MADISON (WKOW) -- One area family is moving in to a brand new home thanks to Habitat for Humanity of Dane County.
It's a big milestone for the program, whose volunteers have finished work on it's 200th home. It's also the first finished home in Habitat's newest development in Fitchburg.
Timeca Echols and her 11-year-old son Jaron are moving in. They've been working on the house that they can now call home since June.
"It's indescribable. It's a place, you know, security blanket for me and my son, a place to call our own," says Echols. "We've rented for so long, so it's finally here that we own our own home."
While it takes hundreds of volunteer hours to build the home, those chosen to live in it have to do their share of work.
"Getting a habitat home is not easy. The family has to fill out a long application, they have to do 325 hours of sweat equity building their house, they have to take 25 hours of education classes and it's a whole community coming together to build a house, so it's a pretty exciting process when we finally get to this point and it's completed," says CEO Valerie Johnson.
Plus, it means a lot for the community of Fitchburg. Mayor Shawn Pfaff was at the house blessing Saturday and says the city is working with Habitat to create a more connected community.
"We have a lot of areas that could be remodeled, we have some duplexes around certain parts of our city, some of our housing stock really could use some sprucing up, especially more in our urban neighborhoods," says Pfaff. "So Habitat for Humanity and I are having conversations about how they can become more involved in Fitchburg."
Habitat plans to build nine homes in the "Renaissance on the Park" neighborhood in Fitchburg and could built more in the future.
