As a part of the dedication of the Habitat for Humanity home at 261 Keightley Street in St. Ignace, the family who will live there takes part in the lighting of a candle Sunday, December 20. Pictured (from left) are Dallas, Dakota, and Dalton McLennan, and their grandmother, Patti O'Brien. Hugs and tears were plentiful at 261 Keightley Street in St. Ignace Sunday, December 20, when friends, family, and volunteers gathered to welcome Patti O'Brien and her three grandsons into their new home, built through Northstar Habitat for Humanity.

"I am overwhelmed by all the love I see in all of you," Ms. O'Brien said. "I am so happy to be living here and for all of you. I thank you so very much, all of you."

The house will provide the family with much needed space, she said, since her three grandsons currently share a single bedroom. The new home has a living room, kitchen, laundry room, sewing/computer room, one and one-half bathrooms, and four bedrooms, enough for each family member to have his or her own.

Father Pawel Mecwel (left) reads a passage from the house Bible during a blessing of the Habitat for Humanity house at 261 Keightley Street Sunday, December 20. Next to the priest from St. Ignatius Catholic Church is the family that will soon move into their new home; Patti O'Brien (back) and her three grandsons, (from left) Dalton, Dakota, and Dallas McLennan. Volunteers gathered to dedicate the house Sunday in memory of Father Michael Rhoades. Each bedroom in the house was customized with special paint colors and wallpaper borders for each family member's interests. Dakota's room features dark blue walls and an Indianapolis Colts bed headboard. Dallas' room is painted red and black and has a guitar-themed border, perfect for a young man who is passionate about music. Dalton, the bookworm of the family, got a bookshelf wallpaper border and "John Deere" green walls.

During the open house and blessing of the home Sunday, Keeping the Peace Quilt Guild of Sault Ste. Marie presented quilts customized for each family member and even one for the family dog, Dasher.

Ms. O'Brien said she had been crying out of joy for the past three days, and said she doesn't even want to fix the little imperfections in her new home.

"I wouldn't want to change any of them," she said, "because they remind me of all the people who made this possible."

Ms. O'Brien will need to make house payments on the new home, although the cost of labor and some of the cost of materials to build the home have already been paid through volunteering and donations.

"The down-payment was paid in labor by the community," she said.

Since the property for the home was bought from Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Mackinac County, volunteers from across the community have helped with construction and many local contractors and businesses have donated both time and materials to the project.

A crew of painters from the Mackinac Bridge Authority came by one day to put on the first coat of paint, Coast Guard sailors from St. Ignace and Sault Ste. Marie donated their time, and a number of other organizations and individuals contributed to what Ms. O'Brien called a "labor of love."

The most special moment during the project, she said, was when all of the builders gathered to put up the roof trusses together.

"It was so cool," she said, to see everyone there working together to build her home. Ms. O'Brien served as the main project manager for the construction process, which meant she needed to do a lot of research. She explained how she would look online to find out information on a particular task, print the instructions, and tape them to the front of the house for whatever volunteers might show up.

The home was dedicated Sunday to the memory of Father Michael Rhoades, the former parish priest at St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Church in St. Ignace and Immaculate Conception Church in Moran. Father Rhoades helped start a Habitat for Humanity group in St. Ignace in the early 1990s.

The family hopes to move in before Christmas, she said, assuming final electrical inspections allow them to do so.