Great Barrington — Back in February 2022, Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity acquired a three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom home at 40 Grove Street. The organization acquired the house, originally built in 1910 through a bid from the town’s Affordable Land Trust.
After over a year’s worth of rehabilitation work, the house is now available for purchase by income-eligible buyers. The organization held an open house event, along with an information session on how to purchase the property, on Monday, August 7.
Back in January, Organization Executive Director Carolyn Valli told The Berkshire Edge about the great lengths volunteers from the organization had to go through to renovate and restore the house. “When we purchased it, there was still a considerable amount of debris in the place,” Valli said. “There were multiple dumpsters that we had to rent to take care of it. Like with any rehabilitation product project, you always know that you’re going to find something. But in this case, there were many things that we found. We had to do quite a bit of work on the foundation, and tons of insulation work had to be done. We also installed new floors, a new laundry room, and a bathroom on the first floor.”
At the open house event on August 7, project construction manager John Bridge said it was not easy to renovate the house to make it habitable again. “It was a big challenge for many reasons,” Bridge said. “The middle primary support wall had deteriorated. The floor joists on the second floor needed to be reinforced. We needed to put in a lot of work to get this all done.”
Both Bridge and Valli said that the hard work all paid off, and the house is in much better condition than when the organization purchased it. “It looks and feels so much better than when we found it,” Valli said. “The first time I walked through the house, it was sad. There was so much chaos and sadness. But now when you walk in here, it’s like love, joy, and light are in this place.”
Valli said that multiple volunteers, including organizations and local businesses, all helped to support the renovation of the house. “But there was a huge amount of expense to make this house energy efficient, including upgrading the insulation of the house,” Valli said.
The house is valued at approximately $440,000 but is available for purchase for $250,000 for income-eligible buyers via a lottery system organized by the Department of Housing and Community Development. Applications are due by September 15, and more information can be found at the organization’s website, by calling Project Manager Veronica Warren at 413-442-3181, ext. 7, or by emailing Homes@berkshirehabitat.org.
In the meantime, Valli said that the organization is continuing to work on other affordable housing projects, including a project in Housatonic that was approved by the town in March.
