LAWRENCE - Sixteen-year-old Felix Reyes Jr. flipped on the television early Monday morning and saw his house burning down.

He, his mother and father, two brothers and one sister were supposed to move into it in a few days. All the boxes for the move were stacked in the kitchen of their tiny apartment, each labeled in black marker - "family videos," "plates," "books." Some had been marked with smiley faces, too.

Felix woke up his mother, Ruthie, and led her to the TV. That was how she found out the home she and her husband had dreamed of for 17 years, and helped build for three, was gone.

Like dozens of families, the Reyeses lost their house to the fast-moving fire that claimed 26 homes Monday. They were one of two families ready to move into the Habitat for Humanity Market Common project.

The Reyeses would live in a single-family unit. Next door to them was a nearly complete duplex with one resident family identified and a second unit waiting for occupants. Two more duplexes far from completion could have housed four additional families, but were also destroyed in the blaze.

"I hope time will show me the answer why this happened," said Ruthie Reyes, a petite 36-year-old. "You don't even know. It was so special for (Felix). But I told him, 'Have faith. God will provide a home for us.' "

In the 17 years since she and her husband, Felix, moved from the Dominican Republic to Lawrence, the family of six has relocated six times. Three of the moves were necessary because their landlords sold the building without notice.

In just a few more days, they thought they finally would be settled. Their children would have a yard to play in. They could wash their clothes at home, rather than paying $20 a week at the laundry. Reyes and her husband; their sons, Felix Jr., Israel, 15, and Dan, 12; and their daughter, Nathalie, 11, would finally feel like they were part of a neighborhood.

"Our goal was to have a house so our kids wouldn't be moving from place to place - where no one can tell us we have to move," Reyes said. "I came from a poor family. But I grew up feeling secure. I grew up happy and want my kids to have that feeling."

For three years, the family has been living on Tenney Street in a three-bedroom apartment, its living room converted into a fourth bedroom. The home is tidy but so cramped that two people barely fit in the kitchen at the same time.

Reyes works full time across the street at Arlington Elementary School, where she's an assistant teacher. She goes to night school once a week at Northern Essex Community College, working toward a degree in elementary education.

She remembers hearing about Habitat for Humanity nine years ago, but said she thought a bunch of volunteers coming together to build a house for strangers sounded too good to be true.

"That must be something tricky," she said she suspected at the time.

Eventually her sister-in-law convinced her to apply. From hundreds of families, the Reyeses were chosen to move into a property at 382 Market St.

That was three years ago.

Every Saturday since, Reyes and her husband helped volunteers build that home. Future residents are required to put in 500 hours of work, though she estimates they worked more than 700 hours. She stopped counting months ago.

Volunteers work both Thursdays and Saturdays, and she remembers marveling as the place came together. Every week when she arrived, something new was up, she said. A sink. A shower. A wall. Windows.

"I loved the windows," she said, drawing a frame in the air with her hands. "I could wash my dishes and look outside."

Last weekend, her four brothers and two sisters came up from the Dominican Republic and she showed them the house. It had four bedrooms, four bathrooms, a closet for blankets, a hallway, a kitchen, and something they don't have now - a living room, a place to gather together.

"We actually did it," she said.

The fire took it all away.

"It breaks your heart when you know that they were so close," said Jodi Weeks, director of resource development for the Merrimack Valley Habitat for Humanity.

On Tuesday, Reyes went over to see what the fire did to her home.

"Oh my God. It was like a picture from those horror movies," she said. "I thought I was gonna collapse."

Almost in the same breath, she said, "I thank God my kids were not there. We lost something special, but at least no one got hurt. It's not a material thing. It's more the feeling. The love people put into the house. People I didn't even know their names."

Those at Habitat plan to rebuild the homes, but it could take up to two years.

In the meantime, they're hoping to move the Reyes family and the Mbiyes, the family of eight that was to move into the duplex next door, into a two-family home under construction on Gale Street. But that's still six months away from completion, and needs $40,000 worth of work - including flooring and a kitchen.

They're hoping volunteers will step forward who can work overtime so it can be finished in a couple of months.

"We want to give them their dream back, but it's going to take awhile," Weeks said.

That was starting to become clear to Reyes a few days ago, as she stared at a mountain of boxes in her kitchen.

"I don't know - maybe I should unpack," she said. "It won't be happy. Usually, when you unpack, it's because you move to a new home. But God will find something for us."