Keys handed out to free new homes for three Louise seniors
"I'm so thankful I was chosen to get a home." - Florence Warzecha
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

L-N Photo by Brenda Sommer Welcome Home! Florence Warzecha, 79, says good-bye from the gate at her brand-new house, built at no cost to her through a grant program. She said her son intends to work on rehanging her fence and leveling topsoil during the weekend.

On Thursday, Florence Warzecha was mentally rearranging the furniture her children moved into her new home over the weekend.

"I want to put the television in that corner, so I can see it from the kitchen," the 79-yearold said.

Warzecha is one of three Louise widows who were presented keys to free, brand-new homes last week, replacements for drafty old houses that were beyond repair.

The homes, for low-income people, were built through a Wharton County contract with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, which in turn is funded for the project by the federal HOME program.

"It's very good to get something like that," Warzecha said. "I'm so thankful I was chosen to get a home."

The women all owned their previous homes free and clear, and were current with all taxes, as required by the program. In Warzecha's case, she and her late husband bought their former two-story, three-bedroom house in 1972, but the structure was almost 100 years old when demolished in October.

After demolition, Warzecha walked four blocks every day to feed her pens of chickens, goats and guinea hens, making her way from her temporary home at daughter Janet Seiler's house to the corner lot where builders raised her new, modest three-bedroom house.

"Sometimes I'd come watch the men working on the house," Warzecha said with a little smile. "They didn't know it, but I was watching."

She said her first night in her new home was a pleasure.

"I got up and said, 'Ooooh! My own house!'" she said.

Warzecha and the two other women in Louise who received new homes were required to find somewhere else to live for up to a year, so builders would have time to do their work. All three women stayed with relatives in the county.

Warzecha said her old house had flooded four times, and was cold from gaps including a twoinch hole between one wall and the floor. She now lives in a home with proper seals, central air and heat, wide doorways and even a handicapped-accessible shower.

"I love this bathroom," she said. "It's so easy to get into. I just walked right in there."

Matt Hyatt of J.W. Turner Construction of Tomball was the builder of all three homes in Louise, as well as six other houses in Wharton County that are part of the program.

"The homeowners have been very good here in Louise," Hyatt said. "They're thrilled to get a house, and that feels good."

He said the homes, which come in two- and three-bedroom versions, would cost about $70,000 if built on a paid-for lot.

Participants are chosen from applicants selected through an objective scoring and ranking system, and once construction begins, homes are usually completed in 90 days. Hyatt said he's slated to build a fourth house in Louise, as well as one in El Campo and three in Wharton.

Warzecha said she's happy not just for herself, but for all those whose lives have been changed by the grant program.

"I like this," she said, as she stood at her front gate. "I've never had something so nice."