What It Takes to Build a House in Five Days

All week, the man who'll live in this house helped build it. Kevin — the future homeowner — worked alongside the crews, gave interviews, and watched his family's home take shape board by board, right up through Friday's dedication.

From September 21 to 25, more than 90 HBRACC member companies and 200-odd volunteers built a three-bedroom home from frame to finish at 805 Gifford Street Extension in Falmouth — and donated it, in full, to Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod. It's the seventh Home Builders Blitz since HBRACC and Habitat began the partnership in 2013, following builds in Orleans, Harwich, Brewster, Dennis, and Falmouth.

For volunteers to be able to move this fast, months of pre-planning and foundation work happens first. 

Day by day

• Monday: Crews got enough of the exterior done to have Tuesday's siding team ready to go, framed the basement for insulation and drywall, and passed both the plumbing and electrical rough inspections.
• Tuesday: Started with the rough framing inspection, then moved through rough plumbing, HVAC, and electrical; insulation, board, and plaster; decks; and got siding and exterior painting underway. WBZ-TV stopped by to cover the build.
• Wednesday: Flooring went in throughout the house, including bathroom tile; kitchen cabinets and vanities were installed; interior trim began; solar brackets and wiring went in and passed inspection; ERVs were installed; countertops were templated. Siding hit about 95 percent complete.
• Thursday: Basement insulation and stairs were finished, interior trim was nearly done, the house got its first coat of paint, the kitchen was complete with countertops and hardware, and both the duct blast and blower door tests passed.
• Friday: The final push — painting, plumbing, electrical, interior finishes, punch list, and a big clean — brought the house across the finish line on schedule, under Project Lead Sam Duffany (M. Duffany Builders) and Blitz Committee Chair Peter Kimball (JB Sash). Weather moved the dedication ceremony indoors, and KAM Appliances' Friday cookout was postponed.

The house

Like every Habitat Cape Cod home, it's built to net-zero standards — solar, air-to-air heat pumps, energy recovery ventilation, and no fossil fuels or combustion systems anywhere in it. It's one of four affordable homes going up behind the Falmouth ReStore, and it will be purchased by an income-qualified local family of five selected by blind lottery. They put in sweat equity alongside the volunteers, buy the home with an affordable mortgage, and the deed restriction keeps it affordable in perpetuity — for them, and for whoever comes after.

"More than a hundred HBRACC volunteers are on site in Falmouth turning an empty lot into a home for a Cape Cod family - by Friday. We hope the community will come out and see this incredible transformation for themselves. HBRACC and its members are making a lasting difference in the lives of Sharon, Kevin, and their three boys, and we're grateful for a partnership that's now more than a decade strong." — Wendy Cullinan, President & CEO, Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod

Why the industry shows up

Habitat homeowners on Cape Cod are teachers, nurses, municipal employees, restaurant workers, tradespeople, and small business owners. They're also, often enough, the people our members are trying to hire. The 2024 Blitz family included a local plasterer who had been scheduled to work on what turned out to be his own family's house. Housing on this peninsula is a workforce problem, and the Blitz is the industry putting five days of its own labor against it.

Long-term, this takes zoning reform and policy change, and HBRACC works on that year-round. But for one family, this week was the whole thing.

Thank you

Thank you to every builder, sub, supplier, and volunteer who put down paying work to be there. Special thanks to Cape & Coast Bank, Cape Cod 5, the Martha's Vineyard Bank Charitable Foundation, and QXO for feeding the crews all week; to KAM Appliances, whose Friday cookout was postponed for weather, not canceled; and to Jason Goldstein Photography.

Thank you also to the 2026 Blitz committee for months of planning and coordination: Peter Kimball (JB Sash & Door), chair, and Sam Duffany (M. Duffany Builders), project lead, along with Stefanie Coxe and Katie Minehart of HBRACC; Daniel Allen, Mary Campbell, Tara Cronin,

Wendy Cullinan, Kathy Glynn, Sandra Harrison, and Michele O'Brien of Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod; Anton Emelianov of White Wood Kitchens; Joshua Jalbert, Mary Moniz, Nicholas Crowley, and Dan Whiting of QXO; Michelle Meagher of KAM Appliance; Andrea Baerenwald of Sandy Neck Media; Angela Bucar of Cape Associates; Madelyn Tucker of Oceanside Restoration; Andrew Philbrook of Philbrook Construction Services Group; and Fallon Rice Everman of Mid-Cape.

This build ran on more than 70 companies' generosity: [insert image of participating companies]

The best way to thank the businesses that built this house is to hire them. Check out our member directory for contact information.

Photo credit: Jason Goldstein