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