- Yeah there's a saying that if you make a front porch part of your home, well it'll make you and your home part of the world around you.

And if that's true, well these 39 new homes and their 39 new front porches will make a world of difference, here in Habitat Charlotte's biggest and newest neighborhood.

- We're here now.

And I can't wait to turn this key in the door and call it home.

- [Jeff Sonier] For Lapri Holmes, her new Habitat home here in Plato Price, at a price she can afford... - A half bath over here and this is a closet- - [Jeff Sonier] Is what she and her teenage daughter have been waiting for and dreaming of for years.

- They have made so many families in this neighborhood dreams come true.

And without them, most of us wouldn't have this opportunity to be a homeowner.

- [Jeff Sonier] Lapri's talking about the Charlotte Habitat volunteers who spent the last few months side by side with her and the other new neighbors, working on this first block of houses here on Plato Circle.

- When we leave, we're covered in paint, we're covered in drywall, we're covered in dirt, because we have been in here working so hard.

♪ My heart well it skips - [Jeff Sonier] And now country music star Garth Brooks is coming to Plato Price too.

- Oh, you better believe it.

(crowd cheering) - [Jeff Sonier] Not to sing his hits, but to swing his hammer.

(uplifting music) (hammer thumping) Garth trading in his cowboy hat for a hard hat, leading hundreds of other Habitat volunteers from all over the country, building dozens more of these homes here at Plato Price in a single week.

- It's really a day of celebration.

Yeah!

(crowd applauding) This neighborhood took a long time to come to reality.

And so that makes this celebration all that much sweeter and all that much more precious.

We are excited for what this day represents, the families that we celebrate with, the houses that are built, and the families yet to come.

- [Jeff Sonier] But Habitat's Meadows at Plato Price isn't just a neighborhood with a future.

It's also got a history.

♪ My alma mater ♪ Hats off to you ♪ Ever you'll find us ♪ Loyal and true These are all former students at Plato Price School, singing their alma mater, decades after the school itself closed and was torn down.

♪ And Plato Price we love ♪ Here's a toast to you (group cheering) And while the old school buildings are long gone... (gentle music) - Plato Price existed from 1915 to 1966.

- [Jeff Sonier] these Plato Price memories live on.

- What those teachers at Plato Price meant then and what they did for us.

- This would have been the shop that was on that area, of Plato Price.

- [Jeff Sonier] Artist Nellie Ashford, Plato Price class of 1961, captures in color on her canvas what other grads remember, from these old black and whites.

- And that little school that was the small one where the elementary children were, that would've been that little white building, down the walkway.

- Yes, all right.

- We didn't have a lab at all.

We did not have a gymnasium, - No.

- at all.

- At all.

- We had lights that hung from the ceiling.

- Right.

- And we studied diligently in the auditorium.

- [Audience Member] Yes.

- While the band played.

(attendees laughing) It means a lot, to have a village being built in honor of some of us, (attendees clapping) who have gone before, those- - [Jeff Sonier] Today they're surrounded by the photos of that new Plato Price Village, these old Plato Price graduates sharing a meal in the church Fellowship Hall next door.

And looking forward to what's next.

(gentle music continues) - So these are seven more homes.

This is the second phase.

So, it'll be a total of about 14 homes that will be built on this side over here.

- [Jeff Sonier] This Plato Price neighborhood, with streets named after their former Plato Price Teachers.

A new legacy for an old school, not forgotten.

- Waiting for its rebirth, waiting for that opportunity to come back to life.

And that is happening now, with these homes.

(crowd applauding) - Woo!

- With 39 families, that's more than a hundred kids who will grow here, and they will have an anchor for their lives and their places to grow up.

And they will call this home.

- [Jeff Sonier] 39 new neighbors with backyards, and front porches, places where they can meet new friends and greet old friends.

- Hey Miss Melanie, - Oh my gosh.

- how you doin'?

- [Jeff Sonier] Every New Habitat homeowner getting their own hand-painted welcome mat.

And best of all these new keys, for their new home.

(crowd clapping) - I love it, I'm gonna love this house.

- Habitat Charlotte adds that all of the new homes here in their Meadows at Plato Price Neighborhood will be fully finished by 2025.

But with the Carter Work projects track record of getting so much done, so quickly, on so many new houses, well it's no surprise that the neighbors here in Plato Price already think of this construction zone as home sweet home.