The homeowners and volunteers who work with Habitat for Humanity aren’t experienced carpenters. Susanne Hiller admits she had never helped build a house before, but she has enjoyed the experience of building her own home and helping others thoroughly.

"It's fun to be there by myself and look around and see everything and think about it."

No experience? No problem!

There is a skating park just behind the subsidized housing where Susanne Hiller used to live with her three children. Day and night, skateboarders and rollerbladers jumped and did tricks. "The noise, the language," Sue says. "It will be nice to have some control over the people in your backyard!"

Sue and her children—Allie, 14; Dakota, 10; and Tanner, 7— moved into their Habitat house in Cheboygan, Mich., after the 2005 Jimmy Carter Work Project.

Sue admits she had never helped build a home before, but she enjoyed the experience thoroughly. She also helped with fund-raisers and publicity events for the affiliate, and she says it's nice to be able share support for the organization that has helped her and her family so much.

"I never imagined having a house," Sue says. She is excited that they will have a home of their own for Allie, now a freshman in high school.  They plan to have her graduation party at there someday. "We've been renting since she was a baby," Sue explains.

"Sometimes I go there, just to stand in it," Sue says of her house while it was under construction. "It's fun to be there by myself and look around and see everything and think about it."

"It's an amazing feeling—and it's ours!"