Like any good mother, Nadia Elkotbi wants her three children to be safe and successful. So on April 10, when she received the keys to her new condo in Sterling and began moving in, she felt that owning a home made that dream a real part of her future.

“It’s exciting to have your own place. It’s my home. I can choose my colors. I don’t need to worry about a lease every year,” Elkotbi said. Elkotbi, 30, is originally from Morocco and moved here seven years ago.

Elkotbi’s move is part of Loudoun Habitat for Humanity’s project to build and renovate homes for needy families in Loudoun County.  The home in Sterling is the first home renovated by Habitat in Eastern Loudoun.

Elkotbi first applied for Habitat’s aid in October 2008. She had recently quit her job and was living in a cramped apartment with two small bedrooms, one bathroom and a tiny kitchen.  Since Habitat requires that an applicant have held down a job for at least a year at the time of application, Elkotbi feared that she wouldn’t have a chance.

“Wait and see,” they told her.

But Elkotbi doesn’t like to wait and see. Over that next year, she called Habitat multiple times, to see if there was anything she could do to help the process along.

So when someone from Habitat called Elkotbi in October of 2009 to tell her that there was a possibility that she could move into a home of her own, she began screaming with joy on the phone.

Habitat purchased the foreclosed property in late November of 2009 and began work in early January. They finished in early March, after working a total of 10 business days, working a little more than one day per week, on average.

Habitat chose the location for two reasons. First, members want to help out more families in Eastern Loudoun. Second, in order to use available stimulus money, Habitat had to build in areas that the state had earmarked under general federal regulations. This meant building in a densely populated area with high-risk foreclosures. Renovating a foreclosed home would help keep values up for the homes around it.

Before Elkotbi could get the home, she had to agree to 200 hours of “sweat equity.” Those receiving a home through Habitat can fulfill their sweat equity hours through painting, demolition work, office work or whatever else Habitat is working on locally at the time. Elkotbi gave more than 250 hours of service on her own home. It was sometimes difficult to find the time to do this, since Elkotbi was now once again employed full-time, but she gave up many of her evenings and weekends.

The house is about 1,600 square feet, with two floors, a basement, three bedrooms, three full bathrooms and one half bath.  The renovations included gutting one bathroom, putting down new flooring and painting. In addition, the previous owner had built an illegal second apartment in his basement, leaving a wall that had to be torn down and a bathroom that had to be officially inspected.

Elkotbi did most of the painting. She borrowed a ladder from her friend. It wasn’t quite tall enough, but she teetered, hoped she wouldn’t fall and kept painting.

Elkotbi said Habitat had given her more than a new home. It had given her a new family. Stephanie Byers, in charge of family support for Loudoun Habitat, called her every day between October 2009 and now. Elkotbi thinks of her as her sister.

“The construction guys treated me like their daughter,” Elkotbi said. “They never made me feel like they were working for me. They made me feel like their daughter.”