Some call it the American dream, some home-sweet-home and others a place to let their hair down. But for too many, a safe, comfortable house is something out of their reach financially.

		If you'd like to have your home featured in Home Showcase, contact Lynda Guydon Taylor at 724-746-8813 or e-mail ltaylor@post-gazette.com

For three Washington County families, however, the dream of home ownership will become a reality this year thanks to Habitat for Humanity and high school and college students from Maryland.

In its latest "blitz build" campaign, Habitat is constructing three homes faster than usual, owing in part to a group of 200 high school and college students and adult advisers working 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. at sites in Canonsburg, Washington and North Franklin.

Known as WoodsWork, the group started 22 years ago as a mission project by young people at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park, Md. Student volunteers spend a week working at a Habitat site within a 10-hour drive of Severna Park.

In addition to wielding hammers and paintbrushes, the group presented the Washington County Habitat For Humanity a check for $15,000.

The high school students spent June 22-30 in the area, and the collegiate crowd followed last week. The logistics of working three sites up to 12 miles apart and rainy weather conspired against the high school volunteers, headed by youth coordinator Brian Clayton.

They overcame the double whammy of weather and logistics, however, and the intense schedule allowed houses to be framed, roofs to be raised and aluminum siding to be installed.

	Robert J. Pavuchak, Post-Gazette Like a swarm of busy bees, high school students from Severna Park, Md., build a home at 517 Tannehill St. in Canonsburg. Habitat for Humanity of Washington County had 190 youths and advisers from Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park Md., build 3 homes in Washington county in one week. Click photo for larger image.

It's a thrill for first-time homeowners Harry and Debbie Reedy. Early last month, Habitat volunteers put in the foundation on their 1,040-square-foot, story-and-a-half house on Tannehill Street, Canonsburg. Because of a narrow lot, it required building the story and a half. Normally Habitat homes are one story plus a basement.

The Reedys' house will have two bedrooms on one floor, a third on the second floor and a fourth in the basement.

The couple is now living with their daughter, Kayla, 12; son, Troy, 10; and Mr. Reedy's daughter, Kim, 27, in a rented residence in Chartiers. In October, they learned the house where they have lived 11 years will be razed to make way for a new development, and they would have to move, said Mrs. Reedy, 44.

The Reedys learned about Habitat from someone else in the program and applied. Once the Canonsburg site was located, work began.

"They're a wonderful group. They're helping us get a house that we thought we'd never get," Mrs. Reedy said of the non-profit organization that builds affordable homes for low-income people.

Last week on Park Avenue, North Franklin, the second site was a beehive of activity where home construction was under way for Ryan and Amy Hopper, 31 and 28 years old, respectively. The couple and their son, Wyatt, 4, and daughter, Grace, 2, hope to move in by Christmas.

"It's great. These kids are nice. They do a great job. I can't complain about the quality of work," said Mr. Hopper, who took a week off from his job at Heeter Printing in Cecil to participate in the blitz build.

Likewise on Fayette Street in Washington, Kathleen Cox, a widow with three children, talked about a dream come true. She recounted struggling many years with setbacks and illness, including a cerebral hemorrhage a few years ago.

It will be good to have a safe place for her children that she can call her own, she said. She is the mother of Andrew, 21, stationed with the military in Iraq, Clayton, 15, and Brittany, 11.

Each family is required to put in 500 hours of sweat equity working at their own home or other Habitat sites. Ever since being accepted into the program, the Reedys have worked at various home sites to get in the mandated hours. With 440 hours so far, they are closing in on the goal.

"We're just getting our last hours in and stuff. We can't wait. I am very excited about it," Mrs. Reedy said after spending a recent Friday working on her home. Work on the Reedy house began in early June.

On a recent weekday, she helped install windows, nail boards on the porch, clean up and whatever else was needed. Although allowing high school and college students to build one's house might worry some people, Mrs. Reedy had no qualms.

"Hey, they're getting a chance to work on a house. This is my first time working on a house, and I'm enjoying it," she said.

Before he became disabled, Mr. Reedy worked in construction with his father so he is no novice to home building, Mrs. Reedy said.

With the family on Social Security and her husband on disability, Mrs. Reedy said, there would be no way the family of five could have afforded the house otherwise. Their interest-free mortgage will total about $60,000 with payments of about $250 a month.

"If it wasn't for [Habitat], we wouldn't even have a home. You go out there and try to rent a house with as many rooms as we want and it's expensive," she said.