Thomas R. McHaffie and Company to build new O'Connor House

Mother nature permitting, very soon we will be digging a basement for the new O'Connor House, a home for unwed women in crisis pregnancies.  (See http://www.theoconnorhouse.org/ for more information). The new home is being funded by a grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, under their affordable housing program.  A bunch of people have been working for several years to make this grant, and this new home a reality, and I'm proud to have been a small part of that effort, and to have been chosen to build the home.

One of the major criteria of the FHLBI grant was that the project be a "Green" home.  Therefore, everything about the site selection and design of the house was geared towards being as high on the Green Score-board as possible.  The site was chosen because of its close proximity to necessary services, it's ability to allow for a solar orientation, and the fact that it was considered an "infill" site, having previously been home to another large structure that had been torn down.  The homes mechanical systems and appliances are high efficiency, and designed for low consumption of power and natural resources.  Construction materials used in the construction of the home have been selected because of their Green characteristics.  And hopefully through careful management of all of these materials and systems during construction, waste on the project will be kept to a minimum.

This is a very exciting time for The O'Connor House mission, and it's exciting for me on several levels, to be involved.  Please visit http://www.theoconnorhouse.org/ , to see how you can be involved too.  There will be many needs over and above the bricks and sticks!