A look inside our latest energy-efficient, affordable townhome units in Bellingham
It’s been a busy time on Todd Lane in Bellingham as we work to complete units 13-16 of the planned 24 units for phase 1 at Telegraph Townhomes, a partnership project between Habitat Whatcom, Kulshan Community Land Trust, and the Whatcom Community Foundation.
These new townhomes that make up 1C are nearly ready to welcome four families home – so we wanted to give you a tour!
Click the video above to watch a full walkthrough led by our Construction Director, Chris vanStaalduinen, our Home Repair Project Manager, Graciela Leibowitz, and our Project Manager, Virginia MacDonald. This video tour showcases one of our three-bedroom ADA-friendly units and all of the features that make it energy-efficient and affordable to own and maintain.
And if you’re looking to learn more about what makes Telegraph Townhomes 1C special, read on to discover some of the details this video doesn’t showcase!
Overview of 1C
For the video tour, we featured the end unit, which is a 3-bedroom, ADA-friendly townhome with one bedroom on the first floor. 1C also features one other 3-bedroom and two two-bedroom units, all with the bedrooms on the top floor. Each home has a front porch and a private back deck.
There is a large parking lot south of the building, and eventually, phase 1D, which will feature 8 townhomes, will be set across from 1C to the east.
Volunteer Heroes
Something you cannot see when you tour the completed homes at Telegraph 1C is the thousands of hours contributed by hundreds of volunteers.
Without volunteers, our builds would not be possible, and we are endlessly grateful for the time, expertise, and energy contributed by these hardworking individuals.
Between the Home Builders Blitz event, groups from local high schools, team build days, partner homebuyers, and our reliable group of regular construction volunteers, nearly 10,000 hours of volunteer time were put into this project from the groundbreaking through the end of June 2025.
Unique Details
Habitat’s philosophy is to build simple, decent, and affordable homes. We build simply, but that doesn’t mean the features in our homes aren’t special.
Take the back decks, for example.
Almost all of the wood in the fencing and railings on the back decks at 1C came from trees that were cut down on the property where the building currently stands. Choosing to make our build as sustainable as possible, a group of our regular construction volunteers dedicated their time offsite to mill the trees into usable lumber, which they then cut into the fence posts and railings you can see today.
As for the deck itself, members of the Habitat Store and our office staff helped frame it for a special staff build day, and the decking was installed almost entirely by a Women Build group led by a team of Care-A-Vanners in just one day.
In reality, every element in our homes is made special by the volunteers who dedicate their time to building them alongside the families who will soon call them home.
For as much fun as it has been to watch the community come together to construct these brand-new, affordable homes from the ground up, we’re even more excited to see them become a place for four families to build their futures and make memories for generations to come.
1C’s construction is coming to an end, but there are many more affordable homes in our project pipeline. If you want to be a part of what makes a Habitat home so special, visit hfhwhatcom.org/volunteer to join us in making a positive impact.
