MIDDLEBURY — Tearing open packages.
It’s a Christmas tradition.
But the Soberal family didn’t need to unwrap their biggest Christmas gift this week.
They’re living in it.
Frankie and Dora Soberal and their three young daughters continue to pinch themselves to make sure they aren’t caught up in Yuletide reverie. Yes, it’s true. On Saturday, Dec. 21, they moved from an apartment into their first-ever permanent home at 51 Seymour St. in Middlebury, thanks to a partnership with Habitat for Humanity of Addison County.
“It is our ultimate Christmas present; we couldn’t have asked for anything better,” Dora Soberal said during a recent interview.
Dora and Frankie both work for the Charter House Coalition (CHC), a non-profit, volunteer-based organization dedicated to providing basic food and housing to people in need in the Middlebury area. The couple has been working separate night shifts at the coalition’s warming shelter at 27 North Pleasant St., coordinating care for the many homeless people seeking refuge from the cold. Dora also serves as the CHC’s day station manager.
“It is very rewarding,” Dora said of the work.
But as anyone who works in human services knows, the job’s biggest reward is changing lives for the better; it’s usually not a path to personal prosperity. So the Soberals have been content to lease apartments. Homeownership seemed an elusive goal.
Until they learned about Habitat for Humanity of Addison County. They found out early this year the nonprofit would be building an affordable home at 51 Seymour St., an easy walk from their warming shelter workplace.
“Our boss had suggested we apply,” Dora said. “We did.”
The Soberals were enthralled upon hearing this past spring that the new Habitat abode would be theirs. Dora and Frankie faithfully showed up at the worksite day after day to put in the requisite 400 hours of sweat equity that Habitat requires of its new homeowners.
“We’ve been there from (the May 4) groundbreaking to the very end,” Dora said.
The new, 1,300-square-foot home includes three bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathrooms. It is incredibly energy-efficient, owing to triple-glazed windows and ample insulation placed in its walls, attic and a base that sits on a concrete slab.
It is endowed with an air-exchange system and is served by heat pumps powered by electricity. Habitat for Humanity of Addison County President Steve Ingram confirmed the house has won a $10,000 grant that will allow for solar panels to be installed on its roof. Once installed, the solar panels should be sufficient to satisfy all of the family’s electricity needs, according to Ingram.
“The place is insulated within an inch of its life,” he chuckled.
Habitat officials gave a huge shout-out to Middlebury College Assistant Professor of Architecture John McLeod and his students, who designed the Soberals’ home. They performed their job admirably, designing a home that meets Habitat’s specifications while giving it a miniscule carbon footprint. And they did it within the $150,000 project budget. Area vendors were extremely helpful in that regard, providing low-cost materials.
“The house, above all, has to be affordable,” Ingram stressed.
Ingram and approximately 100 other people worked side-by-side with the Soberals for seven months building the home. The crew became as tight as the house they were constructing.
“I love them,” Ingram said of the couple and their three children, ages 2-7. “Frankie and Dora are both committed people; they are hard working, their stories are compelling. I just wish I could be a fly on the wall when they move in and all of a sudden it dawns on them that, ‘OK, this is it, this is our house.’”

DONE BY CHRISTMAS
The hammers kept pounding faithfully until last Friday, Dec. 20, when the home had to be completed for a scheduled Dec. 21 opening celebration. It was important to Ingram and his fellow volunteers that the structure be ready for occupancy before Christmas.
Mission accomplished.
“That’s a great gift,” Ingram said. “They’re going to be there on Christmas morning, opening their gifts that are under the tree in their brand new house.”
Ingram is touched by the seasonal symbolism that accompanies the family’s leap to homeownership.
“(Dec. 21) is the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year,” he noted. “The days start getting longer after (that). It’s in some ways a turning point of the season, and it’s definitely a turning point in their lives.”
Seeing the Soberals move into their home was a gift to all those who helped make the happy occasion happen.
“There’s nothing more satisfying, or anything that can make you feel better, than knowing that a really deserving family — trying to do everything right in their lives and trying to build futures for their kids — is finally be able to realize their dream,” Ingram said.

MORE HOMES
And Habitat is going to help make that dream come true for five other Addison County families during the next two to three years.
Volunteers will next turn their attention to a second house lot at 51 Seymour St., with framing tentatively slated for next March. The plan is to complete that home by mid-August and then begin work on the first of four planned Habitat homes in the Booth Woods area of Vergennes. The group will continue to work with McLeod and his architecture students.
While the organization is close to selecting a family for the second 51 Seymour home, Habitat is accepting applications for the first of the Booth Woods abodes. Interested families should log on to addisonhabitat.org, or call 388-0400. Ingram noted Habitat has been teaming up with the United Way of Addison County in its search for new homeowners.
Eligibility for a Habitat home is tied to the regional living wage. A stable employment history, evidence of an ability to manage money responsibly, and the ability to make monthly house payments of approximately $700 to $800 a month (including taxes and insurance) is required.
Meanwhile, the celebration at the Soberal household is likely to last well into the New Year.
“It is still unrealistic at this point, for us,” Dora said. “We’ve watched the house grow into an actual home. Now that we’re at the end, it’s really unbelievable that we’re moving in … and that it is ours.”
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].