Rosa Sherwood wanted to cry when she went through the door to her new home Thursday.
When she saw the new dishwasher, she was delighted. “I’m officially not the dishwasher anymore!” she said. “The dishwasher is going to be my favorite.”
For her husband Shawn, putting his pitcher of sweet tea in the refrigerator made the new home seem real. “Now it’s my home,” he said.
The Portage home was gifted to Shawn and Rosa and their four daughters through Homes for Heroes, which helps veterans and first responders.
Shawn was a petty officer first class in the U.S. Navy when he watched Osama bin Laden’s body being transported over the top of him.
He was first stationed on the USS Enterprise – the Navy ship, not the starship of Star Trek fame – and remembers the change of command when the new commander arrived wearing Jean Luc Picard’s Capt. Kirk uniform.
In 2011, Shawn’s ship was hit by a rocket attack while berthing in Afghanistan. A missile exploded near him, causing permanent harm. Shawn now suffers from bilateral sciatica, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, tinnitus and low-level hearing loss.
“My back was so messed up,” Shawn said. “I move around a lot because if I stand still, my back acts up.”
Shawn has a service dog, Mac, a blue Doberman. Rosa, who is legally blind, has Daisy, a German shepherd, to care for her.
The Homes for Heroes crew even left a jar of dog biscuits for them in their new home.
Homes for Heroes has renovated, modified and built over 465 homes in 20 years and hopes to reach 500 by Christmas, Director of Construction Rusty Smallwood said.
Another home was donated to a veteran in Mokena, Illinois, earlier this week.
“We’re here to bring this family home to their new forever home,” Smallwood said before the Sherwoods were allowed inside their 1,600-square-foot, two-story, three-bedroom home.
Veterans and their families move around the world. When their military career is over, they need to establish roots. “These homes are necessary to give them that start that they so deserve,” Smallwood said.
JP Morgan Chase donated the house to Homes for Heroes.
“Welcome home,” Ernie Shanders, a vice president with the firm, told the Sherwoods.
“Days like today are some of the most meaningful for me,” he said.
“We know how foundational it is to stability and long-term financial health” to own a home, Shanders said.
JP Morgan Chase committed to donating 1,000 homes for veterans, he said. “We reached that goal in November.”
“They send a clear message to those who served: You are valued, and you are supported,” Shanders said.
“It’s truly an honor to be given a home,” Shawn said even before he saw the interior and the fenced back yard.
“Circumstances did not work in our favor” to get a home earlier, he said. “Now we’re in our forever home. It’s pretty awesome. Plus, we had to get a bank, so now we’ve got one. And my favorite store is Lowe’s.”
Lowe’s donated materials and labor for Wednesday’s rush to add finishing touches to the home.
Sharon Paige, store manager in Lowe’s Michigan City location, remembers Shawn from when he was a football player two grades ahead of her. “He was just a real gentleman,” she said.
Paige helped with finishing touches like adding the mailbox, installing the storm door, and details like providing charcoal, lighter fluid and a set of tools for the new grill on the new deck. “It’s just a real treat to see the entire home could be ready for their use,” she said.
“I’m going to have so much fun out here,” Shawn said when he stepped onto the deck for the first time.
Daughter Gabby Sherwood, 15, had her choice of two bedrooms upstairs. It’s only fair that the two oldest sisters get the biggest one, she said.
Before the new home, the family bounced around from place to place, most recently at Grandma’s house in Hobart. Gabby and Shawn each said they planned to spend Thursday night at their new home.
Gabby discussed her role in the family. “I clean a bit, I bake a lot, I’m the coolest.”
Rosa planned to move in as soon as possible.
Shawn said the family was allowed to drive past the house once during construction to make sure it would be suitable for them. “At first, I just didn’t believe it,” he said. Who gives away a house worth $25o,000 to $300,000? “Last night kind of cemented it,” he said.
Contractor George Eizenga, of Steger, worked on both the Portage and Mokena houses.
The Portage house had been unoccupied. Neighbors were worried that it was full of mold, based on the siding, but it was just dirt that could be power-washed off.
“When something sits vacant for that long,” he said, problems crop up. “It was not inviting at all.”
His daughter Tessa Eizenga described it as “kind of like when you walk into a creepy graveyard.”
“You need to have a vision to make something old like that come together,” George said. Homes for Heroes Project Manager Kim Crosby helped him see that vision.
Work began on the home in April. “It was pretty much down to the wire to get it to where it is today,” he said.
The old deck was rotting and had trees growing up through it. The old fence was in bad shape, too, being held up on one side by a lean-to. It wasn’t hard to convince the neighbors to let the contractor replace the entire fence.
Shawn was a fireman in the Navy, maintaining the engineering and mechanical systems aboard ship, during his first stint. In 2004, he re-enlisted to serve as a builder first class in the Seabees, the experts in carpentry, masonry and structural construction who build and repair piers, bridges and towers. Shawn served more than 18 years in the Navy, he said, having been honorably discharged in 2014.
He was recently hired as a construction trades teacher for Chesterton High School.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
