At 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 10, Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity staff and volunteers kicked off the largest build in the agency's history – 14 homes in Providence Park, constructed with a unique timeline. Typically, a Nashville Habitat house is built in eight days, over four consecutive weekends.

The schedule for this 14-house build resembles a song, sung as a round. In a round, everyone sings the same melody, but groups start singing it at different times. Although everyone is singing exactly the same tune, at any particular time different people will be singing different parts of it, so the final effect is of independent parts.

The build schedule is similar: Every weekend in March, beginning March 10, construction will begin on a new group of homes. The first weekend kicks off construction of the first four houses, the second kicks off two more, and the third and fourth weekends kick off four houses each. All Nashville Habitat homes are built according to a standardized eight-day schedule, so the first set of houses will be completed as the fourth set begins. During the entire process, homes will be in varying stages of completion.

Dedication ceremonies for all 14 homes will take place Sunday, April 29, at Providence Park. At this time, partner families receive copies of signed mortgage agreements and keys to their new homes.

"It's a way to make building 14 houses at one time more manageable, but it's also a great illustration of how our partner families progress through our program," said NAHFH president and CEO Chris McCarthy. "We welcome families to our program year-round, and every family follows the same steps, but all at their own pace and all ending in the same place – a home of their own."

Initial steps of the Nashville Habitat program include filling out a questionnaire to determine eligibility, completing an application if eligible, then participating in an interview before being accepted into the program.

Prospective homeowners are then required to:

• Attend budgeting, construction, home maintenance, legal aspects of home ownership, and other life skill development classes in the Habitat HomeWORKS program
• Invest up to 475 hours of "sweat equity"
• Build their own homes with the help of Habitat friends and volunteers
• Save up to $2,500 for mortgage closing costs

Most families complete the program in a year to 18 months.

Providence Park is the largest all Habitat, all volunteer built neighborhood in the US.