Making progress

Hey Folks,

Here's some photos of how things looked at the beginning of the day. During the week, some windows were installed in 5 & 6 and the roofers were in on Thursday to get the shingles on. Shingling the roof is one of the jobs we use contractors for as they can get it done in an efficient and cost effective way.

The driveways were poured for the WB/Thr (Women Build/Thrivent) houses and you can see the posts and beams for the subfloor were completed. The plumbing for these homes was also installed into the crawlspace area. Once the houses are framed and interior walls are built, the plumbers will come in again to bring the water & sewer pipes up from the crawlspace into the kitchen and bath with the plumbing to be completed as part of the finishing process.

I have to tell you, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day yesterday. The sun was out, the sky was blue, the temperature was warm with a slight breeze. I was so looking forward to a day working in the sunshine! This didn't happen. Ended up working inside all day. Drat! :( It was tough for a few minutes, but I was able to work with two fantastic women, Ri Len, who you may remember, will be our Women Build Crew Leader and Kathy (she requested not to be photographed), who is our expert in installing ductwork along with having a variety of other skills around our builds. We finished up most of the work for houses 5 & 6 and got a good start on getting the ductwork for our WB/Thr homes.

 Ri Len & I worked as a team, with Kathy's guidance, using an electric metal cutter to cut out vent holes in the aluminum ducting. It's not as easy as it seems. :) We both also got a chance to use a tool called a sawzall to trim some nailers (you may remember these from the Feb 24th Safety first post), so we could fit some of the ductwork into the furnace room. When you have a variety of people working on different parts of a house, adjustments often need to be made along the way. Sometimes big ones! Luckily that wasn't the case yesterday. :)

We had some great volunteers from Farmers Insurance help us put on subfloor decking for the WB/Thr homes and install drywall (sorry I missed getting some pics of that) in house 8. It's very important to get that first row of subfloor in carefully so the dimensions of the house end up correct for framing. Holes also need to be drilled in their proper places for plumbing and to fit over where the bolts are that secure the beams to the cement foundation. Lots of measuring twice and, hopefully, drilling once. ;)

Marshall (L), a regular like me, made sure to wear his safety glasses as he trims a piece of subfloor.

Muhammad (R), one of our future homeowners, helps with the decking as part of his sweat equity hours.

As a combined group, we nearly completed the subfloor, ducting and drywall on various houses. Everyone gave their best efforts & a lot was accomplished. 

 It was wonderful to have had Ed Brauner stop by to check out our progress, have lunch with us, and share his thanks and encouragement. He, along with his wife Ellen, are this site's namesakes in recognition for over 25yrs of service to WWHH. Amazing people!

This last photo is of a Magnolia tree, from one of the neighbors' yard, just about to bloom. Spring!

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

Nanette

We're keeping busy

Hey Folks,

The last several weeks have been busy fundraising weeks for me so I've got photos from a few different days to show you.

On the 16th I worked just a half day so I had time to help out my wonderful friend Gretchen get things ready for our successful auction held at her home.

The cabinets are all installed in house 1. With just some finishing work that needs to be done (baseboards, light fixtures and more painting) it'll soon be ready for the family chosen for this home to move into. Possibly in a few months. :)

We had some of the great folks from Subcom Evacuation & Utilities, who dug our foundation, driveways and drainage ditches for our water & sewer, come out and help finish up getting the forms ready for the pour. We set the forms in the correct place and use metal straps to secure so they won't move when all the pressure from the liquefied concrete fills the space in between them. Vent boxes are also placed between the forms at specific places so the concrete will fill around them.

Marshall, a regular like me, and Hal, a Habitat site supervisor, preformed a balancing act to get an end roof truss set into place. With the sheathing on it's not an easy lift. It involves lifting it up and pushing it towards the side of the house (without pushing it over the side of the house) while walking on 2X4 top plates. The United States judge gave them a 10. :) Pretty sure I'm not that far in getting over my fear of heights yet. :-P

The combination bathtub/shower enclosures for the second floor are dropped down into the bathroom before the trusses show up. It looks a bit out of place right now. :)

This photo is me trying to be artsy with the angles and lines of the trusses and interior walls as shot through a window from down below.

The foundation pour for the Women Build/Thrivent homes happened on the 20th, the same day of the Women Build lunch at work, so I have just one picture from that day. I understand Terry, a Habitat site supervisor ended up tossed onto his keister when an air bubble cleared from the concrete pumper truck's hose and water came gushing out at a high volume. Luckily he was ok, though with a bit of a sore back for his trouble.

This last set of photos are from yesterday which was clear but pretty chilly most of the day. We had some hardworking volunteers get all the forms removed and chip off the excess concrete. It may sound weird but I think it's a fine looking foundation. You can see the vents set in place. You can see one on the left of Ri Len who's wearing the orange cap.

The trusses are all up and set into place. I had a chance to help out with some of the roof sheathing so was able to get a photo of part of the neighborhood we're in as well as looking down to the second floor from above. 

As you can see from the last photo, the incredibly trusting man to my right, Abe, one of our Americorp team leaders, showed me how to use a pneumatic nailer and actually stayed on the roof while I was using it. Courageous or insane? You make the call. Though I'm belted in securely and not as tremulous as I was the first time I was on a roof, I did keep repeating to myself, “Don't fall off, don't fall off”. My fear wasn't from actually hitting the ground, as the rope I was attached to would have prevented that, but the humiliation I would have felt just swinging in midair would have been more than I could live with. My slip would've become one of the legendary WWHH stories warning volunteers to use care. I'd rather not if you please. The good news was I didn't shoot Abe with a wayward nail & I didn't end off the roof. It was a good day. :)

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

Nanette

Soup's on!

Hey Folks,

Magkano pasasalamat or much gratitude to my wonderful co-workers for once again allowing myself & my helpers risk their waistlines for a good cause. My fabulous helpers included Gladys, our expert in mouth-watering Filipino food, Chris, grill master and Natalie, who jumped in to help with set up and handling the donations. Together we served 41 lunches raising $393-. Whoot! 

Our menu

One of Gladys's secret ingredients...her smile!

Chris w/his letting us take a peek at

 the results of his BBQ efforts. Yum!

Natalie accepting donations and

 keeping them organized :)

Gladys's savory creations

Chris's tasty skewers

My first attempt at this dish. Got a little out of 

hand, looking a bit like a vat of chili :-P

Mac salad from Gladys

Our first customer, Julie with cash 

in hand! Just how we like it :)

I was a baking machine! 

I'll sleep one of these days ;)

We even had ham...no wait...that's Mike! :-P

Becky, far left, courageously waiting to try 

my chili. We had an ambulance standing by 

And more

Lots of folks

Christine & Dave, always supportive

Sorry about the weird spacing on my photos. I can't get this site to let me put them where I'd really like. I will blame technology (Dave would be looking at me with his "you've got to be kidding me!" face right now).

Thank you is just not enough.

Nanette

Silent Auction/Brunch...what a success!!

Hey Folks,

Have to admit, I'm a bit more tired today than any workday on site for Habitat. But because of many wonderful people, it's a good tired. Today we held an amazingly successful Silent Auction/Brunch with 30+ attendees. This post will be a photo easy of our Silent Auction event. Don't skip to it yet unless you can't help yourself, but at the end of the post I'll reveal the fruits of the time and labor that went into it.

So here's how to have a successful silent auction. 

First you get organized:

 Next you count your lucky stars (very appropriate for St. Patrick's Day), you have the very best of people to call friends who will help you pull this thing off. Serious hats off to and mucha gratitud to Gretchen, along with her husband Clyde, for opening up their wonderful home to host this event. And if that wasn't enough, Gretchen whipped up some scrumptious brunch delights while Clyde served us mimosas and other refreshing drinks. Many, many thanks as well, to Gladys, who also brought some tasty dishes for the table, Julie, Janeen & Bonnie for getting everyone's auction items on the table and a plate a food in their hands. Bonnie is missing from the photo on the left because she was the photographer. :) We caught her in the next photo (second from the right) among friends.

Next you have some great food:

Invite a some big hearted people willing to support your cause:

Ask them to each bring an item to be auctioned. This can include a delicious treat, personally created art piece or jewelry, sharing a skill or talent you have, or maybe something you may have received as a gift or previously bought that hadn't been used yet:

 

And if you're fortunate, have an inspirational speaker share how the organisation you support has positively impacted their life as WWHH has Brandee and her daughter Kaylee's:

Then let the auction begin!

Once the auction was closed it was fun to see and hear the reaction of our guests once they found out if they won their bid items. There was some real competition going on and I happily  surprised to find out that every single item donated had been bought. Incredible!!!

So after a fast paced two hours, our big hearted guests left with tummy's filled with good food, time spent visiting with fun & interesting people and a little treasure. Or in some cases four!

Once folks headed home my kind, hardworking friends and myself took a little time to sit and marvel at how successful the event turned out being. They were, of course, curious at how much was donated to my It's Home Women Build project. As I added things up, they played a little game guessing at how much was raised. I heard $600-, $700 something, then someone thought they were getting crazy with $1000-. I can't tell you the pleasure I got in seeing their reaction when I revealed we had raised...wait for it...$1468!!!!! With a couple more donations still to come in online. Unbelievable! Truly!

Thank you a thousand times to everyone. People like you are the reason I haven't just dropped out of society and gone to live in a cave. May your kindness be returned to you.

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

Nanette