ROXBURY — The first time Samuel Tadesse and Senait Tessfaye saw their brand-new home Wednesday morning, it was hovering in the air above a corner at Edith Road and Mansel Drive in the Landing section.
A few hours earlier, the two sections of the modular home were lifted by crane onto flatbed truck trailers at Roxbury High School, where students in Frank Caccavale's Structural Design and Fabrication course spent the last two years building it in partnership with the Morris County affiliate of Habitat for Humanity.
From there, the oversized load traversed Route 10, passing by the southern tip of Lake Hopatcong on its way to its permanent location, where a first-floor walkout basement was prepared for final assembly.
One-by-one, the separate pieces of the top floor were lifted by the crane and gently lowered onto the exposed basement as workers in each corner used crowbars to nudge them in place.
"Oh my God," Tessfaye said as she took video of her home being lowered into place.
Native to Ethiopia, Tessfaye, immigrated to the United States in 2000, followed by Tadesse in 2008. Married for 13 years, they have been raising their three children, ages 10, 7 and 3, in Orange.
Five years ago, they learned about the Habitat for Humanity program, which selects deserving families to own and occupy homes that are built by volunteers. More than $100,000 of donated materials went into the build, not including the coast of the land, which was donated by Roxbury.
Tadesse said they had tried and failed for all those years to qualify for a Habitat home, but were encouraged to "keep trying."
"We didn't give up," Tessfaye said.
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Selected as one of 18 finalists for this home, they learned they were selected during an online lottery on Tuesday.
"I was on break at work and I was just crying and crying," Tessfaye said.
The program also requires the selected families to put in 300 hours of their own "sweat equity" to help complete the home. The Roxbury student-builders are scheduled to spend extended hours working to help complete the build before graduation next month.
The family hopes to move in by September. "As soon as possible," said Tadesse, who works as a driver for a Mahwah-based transportation company. "I don't have the words to say how thankful we are."
The move itself went smoothly. The crane loaded the home sections onto two flatbeds at the high school and was on its way to the lot by 8 a.m.
"We got an early start," Caccavale said.
After the truck delivered the first section, it returned to the high school to pick up the second section. By the time it got back to the lot, the first section was in place.
"The crane and the trucks showed up at the high school before 7 a.m. to beat the buses," said Doug Wright, chief construction officer for Morris Habitat.
Wright outlined the floor plan for the two-level, 1,044 square-foot residence.
"On the bottom, they will have a walk-out basement including a garage," Wright said. "They'll have a laundry and a mudroom, and we'll also finish off a family room down there so they'll have some extra space and a finished area in the basement. And then they'll have the three bedrooms, kitchen and the bathrooms upstairs."
The move also drew dozens of onlookers, including Habitat volunteers who cheered and hugged each other. Several nearby residents also gathered, including Maryann White, who lives next door and eagerly welcomed her future neighbors.
"People were using that lot as a dumpsite," she said. "Now it has a house and there will be neighbors. I'm so excited."
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com Twitter: @wwesthoven