NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams County Habitat for Humanity chapter dedicated its 21st house Sunday, but to the family who received it, the tan and white structure already felt like their home.

The house, situated up a steep incline on Foster Mound Road, has all the hallmarks of a new house:  unpainted wood, fresh dirt and a few stickers still decorating shiny window panes.

But on the inside, photos and a softball trophy decorate the refrigerator. A newly painted pantry overflows with food — gifts from neighbors and friends — and each bed in the house is fitted with a duvet that reflects the owner’s personality.

Bill Harr, his daughters Linda Harr and Carol Ann Moore, and his granddaughter Megan Moore — along with two cats and two dogs — moved into the house approximately two weeks before the dedication.

“They were the first family to move into their Habitat house before the dedication, but there is nothing wrong with being a first,” said Gail Gamberi, one of the many volunteers who helped build the house.

Gamberi has a special relationship with the new homeowners — she has known them for more than 40 years.

When Gamberi was 21, she began picking up Carol Ann every Sunday for church. Later, when Gamberi had children and needed a babysitter, Carol Ann was always there.

When Carol Ann called Gamberi and told her of her plans to apply for a Habitat house, Gamberi returned the favor.

“She called them every day,” Carol Ann said. “She made this happen. I thank God and Gail for this house.”

Carol Ann said the four of them moved into the house early for one reason: They had nowhere else to go.

“It’s me and my dad, my sister and my daughter, who has special needs, and we were living in a two-bedroom trailer,” she said. “In June of last year, the roof caved in.”

Since the roof caved in on the family’s previous residence, they have stayed with friends.

Early March, when the house on Foster Mound Road first became habitable, Carol Ann and her family leapt at the chance to move in.

When Delta Bank donated the property on Foster Mound Road to Habitat for Humanity, president Andrew Calvit thought the area could be a challenge.

The property was first project outside city limits, the house was not connected to a sewer system and – perhaps most challenging — a dilapidated house was already on the property.

“It was a lot of firsts for us, and it took a little longer,” Calvit said.  “But it is rewarding. I love starting a new house, and I sure love dedicating one.”

Bill Harr, Carol Ann’s 84-year-old father, said the three other people who live in the home are almost the only family he has left. His parents, his wife and two of his three siblings have passed on.

The three people who mean the most in the world to him now live right down the hall.

In his bedroom, which he has filled with old items from past lives and loves, he talks about the box of his wife’s treasures he kept after she died in 1995.

“I keep all kinds of things,” he said. “All kinds of stuff from Beulah. Once I get something. I never let it go.”

During the dedication ceremony, most members of the family stood back, letting others do the talking. Harr sat on his walker in the hallway, far away from the action.

But at the end of the dedication, after prayers and thank-yous and the blessing of the house, Calvit called Carol Ann toward him.

“Now,” Calvit said, “We are going to present you with the key to your house. No, your home.”