Merry Christmas & a happy New Year.

We want to say to all those who have helped Habitat for Humanity Dunedin in its journey through 2008, "Thank you for being part of our journey!" We have built another house; got to enjoy and know another family; employed an office manager and have been tidying up a lot of paper work. If you had a part in that, thank you. We hope that you have a great Christmas and a good start to the new year.

Plans for next year are unfolding. In the next week or so we expect to know what family we will be partnering with next year. We will be meeting regularly with the Mitre Ten Mega Store people as we work toward starting to build the house in their car park. We are planning a start in mid-march. We will have a public meeting to outline plans and hopefully recruit volunteers to make it all happen. This will be late February or early March. Be ready!

Thanks for 2008! Look forward to another significant year in 2009!

If you are interested in becoming a involved let's know. I have been volunteering in Habitat since 1995 and still find it an enjoyable and enriching experience.

Dave B.

Working Bee

We are to have a working bee this Saturday up at 28 Turnbull Street to finish off some jobs so that we can acheive the final sign off. All welcome. Saturday 22nd November at 9 a.m. It will be nice to catch up. :-) We have our Annual General Meeting tonight. That's why I added the cartoon.

Exciting project for 2009

Habitat for Humanity Dunedin is looking forward to 2009. Plans are under way to build a house in the car park of the Mitre Ten Mega store on Andersons Bay Road. The Mega store has been a great friend to Habitat in Dunedin over the years having given us a really good discount on materials. They have also assisted us with a variety of projects, providing advertising and even tee shirts for the building teams for a couple of builds. We are working toward having a special build starting in February, building a house in their car park, involving some of their personnel and using the opportunity to lift our profile in the city. "Watch this space" as plans unfold and decisions are made.

A day without rain!

We seemed to have had rain at some time during every working bee over the last month or so. Shona said it had rained every day since she moved into the house... but Saturday was fine! A small working bee loaded Dave's van to the hilt (rubbish on the front passenger seat!) with our site rubbish from the walkway. The van with flat looking tires and springs took it to the tip. The letter box that had developed the droops, was strengthened with a bracket, and the previous house's letterbox was reinforced and also supplied with a bracket. Then all Habitat equipment from the basement was cleared to the container, the van again groaning up the hill with equipment in it and on it's roof. We finished at around 1p.m., deciding that starting to mix concrete was not on. Next Saturday we will continue the clean up and final jobs.

WELL DONE...Thanks from Dave

Thank you to all who have worked so hard to make the dedication date. People have gone the extra mile to help make it happen. These efforts are apprectiated. We hope you enjoyed the sense of accomplishment and the company.

We made it!

Saturday 19th of July was our 'D' day. We had until 3pm to have the house finished for dedication. A team of dedicated volunteers began the day at 8:30am and worked to the deadline. We had a list of over 20 jobs posted up on the window which we worked through and crossed off. By 2:45 we were still unloading tools at the container. Dave had to be back at the house to run the dedication ceremony at 3:00pm and was still in clothes covered in mud!

We made it! The house looked great. Paul, our electrician kept working all the way through the dedication and by 5pm the electricity was working and the house was ready to be lived in.


We had a good turn out to the dedication. The boys from Malcam Trust came to see the finished product and show off their hard work to their proud parents. Volunteers from throughout the build were on hand and friends of the family came to celebrate.

Shona even had a car load full of gear to move into the house that night! The following day a few volunteers helped Shona move into her new home. It was a real privilege to watch the children unpack their bedrooms and make the rooms their own.

Well done Dunedin, that's another Habitat House finished (well almost :) ).

Time for the dedication

We have been working very hard to make sure the house is as finished as possible before our dedication day, Saturday 19th July 2008. Volunteers, plumbers, carpet layers and electricians have been working away and it looks like we will have a finished house very soon.

As you can see we have been working on the landscaping for the house, putting in white stones on the path, top soil, and creative concreting for the pathway. There are even some veges in the vege garden!

You are invited to our dedication to be held on site at 3pm on Saturday 19th July. Please RSVP to Alan on hfhdunedin@xtra.co.nz.

See you there!