It's only 11 a.m. but it's already sweltering outside.

Inmates from Anson Correctional Center, some of them students, are taking their lunch break on a Habitat for Humanity work site in Lilesville, most of them lingering in the shade.

There is still a lot of work ahead for the crew. Today they are laying bricks.

The house is the first of eight houses for low-income citizens and a ninth completed several years earlier is nearby.

While the houses are similar to each other, they are not exactly the same.

"We don't want cookie-cutter houses," said Buzz Parks, the president of the Anson County chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Construction began on the home April 22. Terry James, a masonry instructor at South Piedmont Community College, is overseeing and instructing the 13 inmates.

Parks estimated the home would be ready for a family to move in by Thanksgiving.

The house will be 1,100 square feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, an "eat-in" kitchen, a porch and an 8' by 10' deck, Parks said. The home will be single-story.

The families who will move into the homes are selected through a screening process that begins with applications and includes interviews and an examination of their ability to pay for the home.

The applications were advertised in advance in local newspapers, he said. While the process has not been completed, Parks said the organization was not accepting any more applications.

The land the homes were built on was donated, so it is donated in turn to the families. The mortgage on the home consists of the building costs and the insurance on the home, plus taxes.

Parks said the families will pay a 20-year, no interest mortgage that will only go up if the insurance rate on the home, or taxes, increase.

Some of the inmates have completed the class before, but others are receiving on-the-job training.

This is the first house for Christopher Christian. He is taking James' masonry class.

"I'm just laying brick," he said as he sipped a soda during their lunch break.

James said he doesn't "want to focus on what gets done today" but rather what the students will learn.

Christian said his father does similar work and he may fall back on these skills when he is released from the correctional center.

James said the more experience these students get here, the more money they can make later.

A good example of that is Phillip Frizzell. He was a laborer on sites like this for years, but these skills will allow him to take higher paying jobs on-site in the future.

"I plan on using it when I get out," he said.

He spent some of his lunch break on the as yet uncleared sites adjacent to this home, looking for arrowheads. He has already found one today.

He said he sends them to his children.

Frizzell praised James as a good teacher. He said he hopes this will help him get his life back on track after overcoming his addictions to drugs and alcohol.

While he spent all day in the hot sun laying bricks, Frizzell acknowledged the toughest work was ahead, as he would need to stay clean after he left the correctional center.