More Saturday, March 25

Saturday, March 25

Speed Bump

We had an incident last night that I want to let you know about. Sometime yesterday evening a driver lost control of his van and rolled it into the corner of the house we are building on Heath Street. The driver fled the scene on foot, so we have no word on his condition.

The driver left the van embedded in the corner of the house, but it was extracted after the house was deemed structurally sound.

There is a significant amount of damage to the corner framing and siding, but no damage that we can see to the foundation or roof. I think this is because of the great skill of our volunteer building team!

Habitat is working with their insurance company so that we can begin repairs, and Clark is going to begin work reinforcing and repairing the framing on that corner. Clark also expects the drywall folks to go ahead and begin work as well.

We will continue with siding work this Saturday on the rest of the house, and Clark and I will meet early next week to talk about how to move forward with the schedule. We may find that this incident is little more than a bump in the road for us, but I’ll keep you posted.

Saturday, March 18

Saturday, March 11

Sharing a meal













Ready to work!!

March 4 Higher Views

Roof preparation













The tight-rope walker...













Elizabeth













Meredith













Everyone is busy.

March 4 Sights Around the Site

This is the group of workers who were willing to climb!













Lots of activity going on--you can even see Greg headed up the ladder with a roll of tar paper.












Sawing going on













Measuring and cutting













Activity is going on where ever you look!

March 4 Food and Fellowship

Lunch Time!!













They came













and ate













and had a few moments for fellowship.













Gayle, Suzanne, Melva and Lynn were a few of the providers for the lunch meal. Thank you for sharing so bountifully!

Build Day 3: March 4 Beginning the Day

We gathered.















Baim Imatha started our day with a devotional.












Window walk.













Preparing the opening for the window













Ready to insert a window.

Trades

I stopped by the house today and saw the utilities going in. Much of the plumbing is already done, the wiring is going in, and the sprinklers are already installed! Next will be HVAC, insulation and drywall.

Sunday, March 5

Another excellent and productive day. In a measly four hours we managed to almost completely finish the roof and finish preparing the house for the contractors scheduled to come this week. By all accounts, we're right on schedule. Good work everyone! See you on Saturday.

Sadly, no one remembered to bring a camera on Sunday or I would "wow" you with a visual image of our progress. It looked kind of like this, except with a lot more people and I had an air hammer. I must have been on the other side of the house when Daniel drew this picture.
You'll just have to come out next Saturday and see the real thing for yourself!

Not All Hard Labor

On Saturday, after the build, we had a lovely cookout of hamburgers and hotdogs and everything in between.

Some of us met Mr. Gong for the first time.
















And we all relaxed, ate and enjoyed each other's company.

Worker Bees

Although it might seem like this house is magically appearing, it is actually the product of some very hard work.

Build Day 4: March 5

Reaching for the heights all day!!



























Mother and son!

Build Day 2

I was concerned that the bar was raised so high on Day 1 that Day 2 would be a total bust.

We continued our blazing pace and set trusses, sheathed the roof, wrapped the house, and set the 'faux' trusses for the front of the house.

Refreshed by a scrumptious lunch from the College Park crew, we were able to tackle the rest of the day's tasks.

Great work and workmanship!

Build Day 1

It was a wonderful, sunny day -- a great day to raise walls on the Gong's new home!

We had over 20 people working hard all day. At noon we broke for a much-needed lunch break courtesy of Celia Phelps Church.

We were able to get a LOT of work done!

All of the interior and exterior walls were put up. The exterior walls were all sheathed, plumbed and braced. Tomorrow we will start first thing in the morning by putting up trusses!

Many thanks to the many blistered hands that made our first blitz day a great success!

Build Schedule

Each workday will begin at 8 am and will conclude around 3:30 pm except for the Sunday workday (3/5) -- the workday will begin at 1 pm and conclude at 5 pm. We will be building at 3820 Heath Street.

Week	Date	Task	Crew Size
1	3/2	FOUR-DAY BLITZ DAY 1: Exterior & interior walls	21
	3/3	DAY 2: Trusses, sheathing, bracing & gables	21
	3/4	DAY 3: Shingle prep, finish framing, doors & windows	21
	3/5	Day 4: Shingles, siding prep	21
2	3/11	Siding 1	21
3	3/18	Siding 2	21
4	3/25	Porch rails, finish siding & prime walls	15
5	4/1	Trim carpentry and painting	15
6	4/8	Trim carpentry and painting	15
7	4/15	Trim carpentry and painting	15
	4/20	Catch-up	10
8	4/22	Misc. finish (flooring, door knobs and bath hardware	12
9	4/29	Finish trim over floors and punch list	12
10	5/6	Punch list and landscaping	21
	5/12	Clean up	5
11	5/13	Dedication	Everyone!

Build Schedule w/ Devotional & Lunch Assignments