perpetuity.
On top of the loan benefits, homeowners will build and maintain sweat equity throughout the process, Glidden said. The time they spend working on the home will be calculated out at an hourly rate and put back into their equity.
Mickelson said that although she is a teacher and single mom without much extra time, the hard work was worth the effort. Now, the roof over her head is one she built herself. It’s even enough space for an office and craft room for herself and her daughter.
“I would just say, to anybody that’s considering the program, it sounds hard and it is hard, but it is so worth it,” Mickelson said.