The Taylor family is getting their Christmas wish. They will start off the New Year in a new house.

Their old home on Davis Circle in Austell was a casualty of flash flooding this past fall. The family lost just about everything, including hope of rebuilding quickly.

However, Heartland Homes Developers, Inc., of Rockmart, offered to build a home for them at cost. The manufactured home was set Tuesday on family property adjacent to the old homestead.

“It means the world to me because I’m driving from Carrollton to Smyrna to work,” said Janet Taylor, adding that her 12-mile commute turned into a 58-mile commute.

“I think I’m more excited for my wife,” her husband, Norman, said. “Seeing the joy on her face is making me happy.”

The Taylors’ story actually goes back to July 2005, when they lost the same home and all their belongings in Hurricanes Dennis and Irvin. Those storms brought four feet of water into their home, even though it was in a non-flood zone area.

The house sitting on a small creek was Mrs. Taylor’s childhood home, which she and her husband had bought from her parents when they moved to Carrollton. So, the family rebuilt the home.

Mrs. Taylor said they had taken out a home loan to rebuild because they didn’t have flood insurance. They also bought flood insurance, even though this was deemed an unusual event for a non-flood zone. Then the second flood came Sept. 21.

“It was up about halfway up on the barn,” said Sara Godfrey, Mrs. Taylor’s mother. “When the helicopter flew over, you couldn’t see the house. You could only see the top of the barn.”

Mrs. Godfrey said it is strange the family has suffered two flood disasters in four years while she and her husband, Robert “R.T.,” lived in the house for 25 years without the hint of a flood.

However, Mrs. Godfrey also suffered from flood damage. The family lake house in Temple was destroyed in the flood as well, sending family members residing there to her home to live.

Adding to the misfortune, R.T., a 14-year city councilman and square dance caller, died in August. The loss of her father and her childhood home proved a challenge for Mrs. Taylor.

Now, with the September flood, the insurance would only pay off the loan leaving nothing for a second rebuild and forcing the Taylors to live separately until decisions could be made and money saved.

Mrs. Taylor and her dogs moved in with her mother in Carrollton after the floods while her husband lived in a trailer on the property in order to keep watch over it and clear it.

She comes up with the dogs every weekend, but can’t wait to be living with her husband again.

Norman Taylor said the feeling is mutual.

“I miss my wife. I miss my dogs. It’s going to be a few months, but we can start getting back to normal,” he said, watching as a truck carrying a home section creeped up the incline where the foundation was laid.

This home is put together in a facility, delivered on trucks, and assembled on a foundation on the property owner’s land.

The Taylors found out about the company when a fellow employee at Community Bank of the South, where Mrs. Taylor works, bought a home through Heartland.

Mrs. Taylor said she had to convince her husband to consider the idea.

“I couldn’t hardly get my husband to go look because all he was thinking was modular homes. Then he saw it was a real house and how fast we could get it,” she said.

Taylor is quick to point out differences between the manufactured home and a modular home, saying every aspect of this home is like a site-built home, from the lumber to the foundation and finishing.

She said there are also positive differences between her house and one built on site.

“This is built better than a house built on site,” she said. “There’s no waste like there is on a home built on site. It’s energy green, great energy savings.”

This home is built on higher land to prevent any future flooding, specifically 899 feet above the 99-year flood plane.

While it only took one day to set the three-bedroom, two bath home on the foundation, it will take about six weeks to get finishing work, like a porch, wiring and plumbing, completed so the Taylors can move in.

Wayne Turner, a retired church building administrator and now owner of Heartland Homes, said he was thrilled to help get the Taylors into another home.

“Our motivation for staying in business is to be able to give things away. That sounds crazy, but that’s is what we do. When there’s a need like this, we like to participate.”

Turner said this isn’t the first time he and his wife, Alice, helped get someone into a home. A single mother was attempting to move into her home last year and realized she was short on cash to get the finishing work done.

“I started calling the sub-contractors. We had 21 sub-contractors participating,” he said, adding that none turned him down.

“I was surprised because construction had already started dropping and didn’t think I would get anybody.”

Heartland Homes, which has built similar homes on Lake Weiss and Booze Mountain Road, has turned giving into a marketing asset in a bad economy.

Turner said this home provides a chance for others to see his product and get to know him, so it would likely lead to other profitable jobs.

The second section of the house was placed on the foundation by crane, signaling time for family and friends to eat a barbecue lunch provided by Heartland Homes.

Among those watching were Austell’s mayor and several city staffers, all who knew Mr. Godfrey.

Norman Taylor said the next part of the project would be to demolish the old house.

“That will be another sad day,” he said.