Days Six, Seven and Eight

Now I need to go back and try to remember what happened each day. I couldn't summon the energy to write anything the rest of the week. Day six was Thursday and we finally finished the roof, vent cap and all. The drywall was finished in the afternoon and the electricians wired most of the light fixtures, switches and outlets. St. Clair Catholic Church in Berea provided lunch and it was excellent as always. The photo here shows the progress in early afternoon.

I said on Day five that steps were in, but unfortunately they weren't safe yet. After the MCHS Homecoming parade we went back to paint the walls with primer and worked until 11 o'clock. The funny part of the evening was watching Mo paint in her sleep. The bad part was the accident as we were leaving. Minnie and Moni both got hurt on the steps.

Friday we worked on siding on the gable ends of the house, soffits and fascia trim. The steps were finished out front and porch posts were installed. Inside the house the underlayment went down to get ready to lay vinyl. We found out that the window problem was more of a framing problem than a window problem. One side of the frame was way out of plumb. Bybee Methodist Church provided an excellent meal and some help with soffits.

There was a pretty big work crew again Saturday. The Berea College Habitat Chapter came back and the First Methodist youth came out. They painted walls, doors and trim, worked on siding and glued electric conduit. The soffit on the porch was completed and all the j-channel needed for siding around the porch was put in. After the window problem was fixed, the siding on the front went up pretty fast.

The house didn't get finished in eight days because of the low volunteer turnout during the week, but it was still amazing how much work was done with volunteer labor in that short time.

Terry worked on trim and installing doors Monday and in the evening a few of us painted so we wouldn't have to paint over the carpet which is being installed today. Maybe I can get more photos tonight to post. Blitz weeks are always exhausting, but incredibly rewarding and this one was no different.

Day 5 - On the Roof Again

It was hotter than blue blazes up on the roof yesterday. The shingles burned your fingers if they sat in the sun too long. Three of us thought we were smart and decided to get on the job site early to roof before it got too hot. We forgot that the roof would be too wet to work on from the dew. Last night we beat that problem, I hope. We covered the small section we need to finish with plastic.

Minnie and her sister Lynn both got on the roof yesterday and of course the batteries on the camera decided to die before we could get a picture. While we were roofing the drywall finishers were working inside the house, so we can paint this evening.

Somehow the siding crew managed to stay in the shade on the north side of the house most of the day. I think we picked the wrong job, even though the view from the roof was great.

The front porch has steps now and the back deck is almost complete. Today the electricians will be there to finish up.

The volunteer numbers have been low for this build, but it has still been a great week. It is amazing to watch faith in action. Flatwoods Christian Church provided lunch on Tuesday and the pastor used the quote from James 2: 17 "Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead." (NIV) Habitat exemplifies faith in action and the results are visible around the world.

Thanks to Rosedale Baptist for lunch Monday, Flatwoods for lunch Tuesday and New Liberty Baptist fed us well Wednesday. I hear it will be lasagne today. How many calories a day can you work off on a Habitat build?

If I can fin the camera today, I'll post more pictures.

Days 3 and 4

Exhaustion set in last night and I couldn't hold my eyes open long enough to write about what we accomplished yesterday. Day 3 was inspector day. We spent most of the day getting everything done to pass the electrical and framing inspections. After all that was finished we spent time putting up drywall nailers. It seems like no matter how hard you look for them you forget at least one.

Finally at about 3:00 the inspections were complete and we started insulating the house. With about ten people working it didn't take long to get everything insulated. A separate crew worked on decking the front of the roof and putting tarpaper over the whole thing.

The drywall delivery truck got lost, but it worked out for the good, because when they came first thing this morning, they used their crane truck to load the pallets of shingles onto the roof. Packing those things up a ladder is exhausting, back breaking work and we got lucky this time.

By the end of the day today all the drywall was hung and about half of it was taped, one side of the roof has shingles and the siding has been started on at least two sides of the house.

Now I really have to go to bed. We are supposed to start roofing at 7:00 before it gets hot and it is already almost 1:00 a.m. No rain in sight, so hopefully the roof will be completed tomorrow and most of the siding.

Blitz Day Two and Ramblings on Day One

College Hill Methodist Church provided lunch for the work crew yesterday and even though they were prepared for 75-100, Peggy said she felt like she was feeding the 5,000. She prayed for enough food until everyone was finally served. Thanks ladies for a great meal.

There wasn't as much noticeable progress today. First the numbers were way down and second the jobs were not as noticeable. Here Charlene is finishing nailing hurricane clips which help tie the trusses to the walls of the house. Important job, but not very noticeable.

The Waco Baptist Church Youth Group spent the afternoon working on the house and were a great help nailing the decking on the roof and nailing up hurricane clips. Thanks to all of them for their willingness to serve. Megan wants to volunteer enough to become certified. Yeah, Megan.

Tomorrow morning everything required for inspections needs to be finished up. Then insulation so we can be ready for drywallers in the evening.


The last post showed the front of the house, this time the back view of the house shows the roof deck. I'm finding out that it is really hard to work and take pictures of the work being done. The camera was in my pocket all day and these are the only two photos I took. Maybe tomorrow.

First Day of the Blitz

Wow! What a great day! There were over 75 volunteers working on the house today and it was amazing how much progress we all made. This photo shows Melissa insulating the tees first thing in the morning so the sheathing could go on.

The plumbers came in to finish running water pipes inside the house. The electricians were there to do the rough-in wiring. People worked on three sides of the house putting up osb to close in the house.

The Berea College Habitat Student Chapter and Baptist Campus Ministries Students from EKU were awesome. They sent about 20 students from each group and they shoveled dirt to put around the foundation, worked on sheathing, worked on electric, carried trusses, just to name a few. Anytime they worked themselves out of a job, they were looking for another one. It didn't matter what the job was, they did it and had a great time doing it.

In addition to the outside crews there were a lot of people in the house doing electric, plumbing, blocking the kitchen and bathroom walls and putting up drywall nailers.

OK, enough details, but by the end of the day, all the sheathing was up, trusses were up, the front porch was framed and decked, all the windows were in and both outside doors were in. Here's an end of day photo. Now I have to go get ready to work. It is getting late.

#20 Mashups

OK, I'm trying to catch up with the Learning 2.0 posts. I played with mashups so that I could at least know what we were talking about at the brown bag today. They were fun, at least the ones I could get to work. I found one I really liked (Bookr), and I was going to blog the results, but for some reason it wouldn't recognize my Flickr account.

I have been trying to come up with a way to use mashups for libraries and I haven't had many ideas. I can see uses for geography since most mashups seem to use maps. One application that I ran across plotted where birds were found in Central Park. I don't know how they pulled the bird info in but it was neat. This would open up uses for biology and ecology.

Another application let you search for independent bookstores around your zip code. It also lets you add bookstores that they don't have in their database. Lots of fun stuff, but I'll have to work on the academic side.

The construction crew and various volunteers have been working hard to get ready for Saturday. All the inside walls are built, part of the plumbing is roughed in, and the top plates have been started. These photos are from Thursday, so not all the walls are up yet, but you can see plumbing.

They have also pitched the tent. I heard that was the hardest thing they did all day Thursday. Materials will be delivered today, so everything will be ready to go tomorrow morning.

Wall Raising on Habitat House

More on Minnie's house. Saturday some of the walls were raised and her daughter caught it on video. Minnie has worked on several Habitat houses and was teasing the construction crew about wanting plumb walls and a perfect house. Terry kept telling her to cover her ears, so she couldn't hear what they were talking about.

Then Minnie accused me of being the worst perfectionist. How dare she! I learned real early on that rough carpentry didn't have to be perfect because it got covered up. After that, weeeeell, maybe my perfectionistic tendencies did come out a little.

This is so exciting. Since this will be a one week blitz build, I'll try to add photos each day showing the progress made. It is really amazing to watch.

These photos show Saturday morning and afternoon. The front wall is almost ready to go up, but we ran out of 2x6s to finish it. The plumbers will be there early in the week to do the rough in plumbing and the construction crew and volunteers will finish framing this week.

Groundbreaking on Habitat House

Habitat for Humanity has just started building a house for a very good friend of mine, and I wanted to share some of the progress here. From my own experiences I know she has been worried, frustrated, excited, scared and ready to just call off the whole build. Now after all that I think excitement is starting to win out.

Since her house will be the Building on Faith, one week blitz, it will go up much faster than most Habitat houses. The actual build starts September 15 and by the end of that week her home will be almost complete.

The footer was started August 28, block laid Labor Day, and the floor system was built that week. Saturday they'll start framing walls.

There is a footer around those block somewhere. Check back for more progress over the next couple weeks.