We recently started renovating another vacant "zombie" home, this one on Breck Street. This is our 6th vacant rehab in the past couple years and we are excited to see another dramatic turn-around as this house goes from a neighborhood eye-sore to a quality affordable home.

Here are a few before pictures, and some of the progress so far, including: demolition, blue board exterior insulation, new windows, new concrete basement floor, new glass block basement windows, additional basement support added, all new electrical and plumbing (in progress), re-framing rooms to add closets (in progress), new porch (in progress), and much more to come!

The renovation of this home is being made possible through our partnership with the City of Rochester, Rochester Land Bank, Enterprise Community Partners, and an anonymous individual donor. Stay tuned as work continues!

On Martin Luther King Jr Day, our AmeriCorps members had "a day on, not a day off" by teaching ideals of service to a group of young volunteers.

Our volunteer opportunities are usually limited to 16 years old and up, but with the construction sites closed for the day we were able to set up some cleaning and organizing activities that were safe for this group to learn more about Habitat and community service! (There was a little time to play in the snow too!)

Thank you Greg and Maggie, our two #AmeriCorps members, for making this great experience possible and for your service each day that you are with us!

Learn more about the AmeriCorps national service program at www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps/

It may be cold out, but we've got indoor construction volunteering – and heat!

Today, Women Build and Hammer & Saw volunteers are hanging doors and painting at 105 Holworthy; while drywall "mudding" is being completed at 126 Holworthy.

Construction volunteer shifts are open now for public construction, Women Build, and three Faith Builds. Sign-up today!

Today is National Religious Freedom Day, which celebrates freedom of religion for all Americans. That makes it a perfect day for us to celebrate and share progress from our Habitat Interfaith Partnership – a coalition of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and secular organizations – all working together to build Habitat homes in Rochester.

120 Holworthy Street is the 8th house that the Habitat Interfaith Partnership has sponsored and volunteered to help build. This is an incredible, long-running partnership of over 20 years of bringing people together, showing how much we have in common, and lifting all of our neighbors up – no matter their religious background.

This week, volunteers are installing the furnace, hot water heater, kitchen cabinets, and doors!

Learn more about the Habitat Interfaith Partnership, and our other faith-based coalitions at www.rochesterhabitat.org/faith.

Flower City Habitat kitchen cabinets are built by our skilled "Hammer & Saw" volunteers! We have two weekly crews that build high quality cabinets for all of our current construction. The cabinets started going in on Smith Street this week!

874 Smith Street is the third house sponsored by the Unions Giving Back program of the local Federation of Social Workers, IUE-CWA 81381. Stay tuned as this house nears completion in coming weeks!

Check out our new volunteer information board!

Greg, our AmeriCorps Volunteer Coordinator, created this new process to help keep all of our construction volunteers informed of work that is going on at each house, and what is coming up next!

​As you can see, we have plenty of work going on, and if you sign-up to volunteer in the next week or so — make sure you wear clothes that you don't mind getting paint on!
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Sign-up for open construction shifts at https://give.rochesterhabitat.org/ge/construction (house sponsor volunteers should go to our home page, then look for their house for additional reserved volunteer shifts)