Ron Holman/Advance-Register Melany, 1, Aglaheth, 3, Ulisses, 6, Ramiro, 12, Maria, 34, and Ramiro Zaragoza, 47, stand outside their current home. They will build a new house along South Santa Clara Street through Self-Help Enterprises and the Tulare Redevelopment Agency. Ron Holman/Advance-Register Ramiro and Maria Zaragoza talk about the home they will build for their family of six with the assistance of Self-Help Enterprises and the Tulare Redevelopment Agency. Ron Holman/Advance-Register Ulisses Zaragoza, 6, leans on a water bottle at home. His family of six has outgrown its small house and will be helping to build a new four-bedroom home.

Editor's note: This is the first of three stories on one family's participation in a sweat-equity project in the West Tulare Redevelopment Area. Coming stories will focus on the construction process and, next spring, moving in.

When Ramiro Zaragoza became a U.S. citizen, he achieved half of what he considers the American dream. For the next 10 months, he and his wife, Maria, will pour their sweat into attaining the rest.

The Zaragozas are among 11 families that will work with Self-Help Enterprises to build their own homes in the West Tulare Redevelopment Area. Each family will contribute 40 hours a week, working as a group to build each home.

"It's a difficult project," said Tom Collishaw, vice president of Self-Help Enterprises. "It's not for the meek. We know it's going to be one of the toughest years of their life."

The Zaragozas know this, but they are determined to have their own home.

"It's better for me and for my whole family," Ramiro Zaragoza said as he sat in the tiny living room of an old, wooden house that he shares with Maria and their four children. "My family is the first thing in my life."

Zaragoza is a farm worker and the house on Avenue 216 came with his job. It was large enough for him, Maria and son Ramiro when they moved in 11 years ago, but then came Ulisses, 6, Aglaheth, 3, and Melany, 1.

The family's soon-to-be-built home at 527 South Santa Clara St. will have four bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, central heating and air conditioning and a two-car garage.

The two oldest children are excited about the move. Ramiro, now a 12-year-old Sundale School student, says the new house will have room for the computer his parents want him to have. Ulisses offers a different reason for wanting a new home.

"Because this house is old!" he said.

Through an interpreter, Maria Zaragoza said she has dreamed of her own home since she was a child in Jalisco, Mexico. So, when she met a woman who had built her own home, she got the telephone number for the Self-Help representative involved.

After placing a call in October, the family met five times with the representative to fill out application forms. Ramiro Zaragoza said he was surprised, but happy, at how quickly paperwork was processed. Friends had told them it could be a long wait, he said.

Self-Help officials said the Zaragozas' timing was perfect. The Tulare Redevelopment Agency had recently purchased 11 lots in anticipation of the first sweat-equity project in west Tulare.

More than 800 families were interested in the project and Self-Help went through more than 200 applications to find 11 who qualified, Collishaw said. Applicants must meet gross-income limits based on family size. For a family of four, it's $39,300 a year.

Families rarely earn close to this amount, Collishaw said, with most earning $24,550 or less.

"Our target is there and below ... because those are the folks we know have the toughest time," Collishaw said.

Families must have a stable income, good credit and the ability to work 40 hours a week, which counts as their down payment. The value of the Zaragozas' sweat-equity down payment will be established by a final appraisal of their home, but Collishaw said he expects the amount to be $15,000 or more.

The Zaragozas and other families involved in the project will get 30-year, 3 percent primary loans from the California Housing Finance Agency. The Redevelopment Agency also will use funds from two sources to provide secondary deferred payment loans of up to $30,000.

That loan doesn't have to be repaid unless the property is sold. When that occurs, the agency and the homeowner will share the appreciation.

The 11 families began working on the first west Tulare home last week and are expected to complete all the homes by March or April.

"Nobody moves in until all the houses are done," Collishaw said.

Self-Help officials say fewer than 2 percent of the families drop out of their sweat-equity projects. The Zaragozas are confident they will be among the overwhelming majority that finish.

Ramiro Zaragoza had planned to work all the hours himself, but his wife wouldn't hear of it.

"She volunteered to help me," he said. "She'll work in the morning and I'll go in the afternoon. We are sure we'll be able to do the hours."

Originally published Friday, July 2, 2004