Brandis Deitz has been working hard to own a home for a long time. Her dream is about to come true, as she and her three children will be moving into the new house Habitat for Humanity is building on Union Street in Mauston. The whole family is excited about the location and has grown tired of living outside of town. If construction stays on schedule, the family will move in this summer.

Brandis, a single mother, works as a Phlebotomist at Mile Bluff Medical Center. She grew up in Tomah, but has lived in the Mauston area for the last 14 years. Brandis lives in a two bedroom apartment with her three children. Amber (13) and Avery (9) go to school in Mauston while Brenon (3) has not started going to school yet. Their apartment is too small for the four of them, and is very hard to heat. Space heaters keep them warm, but their energy costs have skyrocketed.

Everyone in the family is excited about several aspects of their new home. Brandis is looking forward to consistent and low energy costs. Brenon is very happy that he will have more space for his toys while the girls love riding the bus to school and are glad to be back on the bus route. One thing they can all agree on: they are relieved that they won’t have to move so frequently.

The Deitz family will contribute hundreds of hours of “sweat equity” to help build their new home, and Brandis has already spent many hours working in the Habitat office. The family will buy the home with a modest interest-free mortgage offered by Habitat.

Thanks to support from individuals like you and partnerships with local businesses and churches, Habitat for Humanity of Adams-Juneau and the Mauston ReStore raised over $1,300 in our 2013 Holiday Fundraiser. You may have seen our donation jars at a number of locations around Adams and Juneau Counties, where hundreds of donors helped out with the change in their pockets. We are grateful to the community for all the support we received in this event. All proceeds have supported construction on the two houses we are building in Mauston and Adams. These houses will be completed before summer.

In addition to the fundraiser, our Warm Coat Drive ran from late November through the middle of December. Coat collection bins were located at the ReStore, Festival Foods, the Bank of Mauston, Bethany Lutheran Church and Mauston United Methodist Church. Together, we collected more than 100 coats, gloves, and hats of all sizes. All of this winter clothing was distributed alongside the Toys for Tots program and at the Mauston Food Pantry. We are so happy that all these kids and adults have a warm coat to battle the extra cold weather this winter.

Since the foundation of the Mauston Habitat ReStore in 2010, we have received more donations each year. This year has started off well with a huge donation of windows from Nuvo Construction Company. Based in Milwaukee, Nuvo is a contractor that works on projects around the state. They are currently working on a large project at Fort McCoy. Thanks to our existing relationship with Fort McCoy, we were put in contact with Nuvo to receive the excellent windows that they no longer needed.

This donation of more than 200 double-hung Andersen windows is very valuable to the ReStore. We rely on large donations like these to make our store a great place to shop. These windows are now available for sale, so stop by the ReStore and check out our stock. If you own or work at a business with furniture, appliances, or household supplies that can be donated to the ReStore, call us at 608-847-2000. We can pick up and provide proof of donation for tax purposes.

Beginning with the foundation of our affiliate in 2002, Habitat for Humanity of Adams-Juneau has been dedicated to helping families get out of substandard housing with our simple, decent, affordable homes.

In 2014 we hope to finish two more homes, one in Mauston and one in Adams. It takes around $80,000 to build a simple, decent house — to buy lumber, windows, doors, shingles, and siding, as well as excavation, cement work and other services. Part of this cost is spent on the materials necessary to keep our homeowner families warm during these cold Wisconsin winters. During this holiday season, Habitat for Humanity of Adams-Juneau County is seeking to raise funds enough to cover this cost. To insulate the two houses currently under construction will cost roughly $3,500.

With a donation of just $25 or more you could pay for one roll of insulation and help our homeowners stay warm.

Please consider sending a check to P.O. Box 100, Mauston, WI 53948. Alternatively, you can click the donate button here or on the main page to pay by credit or debit card. We are also accepting cash donations at the ReStore.

For several months, Outreach Coordinator Dane DeVetter has been developing a brand new website for the Mauston ReStore. This is Dane’s first experience with building a website. Said Dane, “It has been a great learning opportunity for me, and I hope it will be a place that answers every question the community may have about Habitat for Humanity and the ReStore. My ultimate goal is that this website will be easy to update and develop by others when my VISTA year is over.” The new ReStore website is much more functional than our older version, and is based on an easy to use design. On the ReStore site, you can find information on donating, shopping, or the many ways you can volunteer at the store. Additionally, you can find all of our past newsletter stories on the news tab. On the main page, you can see pictures of some of our top current items for sale. With this website completed, Dane has moved on to build a new website for our Habitat for Humanity affiliate. You can find the new website at www.maustonrestore.com. If there is anything you think should be added to the site, feel free to contact Dane at volunteer@maustonrestore.com.

On November 6^th, Habitat for Humanity finished building its 800,000^th home worldwide. From habitat.org, “Since our homebuilding program began in 1976 as a way to move families out of poverty housing and into simple, decent homes of their own, Habitat’s work around the world has only sped up.” After taking 26 years to build its first 100,000 homes, Habitat has sped up dramatically and now builds 100,000 homes every year. In 2013, Habitat for Humanity has built homes in 70 countries all over the world. With an average of five people in each homeowner family, we have served approximately 4 million people.

At Habitat for Humanity of Adams-Juneau County, we are proud to have built 16 houses and will finish two more in 2014. Like every Habitat affiliate, we owe our success to our excellent volunteers. Habitat for Humanity International remarked, “We are excited to be on track to serve a million families through new home construction, home renovation or critical home repair by the end of 2015.” We look forward to being a part of this goal.

Habitat for Humanity of Adams-Juneau volunteer Dick Durrett was awarded ReStore Volunteer of the Year at the annual Habitat Banquet in Wisconsin Dells. The state-wide Habitat for Humanity Banquet awards two ReStore volunteers and six Affiliate volunteers from around the state. Dick is a retired aviation mechanic and technician, and has been volunteering at the Mauston Habitat ReStore for over three years.

Dick spends more than twenty hours each week working on projects for the ReStore. One of his most valuable skills is his ability to manufacture new parts for donated items, including recliners, exercise equipment, power tools and appliances. Additionally, he has rebuilt and tuned engines for lawnmowers, snow blowers, and other motorized items.

Dick has planned, supervised, and contributed to numerous deconstruction efforts, including two buildings in the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge and several Victorian homes. His skills have allowed us to remove the most useful and valuable materials from a deconstruction project. Dick’s dedication to Habitat for Humanity is clear in his generous willingness to spend so much time over the past three years working on ReStore projects.

Habitat for Humanity of Adams-Juneau County volunteer Jerry Schroeder was awarded Affiliate Volunteer of the Year at the annual Habitat Banquet in Wisconsin Dells. The state-wide Habitat for Humanity Banquet awards six Affiliate volunteers and two ReStore volunteers from around the state. Jerry, a retired civil engineer, is the chair of our Habitat chapter’s construction committee and has volunteered with Habitat for over eight years.

Jerry oversees the planning for every house we work on and personally makes sure that the many details of building a house are considered and attended to. This preparation work includes making formal, detailed bid specifications for excavation, concrete, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing contractors. These bid specifications allow contractors to donate a portion of the cost, so building these homes becomes a more cost-efficient process.

As building proceeds, Jerry remains a key contact for contractors and selected families when questions or problems arise. In addition to his hard work on the houses we build each year, he offers and operates his own equipment in tree removal, lot grading, lawn installation, and drainage installation. Jerry’s knowledge, creativity and professionalism over the past eight years have been key in our ability to build two new homes each year for low income working families.

The Mauston Habitat ReStore is currently expanding its sales floor by finishing a new room within the original building. This project will add more than 275 square feet to the sales floor. Work began in September and has been largely completed by volunteers. The project is a result of increasing donations to the ReStore, which has led to the need for more open space to sell items. The new area was previously used as storage space, but will be better utilized as part of the sales floor. This area will contain books, music, and movies for sale, while the previous area that held those items will now feature hardware supplies.

Special thanks go to Dick Durrett and Paul Landa for their large time investment on the project. If you would like to help us with future ReStore projects, call us at 608-847-2000 and ask about volunteering. A number of other volunteer roles are also currently available, including cashiers, heavy lifters, and people experienced with doors and windows.

The Mauston Habitat ReStore is now alerting potential donors through Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM). Since June, our donation coordinator John Hunter has been sending flyers throughout seven counties in central Wisconsin. This program, provided by the United States Postal Service, allows us to send flyers to every address in a mailing route. EDDM is a very affordable option for us to increase donations and local knowledge of our ReStore without spending a fortune on billboards, television ads, or other common options.

EDDM has been an important tool in our donation expansion into Green Lake, Marquette, and Waushara counties. Along with support from local churches, these flyers have helped spread word of the ReStore. As we continue to use EDDM, you may just find one of our flyers in your mailbox. The flyer shows all the contact information you will need, some great reasons to donate your items to the ReStore and on the back lists many items that we take.