Starting to look like home

LYNN – A former Lynn teacher for the deaf who now owns a Beverly home improvement business is turning her passion for education toward giving back to the Lynn community.
Stephanie Vanderbilt, owner of Coastal Windows & Exteriors, partnered with Habitat for Humanity North Shore in Lynn to help rebuild a rotting, gutted house on Grover Street.
“It’s great to give back to Lynn,” she said at the construction site Saturday morning.
Sporting Dorothy’s pigtails, Vanderbilt led the way on Coastal and Habitat’s third “Wizard of Oz”-themed event for the fall. At a prior event, children at the Northshore Mall had made paper bricks for a yellow brick road that Vanderbilt laid in front of the entrance to the Grover Street structure that volunteers spent the day rehabbing.
A yellow brick road made by children at a recent event for Habitat’s Oz-themed fall promotion pic.twitter.com/uxJkyF8zqR – The Daily Item (@itemlive) November 16, 2013
“The theme is the 75th anniversary of ?Wizard of Oz,'” Vanderbilt said. “That’s Habitat’s international theme this year. So I asked Habitat North Shore, and they said, ?sure, run with that.'”
The day began with coffee and donuts as volunteers began to arrive. Volunteers were each given T-shirts that read, “There’s no place like home” on the back.
Vanderbilt organized the workers into groups with specific targets. The Grover Street house was to receive siding, a second-floor deck, basement stairs and supports. Vanderbilt branded the build day, Coastal’s second at this location, “It’s a Wrap” because, she said, “we are finishing up on the exterior, so ?it’s a wrap,’ and also siding is like ?wrapping’ the house.”
Habitat North Shore President Don Preston said, “I reached out to Norm Cole of LHAND (Lynn Housing and Neighborhood Development), and they had worked all through this area, rehabbing some of these other homes. He knew this property right away, he said it was the ?bad tooth’ of the neighborhood.”
Preston said that LHAND helped Habitat through every step of the acquisition of the property, while Habitat worked on finding occupants for the three-family home. “They’re great people,” Preston said. “One is a sergeant in the Army, another is a Suffolk Law graduate.”
Initially, the house was in rough shape.
“I was here when I could see through the floor,” Vanderbilt said. “What does this house need? Everything. It was condemned, it had no floor! Just a rock floor in the basement!”
Vanderbilt said she loves how much learning is involved in working with Habitat.
“I want to give back to the community, help them out,” Vanderbilt said. “Mark Bergeron, project manager at Habitat, told me, ?The point is not to get it all done, the point is to learn and have a good time.'”
Vanderbilt said she’d learned a lot herself over the course of these two build events. She said, “I installed my very first window ever, and it was the first window in the house!”
Measuring and cutting siding #noplacelikehome https://t.co/avgO3fWL9I – The Daily Item (@itemlive) November 16, 2013
Volunteers working on the siding, including Nicole Greene, Ashley Krezmien and Chris Hogan, who were learning to do so with no prior experience.
Krezmien described herself as a “paper-pusher” who had no experience with power tools. Preston took the time to show her how to use a jigsaw, explaining its function and capabilities, and allowed her to cut siding that would have to wrap around the bottom edge of a window.
Preston also taught Vanderbilt how to do siding, while other experienced volunteers helped newcomers cut stringers for basement stairs, put up a second-floor deck frame, and install lally columns in the basement.
Building a deck frame at Habitat for Humanityin #lynn #noplacelikehome https://t.co/8yTYKRg4rf – The Daily Item (@itemlive) November 16, 2013
Matthew Coughlin and Sunny Adeoye, a friend of the home’s new owners, worked on those basement stairs, spending most of the morning cutting with circular saws and jigsaws bef