The keys to a newly-built home at 1936 Juniper St. will be handed over to Cassandra Houston next Saturday.

"She's getting pretty ecstatic about the house now, it's down to the final strokes, the baseboards and the doors," said Mary-Anne Pickering, Habitat for Humanity's executive director.

Construction started in April and last week volunteers were getting down to the end stages, laying sod and putting up a fence.

The Houston family was selected as recipients of the house on the basis of the need for adequate housing, the ability to repay a no-interest, long-term loan and a willingness to work with the organization. The Houstons will have contributed 500 hours of their own time to building the project, having worked alongside volunteers to build the house as well as helping staff at the Habitat ReStore at 220 Queensway.

This is the seventh home built by Habitat for Humanity for a Prince George family in need.

Art Newcombe is the construction supervisor and the College of New Caledonia carpentry students have done most of the building, with help from CNC's plumbing program. Newcombe came out of retirement to oversee the Juniper Street construction and the search is on for his replacement.

"This house has cost us quite a bit more, we didn't get as much in donations," said Pickering.

"We haven't had this one appraised, but the home we built on Kenwood Street last year, which is the same, was appraised at about $200,000."

Pickering said the Kenwood Street project has inspired existing homeowners to make their own improvements and that it improving the look of the neighbourhood.

"There were some terribly rickety houses on that street and when we started to build there are three homes in a row across the street that renovated and fixed the outside of their homes," said Pickering. "The one next to it was just a burlap shack and now they're going to put siding on it. It's kind of neat to see."

For its eighth Prince George house, Habitat purchased a lot at 1725 Fourth Ave. for $63,000. But Pickering says unless a replacement is found for Newcombe, that building project will be put on hold.

"This is a nice spot for us, there are no trees on it, all we have to do is dig," said Pickering. "But we need to hire somebody else, we can't even choose a family until we have a building supervisor."