New home 'dream come true' for Iqaluit family

An Iqaluit mother can hardly believe her good fortune after her family was chosen to receive the community's first Habitat for Humanity home.

Pauyungi Aqpik and her son, Adam, currently live in public housing. Without the help of Habitat Iqaluit, she said, she had little hope of ever owning her own home.

"I am so excited," Aqpik told CBC Newsthis week. "I daydream, I think, I float away in dreaming. I am very happy about it. It's a dream come true."

Construction of the $200,000, three-bedroom home, which the charity will build for $100,000,is slated to beginin August and take six weeks to complete, said Ken Spencer, with Habitat Iqaluit.

Aqpik will only have to pay half of the cost of her mortgage, with the charity picking up the rest of the tab.

She will also have to volunteer500 hours of "sweat equity" to the project.