Bryan family works nearly 1,000 hours toward Habitat home

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - For years, the Alvarado family was close -- in more ways than one. The family of five lived in a two bedroom, one bath apartment.

“The yard was very, very small. There’s really not much room to play unless you played out in the parking lot area,” Susie Alvardo recalled.

But that all changed when Susie applied for a Habitat home at her husband, Richard’s urging.

“I was kind of skeptical at first, thinking, ‘Hey, we’re not going to be able to make it. They’re going to turn us down and then we’re going to get our hopes up for nothing,’” Susie explained.

But those hopes became very real in 2018, when the Alvarados raised the walls on their very own four bedroom, two bath home in Bryan.

Working alongside the family were members of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, who sponsored the Alvarado’s home.

“There were so many people here,” Susie remembered of the wall raising event. “I’ve never seen so many people building a home and working together. Sometimes I would go home and I would cry because we were one step closer to everything.”

Each Habitat for Humanity recipient has to work 500 sweat equity hours. The Alvarados nearly doubled that number, earning them a washer and dryer for their new home.

Even though they’ve been in their home a few years, the couple still sits in their living room in awe.

“We would just sit here and look at each other and say, ‘This is what you call home.’ You feel the comfort and the love, and of course, there is peace and quiet,” said Susie. “We are blessed. We are very blessed from the beginning and we are still blessed.”

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