For most homebuyers, the move to a new house is marked by the removal of a “for sale” sign and little fanfare. However, for first-time homebuyers Emmalee Mitchell and Daniel Bautista, their move was heralded by a ribbon cutting — the celebration of a home more than a year in the making.
The house, located at 925 Eighth St., is the second home built as part of the the Lincoln Central Neighborhood Homebuyer Program. Its completion was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house on Thursday.
Mitchell and Bautista expect to close the deal today, and Mitchell said they were excited to see the completed house.
“It’s been a long process, and honestly all of the things that could have gone wrong during this process — just due to COVID — have gone wrong, so we’re just really happy and thankful that everybody was able to continue working on it and get it finished, even with all of the hardships that came along with it,” Bautista said,
The homebuyer program is a collaborative effort between several partners, including the Southern Indiana Housing & Community Development Corp. (SIHCDC) and the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.’s C4 Building Trades Program Corp. (Barcon Vocational Builders, Inc.).
C4 designed and built the home, finishing work on it this past week, said SIHCDC executive director Eric Frey.
Construction began in August of 2019, but slowed down due to the pandemic. Under normal circumstances, they would have expected to finish work by the end of the school year.
For more on this story, see Monday’s Republic.
