More Treats for Donations!

Another Bake Sale day and my super co-workers came through again! And once again, I forgot to take a photo of all the goodies before they started disappearing. I really do need a personal assistant to remind me of such things. :P I'm getting closer though. Below is a picture I snapped about 15 minutes after I announced the treats were ready to purchase with a donation. And donate those wonderful people did! Willing to spend a bit more time working out at their chosen method of exercise by having a treat and donating $71.50 towards our WWHH 2013 Women Build home.  

My sincere thanks to celebrity co-baker Angie for bringing in some seriously gooey and chocolaty pecan truffle brownies & her famous frosted cutout cookies. My contribution was pumpkin bread along with oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies. Every sweet we made was sold at days' end. Many thanks to my generous co-workers!

Celebrity co-baker for the next sale will be Heather!

It's all about volunteers

Hey Folks,

Another good day on site this week with folks working on most of the houses bringing them further towards our goal of filling them with families. The cabinets are just about ready to be installed in the kitchen in house 1 and all the rooms are painted in preparation for move in day. Each family chooses, purchases & paints the interior rooms in their home. 

Worked in house 2 doing clean up after our mud & tape fellow completed his work with the drywall. This is one of the few parts of the build we hire out as he does great work, quickly and is priced reasonably. We do the prep and clean up which saves Habitat money. It didn't break my heart to be out of the cold and damp for the day and not freeze my tookus off. :P

I had a super group of volunteers help with the clean up and start getting primer on the walls. It's great to meet and work with all the folks who come to help out. We have co-workers, people from churches & clubs, friends, families (children need to be 16 to volunteer on site), individuals and of course our future homeowners. They may all be different, but they share something very important in common...the desire to serve others. Pretty fantastic in my book! 

On lot 5/6 the beams & posts go in with the decking to follow. We practice the old adage measure twice cut once to keep from wasting materials. Volunteers, of course, sometimes make mistakes but everyone tries to be mindful that we are using materials bought with donors gifts.

We're nearly done installing drywall in house 7. Our mud & tape fellow isn't too far behind.

 It was a good day and the sun even came out in the afternoon. Though we often refer to it as 'That foreign object in the sky' during the winter months around here...ok well, most of the months around here, it was good to see it.

Some of the folks I work with:

Meet Bill, a retired IBM engineer who has been volunteering with Habitat for 11 yrs. Bill designs and does all the drawings for our houses along with being a site supervisor. His efforts regarding materials use has us using every inch of wood, pipe, drywall...etc possible, taking into to consideration that we volunteers, on rare occasions, make a boo-boo. ;)

 With patience, he's been working with me in my efforts to learn to read his drawings and be able to frame a wall on my own. Below was my first effort. Looks easy doesn't it. HA! I won't begin to tell you the amount of time and bent nails it took to complete this simple looking little wall. It mocked me the whole time, but I finally succeed. My lessons will continue on houses 5 & 6. Yeah, more nails to bend! I live for that. :P

Until next time, live your best life, however big or small it may be!

Nanette

Fast & furious concrete pour

Hey Folks,

This week I took a day off from work to participate on the foundation pour for houses 5 & 6. What's to follow on this post will be less of me yappin' (yeah!) and more of a photo essay of the day and some absolutely fascinating info about pouring concrete on a Habitat site. Let's begin...

One of the things I learned about concrete pours is having everything ready, then being able to wait...and wait...and wait some more. Oh! Here come the pumper truck, we'll finally get started. But noooo there's still more waiting. This time for the cement trucks. Once they are both there, well that's when the fast & furious begins.

Two layers of concrete are poured between the forms. This is considered a mono pour, where the footer & stem wall are joined creating one solid foundation. The concrete keeps coming whether you're ready for it or not. :P

That's me following behind, using the wand to vibrate the newly poured concrete. This helps it spread evenly and fills in any air bubbles. Some pointers from one of our volunteer site supervisors and retired engineer Bill, helped get the job done correctly. By the end of the second layer I looked like cement was the new winter fashion trend. Head to toe.

A screed board & trowels are used to level
and smooth  the concrete out

Pads, which weight baring posts will sit on, are filled

Job complete! I'd asked why we didn't pour the driveways as well and Terry, another one of our site supervisors, also a retired engineer, said it was because one the the challenges of pouring foundations during a cold winter is the chance of freezing, which can leave cracks in the concrete. We could pour the foundation because the wooden forms would insulate it and the elements used to make up the concrete would cause a “thermal reaction” and keep cracks from forming. Visqueen (a very heavy plastic sheathing) will be thrown over the top to help the process. The driveways don't have that kind of insulating protection so they'll need to wait for temps that'll stay above freezing overnight.

Now our foundation just needs to cure. It can do so overnight. Pretty darn quick!

And here's the finished product, looking like a solid foundation for homes that two of our families will live their lives upon.

It was 24 degrees and cloudy on site yesterday morning but we kept moving, getting the foundation forms and pad boxes cleaned up for the next set of townhouses, which will include our Women Build home. We were grateful when, after lunch, the sun came out and it eventually warmed up to 38. I'll end this post with what I think is a cool shot.

Until next time, live you're best life, however big or small it may be!

Cutting off the excess rebar

Bake Sale!

As previously mentioned, I'm so creative that 'bake sale was all I could come up with to raise funds for this Women Build project. Well, I've learned, you should never shake a stick at a bake sale because the wonderfully generous people I work with took $22- in baked treats & turned then into $52.50 in donations. Amazing! But that's Vernier Software & Technology people for you. Always doing more than you'd expect. :)

The sign & donation jar to the left were all I could get a photo of because the treats sold out before I remembered to get my camera. Though we're among the 100 Healthiest mid-sized companies in Oregon, and our snack machine contains healthy snacks, we do love an afternoon treats. :) 

The yummy Snickerdoodle & Ranger cookies to the below were made by celebrity co-baker Gladys! They were gone in no time!

Thanks so much Gladys!

More bake sales and fund raisers to come.

Until next time, live your best life however big or small it may be!

Next post: Our fast & furious concrete foundation pour for houses 5 & 6

Chilly morning...

Hey Folks, Greetings from Hillsboro, OR where the temps ranged from the high 20's to a balmy low 30's today. Welcome to winter on the Willamette West Habitat for Humanity (WWHH) construction site. :) At least it didn't r**n. Now y'all have to fill in other letters yourself as that's a word that no one is allowed to speak on site because sometimes, if someone even just thinks it, we all end up soaked. :(

The latest news on when the hole for the foundation will be dug for the 2013 Women Build, is it will happen around the end of February or the beginning of March. So until then, I'll be posting updates on the other homes currently under construction on our BraunerBrook site, along with a bit of info about WWHH. I hope you'll follow along until that terribly exciting day, when the backhoe rolls in to dig, marking the start of our build. Today we worked on projects including leveling the gravel for the upcoming cement pour on the driveways of houses 5 & 6. This involved a whole lot of shoveling gravel. Always a good time! :P In addition, we hung drywall in house 7, painted baseboard strips, and got cabinets unboxed and ready to hang in house 1.

Two years ago you could have never convinced me that I'd have so much anticipation for a hole in the ground. But honestly, now, I can hardly wait. Although I've managed to give my head a good crack numerous times, working under stairway landings and other low places, I have yet to fully lose consciousnesses. I've seen lots of stars and birdies however, and needed some serious doses of aspirin. That aside, I'm pretty sure it's not the explanation for my almost childlike 'I can't wait for Christmas morning' kind of anticipation to get started. I can only chock it up to something that's taken hold over me over that last year or so. Yep, it's true...I have Habi Fever. You can spot it when I'm roaming the tool isle at the hardware store with a gleam in my eye, looking at all the tools I'd like to add to my small collection. It would reveal itself as well, if you lifted the lid to the trunk of my car and spotted 4...count 'em...4 hammers 'cause I'm trying to find the one that will allow me to drive in a nail that won't bend on the last few swings. :) I hope hope to never a cure. That's all for now. So until next week, live your best life however big or small it may be! About WWHH: Who is Willamette West Habitat for Humanity? Willamette West Habitat for Humanity is your local Habitat for Humanity International affiliate, a non-profit, ecumenical Christian housing ministry dedicated to eliminating substandard housing and homelessness around the world. We build homes with low-income people in need, primarily in Washington County and north Clackamas County. The homes are sold to those in need at no profit, using long-term, 0% interest mortgage loans. Nanette

Here we go...

Hey Folks,

I'm writing to let you know about a new project that I've taken on related to something I've grown to care about and believe in tremendously -- building homes for families. Most of you know I've been volunteering on Saturdays with Willamette West Habitat for Humanity  http://www.habitatwest.org/  where I've learned much and have regularly expanded my personal comfort zone. I walked on site over a year ago with no building experience what so ever and, though I have soooooo much more to learn (and about 5,000 more nails in my future till I get that right), I've acquired numerous skills under the tutelage of some super crew leaders. As well, I've worked past a major fear of heights. They continue to gently push me (and sometimes I get a needed shove) to become comfortable with things I never believed I could do. This new project is indeed one of them.

The project I'm taking on for 2013 is to not only join the crew to build this year's Women Build home on our BraunerBrook site in Hillsboro, OR, but also to participate in fundraising to get it built. Just a little heads up - never go to lunch with a gal named Mollie ;). So, this comes to you with a request for your support in any of a number of ways. 

Most importantly you can cheer me on. Honestly, just letting me know you think I can do this means so much to me. I'm sure fundraising isn't anyone's idea of a good time, so you can imagine my trepidation when finally committing to participate. Huge, for a commitment-phobe like me. :)

Secondly, any fundraising ideas you might have, large or small, to share would be helpful. I'm so creative that 'bake sale' was all I could come up with. :P Luckily, I know there are plenty of folks with ideas out there that I might be able to pull off. Two pals have already offered to help with a silent auction/brunch and a bunco party/dinner. If you'd like to attend either, let me know.

If you think you'd like to help me with a small fundraising project, that would be super. Working with someone always makes things easier and much more fun!

Finally, if you think this is a project you'd like to support with a donation or by attending a fundraising event, that would be great. If you'd like to write a check, please make it out to: Willamette West Habitat for Humanity and mail it to 5293 NW Elam Young Pkwy #140 Hillsboro, OR 97124 , with a note that it's designated toward Women Build 2013, It's Home or by donating online at:

https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1001559

Program Designation: The Women Build House

Dedication: click the 'on behalf of' button, type in It's Home

As little as $10 will do so much to make sure a family will finally have a home they can call their own. If you know others who may be interested in or support this project please feel free to pass this info along. I've created a blog http://womenbuildhabitat.blogspot.com and a public Facebook page It's Home http://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-Home/407853752622218 that I'll shortly start posting to weekly with info about WWHH and the Women Build project, including info about last year's house.

Please know that I fully understand that many of us have financial commitments elsewhere so a contribution isn't necessary to support my efforts in this. Words of encouragement and ideas will go a long way to help out. 

Many thanks!

Nanette