The newest Habitat for Humanity Home going up at 1015 N. Beal would make a great subject for time-lapse photography.

Monday morning, the “home” consisted of little more than a vacant lot. By 11 a.m., volunteers for the blitz home were installing roof trusses on the home.

Amos Anson of FAmous Construction said work began at 7 a.m. Monday and was hit by 15 minutes of rain at 7:15.

“We worked right through it,” said Anson, who is serving as project coordinator for the first-ever blitz home to be built for the Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity.

Originally, Anson believed it would take 12 hours to complete the framing and completely enclose the house.

Instead, Anson called the electricians, plumbers and heating and air conditioning people who had been scheduled to begin work on Tuesday to be on the job site by 2 p.m. Monday afternoon.

Anson said it was good to see the house going up ahead of schedule, especially with the forecasts of rain and even severe weather for Central Nebraska.

Anson, vice president of the Central Nebraska Home Builders Association, said he’d been busy using his cell phone Monday morning to check out weather forecasts and satellite weather images.

Although Anson is a home builder, he admitted he has never seen a home go up so fast “except on TV –  ’Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.’ It’s definitely not something you see in Grand Island every day.”

Brian Fox, president of the Central Nebraska Home Builders, said Anson was approached by the organization about doing a blitz home as a project and that the organization agreed to do it.

By Fox’s reckoning, six different home builders were working on the Habitat site Monday morning. He said the cooperation between the builders was extremely good, with everybody pitching in to do whatever was needed at any particular time.

Fox said that kind of cooperation was necessary, considering how fast the home was going up. He noted a number of associate members of the Central Nebraska Home Builders — those who sell home building materials — were also part of the volunteer effort for the Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity.

Like Anson, Fox said he had never seen a home take shape so quickly.

“Todd Enck and I went over to Kearney two years ago to see them build a blitz home,” Fox said. Actually, home builders in Kearney committed to building two blitz homes in one week.”

“We thought if Kearney could do two, we could do one,” Fox said.

Watching — and helping — the blitz home go up was Becky Hatcher. She and her 5-year-old-daughter, Tessa, are the partner family for the blitz home.

Hatcher said Tessa “was pouty” Monday morning when she dropped her daughter off at day care.

“She wanted to be out here,” said Hatcher, who noted that she had to tell her daughter that she would only be in the way with the rapid pace of construction.

Hatcher did know she’d almost certainly bring Tessa to the site at the end of the day Monday to see the progress on their new home.

When asked what it was like to see the home rise from the ground so quickly, Hatcher’s initial answer was not audible. Instead, it started with a small smile that slowly grew into a wide, happy grin that ended with one word: “Great.”

“It’s very exciting,” Hatcher said.

As with all partner families, Hatcher owes 500 hours of “sweat equity” or physical labor to qualify for a Habitat for Humanity home.

Hatcher has put in part of her hours in a Habitat home going up on Cherry Street, and her work this week on the blitz home also will count toward her hours.

Hatcher works at an American Family Insurance office and she noted that her boss, Kristy Cavanaugh, gave her vacation time this week to work on her new home and collect more sweat equity hours.

Dana Jelinek, executive director of Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity, said a partner family normally would be required to have all 500 hours completed before becoming a Habitat for Humanity homeowner.

But the rapid pace of a blitz home requires an exception to the rule and an agreement on how the 500 hours will be fulfilled, she said.

Theoretically, Jelinek said, Hatcher could start moving into her new home this weekend because the blitz home is supposed to be completed by Friday.

But as a practical matter, Jelinek was not sure that all the required building inspections would be completed that quickly. She also was uncertain whether this week’s predicted rainy weather might delay pouring concrete for the house.

Hatcher was not worried about Jelinek’s timetable. She noted she wouldn’t be ready to move in this weekend anyway. Hatcher said her mother is still collecting boxes for her to pack, while her daughter objects if she tries packing away toys too early.

Jelinek has talked about the possibility of trying to build a blitz home every other year. Based on Monday’s good start, Fox said he thinks members and associate members of Central Nebraska Home Builders would be open to that idea.

“It’s been a good experience and it’s good for the community, which is what we’re all about,” Fox said.

Grand Island Area Habitat for Humanity is participating in its first-ever Home Builders Blitz.

Dana Jelinek, executive director for Habitat for Humanity, said work will begin Saturday, with the home at 1015 N. Beal to be completed in a week.

She said volunteers will complete staging and site preparation work. The plan is for the Habitat home to be framed and enclosed on Monday.

Jelinek said enclosing the structure will allow work to proceed on the home the remainder of the week, no matter what kind of weather hits Grand Island. She said the home should be completed on Friday.

In addition to the professionals, the Habitat partner family who will be occupying the home and a number of volunteers also will be working during the week.

Although this is a first-time endeavor in Grand Island, thousands of Blitz homes have been built across the United States, Jelinek said.

She said the first Blitz homes were built in 2002 by a very large North Carolina home builder who worked with a local Habitat for Humanity affiliate. A number of firms in the construction trades were recruited for the project and Jelinek said 12 homes were built in five days for that local affiliate.

The following year, the local Habitat affiliate and the North Carolina home builder staged another Blitz and built an even greater number of homes in five days.

Since 2002, other local Habitat for Humanity affiliates have constructed Blitz homes, Jelinek said.

The national organization had a Habitat for Humanity Home Builders Blitz 2006, where local Habitat chapters and their partners were recruited to build Blitz homes all around the United States.

Now, the national organization is having a Habitat for Humanity Home Builders Blitz 2008.

Jelinek said 109 local affiliates are participating this year, including the one in the Grand Island area.

She said Brian Fox, president of the Central Nebraska Home Builders, and Amos Anson, vice president of the Central Nebraska Home Builders, helped lead the way in getting that organization interested in the Blitz build.

Members of the Central Nebraska Home Builders, in turn, got other businesses and individuals in the construction trades to donate materials or labor for the Blitz.

She noted Fox and Anson had been involved in the construction of previous Habitat homes.

Anson has been served as one of the site managers for the past two years on Habitat homes and as the construction manager responsible for ordering construction materials for Habitat homes.

On the Blitz home, Anson and FAmous Construction will  be the project coordinator.

Even though all Habitat homes benefit greatly from donations, one of the advantages of including professionals in the construction trades is the home will cost considerably less than even a regular Habitat home, Jelinek said.

Construction of the Blitz home involves definite division of labor among the various parties, Jelinek said. For example, one firm will provide the Sheetrock, another will hang the Sheetrock and a third will finish it. Likewise, one firm will provide the carpet and vinyl, while another firm will install the carpeting and vinyl flooring.

Despite this division of labor, talents and materials, FAmous Construction deserves mention as the project coordinator, with Central Nebraska Home Builders, Jerry’s Sheet Metal and Obermiller Seamless also playing major roles in the construction of the 2008 Blitz home, Jelinek said.

However, none of the other 32 construction  businesses or the seven corporate partners can be said to be making a small contribution, Jelinek said. That’s why the Blitz home probably will not become an annual project.

Jelinek said trying to build a Blitz home every year may be asking too much from volunteer businesses and individuals. However, the Blitz home could still be a recurring event. In talking to other Habitat officials around the country, one suggestion has been to try to build a Blitz home every other year.

“That’s the buzz,” she said.