The rainstorm overnight did nothing to wash away the hundred-degree temperatures during the day. Construction workers arriving at the Habitat for Humanity building site had to negotiate several mud puddles, but by lunchtime, the ground was seared dry, and the only breeze came from the swinging of hammers. Fortunately, there were a lot of them.

Home builders in Orange, Chatham and Durham counties took up the challenge from Habitat for Humanity to build houses from start to finish in one week. The Builders Blitz has been a first-of-June tradition since 2002, after a Raleigh builder pitched the idea to Habitat a couple of years earlier. This year, Orange, Durham and Chatham counties committed to completing 10 houses during the Blitz, enough to warrant a celebrity visit from Didiayer Snyder, a comely carpenter and cast member of ABC’s “Extreme Makeover Home Edition.” Of the 110 Habitat affiliates nationwide building 263 houses altogether that week, Snyder selected six sites to visit. In addition to the builds in Orange and Durham counties, Snyder’s entourage will stop in Charlotte, Birmingham, Ala., Lafayette, Ind., and San Diego.

“We can’t go everywhere, but we’re going to some of the big projects to motivate the builders and subcontractors and give them praise for all their hard work and donations to get these houses done in a week,” said Snyder, autographing a T-shirt for a builder. “What I’m doing here today is not part of [“Extreme Makeover”]. This is my community reach-out.”

Snyder reached out by autographing workers’ shirts, admiring frame and trim work, and bringing out the paparazzi in full force to shower attention on the affordable homes program. And the efforts of the Home Builders Association of Durham, Orange and Chatham Counties were praiseworthy. Builder members of the HBA-DOC made good on promises of three houses in Orange County, two in Chatham and five in Durham, all at a time when the housing industry has slumped down to its toes.

Susan Levy, executive director of Habitat for Humanity Orange County, said her organization had some trepidation about what kind of a response the builders would have to a request for donations of time and materials. But instead of shying away from the appeal, they pledged to try to build the houses at no cost to Habitat. In years past, a builder could turn in an invoice to Habitat for any supplies and labor that was not donated or was beyond what the builder could cover.

“It shows they are very giving and generous people, regardless of what’s going on in their industry,” Levy said. “They’ve put their all into this. The builders and subs and suppliers have big hearts.”

Habitat buys and develops the land and selects the families who will put 325 hours of sweat equity into building the houses in exchange for a 20-year interest-free mortgage of $72,500. Sometimes there may be second and third mortgages on the property. Unlike a land-trust arrangement, Habitat does not retain title to the land. However, if the homeowner needs to sell, Habitat has the right of first refusal to buy the house back. Habitat and the homeowner share the appreciation.

The three Orange County houses built during the Builders Blitz sit on Tulip Tree Road in the 400-house community of Fairview just north of Hillsborough. Many of the houses on Tulip Tree were built by Habitat at a much slower pace than the Blitz, said Irene Newman, a member of the homeowners association that supplied refreshments to the workers during the weeklong build. Her Habitat house took a good four months to build, and she and her neighbor Valeria Dae marveled at the speed of the blitz construction.

“Those houses seemed to go up in three hours,” Dae said, recalling the progress builders made while she was at church Sunday morning.

Newman said, “It takes you back to the Western days, people giving their time to help someone.”

That excitement about building the high-speed Habitat houses made the project fun for Britney Wallace, owner of B. Wallace Design & Construction. This was the first year her company had committed to build a blitz house.

“It’s more fun than you’d think it would be,” Wallace said. “The highlight for me, hands down, is seeing how willing people are to come out and help. Thirty companies donated supplies or labor for me. I’ve been so proud of all of them.”

Even with the organizational acumen of Habitat, the build has had its challenges, Wallace said.

“It’s what we do every day, but a real different way of doing it,” she said. “The speed required a lot of planning before we started.”

Frank Wiesner, vice president of Olde South Homes and the president-elect of the N.C. Home Builders Association, agreed to build a Habitat blitz home for the third time. This year, the builders and homeowners met each other much earlier in the process, he said. Habitat and the HBA began planning for this year’s build in April 2007. Individual builders began their planning and solicitation process eight months before the blitz week. In February, Habitat sponsored a luncheon where the homeowners and builders could meet.

“Builders got to experience the emotion of the amazing people who will inhabit their houses,” Wiesner said. “Having that extra connection really brought home what it was all about for our builders. We’re building a home for someone who, under ordinary circumstances would not have the opportunity to own a home like this but for Habitat.

“When the homeowners got up and gave their testimonies and thanked everybody, there wasn’t a dry eye in that luncheon,” he said. “It was an extra-special thing we needed to close the loop on why we’re doing this.”

Nancy E. Oates is a business and real estate writer in Chapel Hill. Reach her at neoates@earthlink.net.