06/01 build day

We had two super groups of volunteers on a lovely, sunny day. Folks from 

Perkin Coi & St Luke for Thivent put in a good day's work.

First, get the place organized. With work in a constant flow, there's always cleaning

 and organizing to be done. These folks jumped right in 

 

It was all systems go with drywall in house 5, with a few tricky cuts thrown in for good

 measure. And if you recognize the fellow in the red hat, you'll see that Terry's back!

Hall was working with some of our volunteers to continue the siding installation on the Women Build house.

St Luke folks also getting the siding on the Thrivent house. They're at the scaffolding stage. :)

RiLen works with some volunteers to get the weed whacker going so they can tidy up the site.

Protecting the siding from any splashes that may occur when they pour concrete for the front porches.

 

My job for the day? Build a plenum. I had no idea what one was and there are no particular plans as how to build one. So I used my very special skills to make it as frustrating & time consuming as possible. There was still a bit a fiddling to be done at end of day, but it got up. Yeah! The next one should go smother, as is usually the case. I hope :-P

 

You can see, they made good progress on the WB house.

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

Nanette (from Ireland!)

05/28 build day

Hey Folks,

Here's a quick post from a Wednesday Women Build day. Ri Len reports we had a seriously hard working group from Buckeye.Pacific. who not only moved a truckload of 3/4 gavel  (an all purpose construction gravel), they moved it twice!!! As if that wasn't enough they continued tto work on the siding on the WB house,

learned to use the chop saw to cut decking posts,

which were used to build the back porch.

They also got the forms set for the future cement pour for the front porch. What a day!

Until next time, live your best life no matter how big or small it may be.

Nanette

005/25 build day

Hey Folks,

Sorry for the delay between posts. I've been preparing for and traveling for my sabbatical. I'm writing from a home along the water of an inlet on the western Irish coast. It's a bit overcast today but for the last 4 days it's been beautiful. I'm told it was unusual for this time of year as it was in Oregon when I left with temperatures in the 80's.

Anyway, on to the post for the work we did on the 25th of May.

Looks like there was more progress made during the week in the Thrivent house. 

 We had a wonderful group, Friday Girls working with us on the Women Build house. These ladies meet on Friday evenings to do fine needle work and this day, they took up hammers to volunteer for Habitat. Crew leader Ri Len, showing the Friday Girls how important it is to make sure each row of siding is level.

 

These women were quick studies and were off and running in no time. 

One of our future homeowners working on a neighbor's home as part of their 500 sweat equity hours.

By end of the day, it looks like we're doing a pretty good job making sure the side rows are even with the back of the house.

Another group of folks were busy installing drywall in house 5. When installing a partial piece of drywall on the inside top of the closet opening, you can take measurements and precut a piece or you can do it the 'quick & dirty' way by finding a piece that fits the width then zipping it using a RotoZip.

      

  

The yellow contraption unfolds to lift a sheet of drywall up to the ceiling until it's screwed into the TJis enough to hold it in place. The lift is lowered then the rest of the sheet can be fully attached to the TJIs

Mold resistant green drywall board installed in the upstairs bath in house 5.

Hal, one of our Site Supervisors and other volunteers, reaching a tough spot.

 

Before & after pics in the upstairs bedrooms.

 

 

This last shot doesn't look very impressive but  it involved making one strip of vinyl fit around the electrical box and the window. Normally I'd go through who knows how many sheets to make it work. But to my & everyone else's amazement, I managed to get it right the first time. I had to do a little dance. :)  

My hope is to continue to post regularly with photos Ri Len has sent me. Access to wifi as was the issue recently may prove to be a challenge. We shall see.

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

Nanette

The final bake sale

Today was the final bake sale in my efforts to raise funds towards the purchase of the materials needed to build the 2013 Women Build home. Thanks to Celebrity co-baker Katie for helping me close out five months of tempting my co-workers with delicious treats. And it was a great end! The executive Director Mark & my pal Mollie (remember she got me started with all this) from WWHH stopped by to thank the wonderfully generous employees & partners at Vernier Software & Technology for their enthusiastic support of my endeavors.

The photo below of Mollie, myself & Mark was taken about 20 mins after the sale started. Much of it was already gone!

In the end we raised $93.55!!! Fantastic:)

Nanette

Taking a little tour

Hey Folks,

House 1 kitchen

H1 upstairs bath/laundry

One of the bedrooms in H1

Started Saturday the 18th with a little tour of the homes that will sell to two of our families very soon. House's 1 & 7 just need a final clean and they will be ready for the families that have worked so hard for them. By now they have bought their appliances and they're all installed.

House 7 kitchen

H7 downstairs half bath

H7 livingroom

A bedroom in H7

 Further progress was made on the siding on the Thrivent house during the week.

 Once we finish the siding on the Women Build home, as well as completing all the caulking, we'll be ready to insulate between the studs before we install the drywall.

 Kevin lead a crew of volunteers in house 5 to work on the drywall there. There are quite a few odd angles that cuts need to be made for and some of them are a challenge to nail in.

 I spent the day drilling holes for electrical wiring using a tool called a Hole Hawg. It was a bit heavy but it had the power needed to drill through 3 layers of 2X4s.

To bring electrical
wiring to the front porch light

Through 3 layers of 2X4s to
take the electrical up to the second floor

Hole Hawg :)

Working on something called a chaser that fits along the length of the ductwork from the back to the front of the house. The chaser will allow us to drywall around the ductwork that brings heat to the second floor.

 Unfortunately, I needed to leave a bit early so no end of the day photos for this post.

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

Nanette