House-proud: Levant woman, officials celebrate her new home

LEVANT – The wall decoration next to the front door of Lila Curtis’ new home says one word – Hope.

Curtis, a 73-year-old widow, spent Wednesday morning showing off her new Griffin Road home and thanking all the people who, with some state and federal funding and a lot of hope, made her new home a reality.

As she milled around the kitchen of her two-bedroom, one-story home, Curtis often stopped to graciously thank those involved in the building process and often was heard exclaiming, “Oh, I love it!”

The home marks a fresh, albeit bittersweet, start for Curtis. Her old home, which is located nearby on the same site, will be demolished in the coming weeks. While she won’t miss the holes in the tattered walls, floorboards that have rotted away, or the $395 monthly winter oil bill, Curtis said the old trailer and its additions hold a lot of memories.

“My husband built the parts on himself,” she said of her husband, Cecil Curtis, who died 16 years ago. “There are lots of memories there. I’d rather not be here when they take it down.”

A press conference was held Wednesday at Curtis’ home, which the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development division used to mark June as National Homeownership Month. Representatives from USDA, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Maine State Housing, Penquis and staff members of Maine’s congressional delegation were on hand Wednesday and presented Curtis with an American flag, oversized cardboard house key and a house plant.

Although taking on a mortgage at 73 was a little daunting for Curtis, while standing in the kitchen of her new home, she said it was all worth it. In fact, with the help of state and federal programs, Curtis’ current mortgage payment, electricity and gas bill combined is equivalent to the cost of heating her old home.

Curtis received a $28,000 Maine State Housing grant and a $63,000 low-interest loan through the USDA to help finance her new home, which was recently appraised at $120,000, according to Raymond Roberts, area director for USDA Rural Development in Bangor. Depending on income guidelines, a homeowner’s interest rate can range from 1 percent to 53/8 percent interest, he said.

The USDA Rural Development’s Bangor office helps to build 15 to 20 new homes each year within Somerset, Piscataquis, Penobscot, Waldo, Hancock and Knox counties, said Glenn Blair, an area specialist for the USDA.

While every new home is significant, the circumstances of Curtis’ Christmas Eve move-in date were extra special. The home was nearly ready for Christmas, but the heating system remained unfinished. When Rick Townsend of III Generation Carpentry, the home builder, learned how important it was for Curtis to wake up in her new home on Christmas Day, he spent Christmas Eve at her home installing the furnace.

“It was Christmas Eve, she had her new house and it just seemed like the right thing to do,” Townsend said.

trobbins@bangordailynews.net

990-8074