Couple give up house, travel country serving Habitat for Humanity

Retirement means a lot of different things to people, but for Ron and Jean Gratz, it means traveling around the country building homes for other people.

Eighteen years ago Ron Gratz retired from his position as an oil company engineer doing research for the design of off-shore structures. He and Jean bought a recreational vehicle and began to travel, frequently to escape the Minnesota winters. In 2005 they volunteered with Habitat for Humanity in Charleston, S.C.

"It was a great first experience with Habitat," Jean Gratz said. "We sold our home six months later, and we've been doing this ever since. We haven't gotten tired of it yet."

The couple grew up in Wisconsin. Jean Gratz said that after graduate school, they lived in Oklahoma, Norway, back to Oklahoma, and back to Norway before retiring to Minnesota. Their current residence is a Monaco Windsor RV.

"It's 41 feet by 8½ feet," Ron Gratz said. "It's got some pullouts on us to give us a little extra room. We've put about 70,000 miles on it in eight years."

Without the pullouts, the couple are living and traveling in 348½ square feet.

"It's like a small apartment, but it's got everything we need." Jean said. "It's been 7½ glorious years since we've lived anywhere else."

Jean Gratz said they have worked for 72 affiliates of Habitat for Humanity from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Key West, Fla. They've worked on homes in 27 states.

"I would say we've done some work on over 200 homes," Ron said. "Sometimes we're here for a day, sometimes for two or three weeks. We're usually on a job site about 50 percent of the working days."

It's easy to see that they are well practiced and skilled at what they do. Their current project is a home under construction for a single mother in the Whitney area. With practiced ease, Ron marked a 2-by-6 board and descended a ladder, whereupon Jean grabbed an end and steadied it while her husband trimmed it to size and made a series of shallow parallel cuts.

That done, the pair pulled out hammers and chisels and simultaneously chipped wide grooves on the board. Within minutes the couple had created and were installing the top half of a double top plate. They said hardly a word of instruction to one another during the process, each knowing what to do to help the other in a smooth, efficient construction.

Some of their volunteer work is like this, where they come more or less randomly to a project. About six to eight times a year, they work with other traveling volunteers through a Habitat program called RV Care-A-Vanners. Ron estimates there are 15,000 to 16,000 people involved with that group. Typically those projects last two to three weeks.

Locally, Habitat for Humanity has housed 88 families and participated in seven smaller projects they call A Brush With Kindness, where they do exterior repairs and landscaping to existing homes. The houses they've worked on are in nearly every part of the valley.

"Some of the things we look for in a neighborhood when we build are things like how close the schools are, the grocery stores and the bus lines," said Meg Delor, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Las Vegas. "A lot of our families use the buses."

The charity also has three ReStore retail outlets in the valley, which sell building supplies that aren't suited for their projects, and some thrift store type items.

"We cover about 75 percent of our operational expenses with the stores," Delor said. "We're always looking for donations, both for the ReStores and our homes.

The Gratzes plan ahead of time and contact the Habitat for Humanity affiliates in the areas they intend to visit and offer their services. They are giving back to the community, with a larger view of the community than most people have. Anywhere they park their RV is their community. The couple plan to spend January here, working on the local project while living in an RV park near Sam's Town.

"It keeps us in shape, and anywhere we want to go, we go," Jean said. "We meet the loveliest people. Whether we're in Las Vegas or Los Angeles or a tiny town in South Carolina, we meet the cream of the crop in the community because they're involved with Habitat."

For more information on local Habitat for Humanity efforts, visit habitatlasvegas.org.

Contact Sunrise/Whitney View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 702-380-4532.