Building a home is no small task, but when you’re doing it for yourself, there’s an extra bit of motivation allowing you to push ahead.

Carey Anne Lindsay, mother of the four-person family selected for the first Our Home Kikinaw project on Juniper Drive behind the Manitoba Métis Federation building, knows this very well. Lindsay has been working on her house regularly since the groundbreaking ceremony on June 3, and all that work has paid off as exterior walls have gone up and the structure on the once-vacant lot has turned into something clearly resembling a house.

Larry Schroeder, a building construction teacher at R.D. Parker Collegiate and member of the Mennonite Thompson Christian Centre Fellowship, is leading the construction. Schroeder explained that he first became involved with Our Home Kikinaw because “it’s a way of getting partnerships between our students and a real construction company.” Students from R.D. Parker have helped with early stages of construction.

On July 21, volunteers from the Thompson arm of Macdonald Youth Services were also at the site to lend a hand. “We thought it would be good to help,” explained Macdonald’s Jennifer Sheppard. Lindsay was glad to see so many volunteers turn out, allowing for more work to get done on that day.

According to Lindsay, the building should be done by the original targeted deadline of October – as of mid-July, they were actually a couple days ahead of schedule. Schroeder noted that next summer, Our Home Kikinaw will start on a second building, located right next to the first. These properties were given to Our Home Kikinaw by the city.

Our Home Kikinaw was created in response to Thompson being too isolated and too small to qualify for a Habitat for Humanity group, though they do hope to become a Habitat affiliate over time. It is a project created by the Thompson Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation (TNRC), under the leadership of executive director Charlene Lafreniere (also a city councillor) and TNRC community development co-ordinator Dawn Sands.

The Lindsay family – Carey Anne, her sons Jordan and Tanner, and her daughter Keanna – were chosen in December 2009 to be the recipients of the first house. In a model adapted from Habitat for Humanity, Our Home Kikinaw homeowners are not simply given the home – they must pay it off through a mortgage. When looking for prospective homeowners, the foremost considerations are their current housing situation, their employment status as they must be able to pay off their mortgage regularly, and because Our Home Kikinaw qualifies as affordable housing, their income level. Carey Anne encourages anyone interested in volunteering their time to help with construction to contact the TNRC.