With the birth of her second child, Leah Liebig’s one-bedroom apartment had rapidly become too cramped for her growing family.  

Liebig and her husband, Anthony Lill, ended up giving their five-year-old daughter the bedroom. The couple relocated to a bed in the living room, which they shared with their newborn. 

“It’s small, I moved into it when I was 18, just me, and now there’s three other people there. We don’t fit,” Liebig said. 

Getting the idea from her mom, she applied for an energy-efficient townhome at a below market price being built by volunteers from Habitat for Humanity of Flathead Valley. 

Now the couple, which recently marked their one-year anniversary, is also celebrating becoming homeowners. 

Habitat Flathead held a celebration for two newly built duplex-style townhomes on May 30. The new homeowners, their families and Habitat Flathead staff and volunteers convened on the front lawn of the property on the corner of Seventh Street West and Ninth Avenue West in Kalispell on the warm afternoon. 

The homes, on which work began in September, are fitted with two bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths and conjoining garages. The land beneath the townhomes is owned by nonprofit Northwest Community Land Trust, which helped lower the housing cost to $200,000 under market price, according to MaryBeth Morand, executive director of Habitat Flathead. 

“They are homes that were built on faith, hope and charity,” Morand said during the ceremony.   

She thanked community donors and the contractors who provided their services for free or at low rates, including Ace Heating and Air who installed HVAC systems at a discount. 

She also extended appreciation to the roughly dozen people who volunteered to help build the homes. 

“They’re the people that showed up week after week after week in any weather and built these homes with the homebuyers who were doing their sweat equity.” Morand said. “Volunteers are the backbone of Habitat for Humanity.” 

While Liebig and Lill are elated to get more breathing space, the road to homeownership was not easy. Habitat Flathead homeowners must log 275 hours of sweat equity, which Liebig did while pregnant with her now 6-week-old.  

The two had no prior construction experience, and Lill said it was his first time using a tape measure.  

“I had to learn to use power tools,” Liebig said. “To do this program, you have to be hungry, you have to want it ... But it’s totally worth it.” 

Having housing organizations like Habitat Flathead is crucial to ensuring low-income earners can continue to live in the valley, Liebig said.  

“If you don’t have low-income people, then you don’t have people filling low-income jobs,” she said. “If you don’t keep them here, I feel like the community suffers,” 

Hunter D’Antuono, a photojournalist for the Flathead Beacon, is moving into the townhome just next door.  

D’Antuono has rented since he moved to the Flathead Valley six years ago. Becoming a homeowner was always a distant dream. “But thanks to Habitat [Flathead], it was a viable path,” he said.  

D’Antuono currently lives in a 400-square-foot studio apartment west of town, but his environment has turned dangerous.  

“Some of the neighbors across the way were, shall I say, stockpiling quite a pile of meth for a long time there and guns and things like that,” he said. 

D’Antuono was elated to be chosen from the pool applicants and grateful to the volunteers who taught him how to build a house.  

“Everything from painting to hanging drywall,” he said. He also tied rebar in the driveway concrete and had lugged 30 wheelbarrows of dirt just before the celebration event began.  

“I have a memory associated with every bit of trim,” he said.   

The homes will be move-in ready within the next couple of weeks. 

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected].

    Hunter D'Antuono in front his home built by Habitat Flathead on Friday, May 30. (Jack Underhill/Daily Inter Lake)
  

    Two newly completed townhomes built by Habitat Flathead on Friday, May 30. (Jack Underhill/Daily Inter Lake)