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11/04/2020 07:45 AMRebecca and Jeff Buzas’s story illustrates one of the core tenets of Habitat for Humanity, that decent, affordable housing helps families transform their lives.
The Buzas are the parents of four children: Gabriel is nine years old and Ezekiel and Esther are three. Grace was born on Sept. 8, about a week before Middlesex Habitat for Humanity (MHFH) informed the family that it had been selected as the owners of the house the organization is building on 382 Hammock Road North in Westbrook.
The application and selection process are rigorous, according to MHFH Executive Director Sarah Bird.
Prospective buyers of a Habitat for Humanity home must be employed, must be earning between 25 to 60 percent of the median income, and must be willing to partner with MHFH to build the house. Each member of the family 18 and older is required to put in 200 hours of sweat equity.
“Once each applicant meets Habitat criteria for homeownership, the selection subcommittee looks at who has the greatest need,” Bird explained by email. “The decision was very hard because the two applicants both had great need...[W]hen all was said and done, the Buzas had the greatest need for housing.”
Jeff Buzas usually puts in his home-building hours on Friday or Saturday, due to his schedule as a woodworker making custom kitchen cabinets.
“It’s hard...to find somebody to watch all the kids, especially with COVID going on,” he said. “I’m able to work [on the house] tomorrow, but [Rebecca] can’t. And then if we have a babysitter next week, then we both can work.”
The family was renting an apartment in Middletown, but neighbors complained about the noise their children were making.
The neighbors “were kind of yelling at my wife,” Jeff Buzas said.
“Kids will be kids,” said Rebecca Buzas. “They’re going to play and they’re going to scream...It’s like constantly I felt like I was walking on eggshells...I didn’t feel comfortable coming home because I would tell all the kids, ‘Okay, you can’t run, you can’t scream, you can’t do anything.’”
“We had to move in with my parents just to get out of there early,” said Jeff Buzas. But at his parents’ house, “[w]e were kind of stuck in just one room, [the] living room, with all of us.
“So eventually we just had to leave,” he continued. “[W]e had to pick up and move to Colchester.”
Becoming homeowners will not only relieve the Buzas of the stress of worrying that children behaving like children will upset the neighbors, but will allow Rebecca Buzas to return to school, she said.
“Right now, I’m a pharmacy technician,” she explained. “I want to go to school to become a pharmacist. I know it’s a lot of years of schooling. This is kind of like a big help. Because I felt like every year we were moving somewhere. I didn’t really get the chance to settle down and focus on school. Now I get the chance to do something to help my family moving forward.
“I’m just very grateful that we got chosen,” she continued. “This house is going to be such a blessing for our family. It’s going to be a little break for us, too, seeing how we’re going from apartment to apartment.”
Before they received notice that the house would be theirs, the Buzas would occasionally drive by to see how construction was proceeding. On one of those occasions, Esther referred to 382 Hammock Road North as “Esther’s house,” according to Bird.
Now it is Esther’s house.
“They never got the chance to have a backyard,” Rebecca Buzas said. “Now we have one.”
As for her, “[t]his will be my first house to live in,” she continued. “All my life it’s been apartments. I always wanted a house where I could settle.”