FALLS VILLAGE —The new Habitat for Humanity house was dedicated Saturday, April 28, after years of labor on the part of volunteers and new homeowners Joette and Vinnie Viscariello. But as friends, neighbors, Habitat workers and community members strolled from Lime Rock Station Road to the recently finished house for the celebration, they found themselves walking through a construction site where a new foundation waits to be finished with walls and a roof. Bulldozers and other heavy equipment were parked at the site, waiting for the next work session on the fourth house that will be built on the 12-acre parcel.
In the Northwest Corner, when Habitat volunteers finish a project they generally move on to another location, often in another town. But here, on the border of Salisbury and Falls Village, the volunteers have been working steadily for several years in a row, building what will eventually be four houses. There is also a fifth building lot on the 12 acres; it was sold to a private homeowner, to help pay for the cost of building the four affordable homes.
Katie Segalla and her three young children moved into the first house last year. A new partner family has already been selected for the third home site: Leslie Light and her three young children.
The Viscariellos are unusual in this growing Habitat neighborhood of homes. Their children are teens, and like their parents are tall and strapping. They’ll fit snugly into their new three bedroom home, which has two bedrooms and a small sitting area downstairs, and a master bedroom upstairs.
While the house was being built, laboriously over months that stretched into years, Joette Viscariello said that in the evening she and her husband would sometimes "go upstairs to where the bedroom was going to be, and look out the windows and plan out how we want to landscape."
That landscaping hasn’t begun yet, but the Viscariellos will be helped out by the gifts of plants they received during Saturday’s party. Rita Limbos gave Joette a hibiscus plant, and plenty of hugs. The embraces were welcome.
Both Viscariellos were overcome with emotion at moments during the afternoon ceremony, and found themselves sobbing at points as they thanked everyone for the work they did. Joette said, through tears, that she often complained during the process when things weren’t going as fast as she wanted, or when things didn’t turn out according to her standards.
"We are so grateful to everybody for your thoughts and your help," she said. "In the end, you see we have the most beautiful house. And I thank you."
It is a beautiful house, with blue-stained wood cabinets in the kitchen embellished with squiggly metal door pulls. The floors, which got a good coating of mud during the party despite the contractor paper still taped to it in places, are a cherry-stained wood and the baseboards in many rooms were hewn from rustic-looking wood planks, giving the house an old New England feel. The walls are solid, the floors straight, the kitchen opens out to the dining area and the living room. Perfect for Joette, who is a professional cook and works in the kitchen at nearby Housatonic Valley Regional High School (where her husband is on the custodial staff).
As for the views, the Viscariellos will be looking out on the skeleton of house number four for a while. But once that’s completed, they’ll have views of the surrounding woods and hills.
The house is not small but it felt that way Saturday, as some 40 people crammed into the living room to sing along with minstrels Eliot Osborn and Vance Cannon (who sang, respectively, "If I had a Hammer" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," with enthusiastic audience support).
Prayers were offered by the Rev. Erick Olsen, a Habitat board member, and Father Victor Incardona, of St. Joseph’s Church in North Canaan. Leslie Light’s offering was inspired by a gift that was given to new homeowners in the film, "It’s a Wonderful Life." In the bag she presented was bread, so the family would never know hunger; salt, to add some spice to their lives; and wine, to bring them symbolic joy and prosperity.
Other gifts of food and drink for the party were donated by Subway in North Canaan, Dino’s Pizza in Lakeville, Alfredo’s Deli in Torrington and Warren Wine and Spirits.
The Viscariello house is the sixth built by Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut, said the group’s board president, John Pogue.
Habitat, a national organization, works with "partner" families who help pay for their houses and help to build them. Volunteers and local businesses pitch in with donations of labor and materials. Students from local high schools raised money and came out to do caulking, nailing and other jobs.
On this project, site supervisor Tom Farrell made sure that everything was shipshape, even when that meant telling the workers to take something apart that they’d completed, and start again. His nickname was "The King." It was meant affectionately.
Partner families pay a mortgage to Habitat. That money goes into a revolving fund that helps pay for more houses.
Funds are raised through events such as an annual summer tag sale held in the field house at Lakeville’s Hotchkiss School, and a summer wine- tasting event.