Final Habitat

I took my 11 year old son to the Habitat House dedication ceremony on Saturday. He didn't say much but I could tell he was soaking it all in. It was a pride filled event that ended with both families cutting a big red ribbon across their front doors and taking that first step into official home ownership. The new duplex sparkled in the June sun and the sense of accomplishment ran high. The Nguyen family had a spread of Asian food for the welcoming. Habitat's ED, Lori Vacavlik, has overseen the construction of over 200 homes in her tenure. What a great accomplishment...

- Jesse

Habitat House: warmer weather makes all the difference!

You may have read about the Community Shares’ staff Habitat experience on Thursday, February 1 – it was cold, grey and started snowing at about 2:30 pm. Even with longjohns on under our jeans and ski socks, we were still cold and shaking. I wasn’t sure if this was for me – at least not in February! However, the weather took a turn for the better, and after volunteering on Thursday, Saturday was absolute heaven. The weather was warm, the sun was shining and there was a very productive energy in the air.

The weather was only part of what made volunteering Saturday a wonderful and satisfying experience. The volunteers were all my friends – I recruited, and they came. (Does “If you build it, they will come” apply here?) Many of the crowd already knew each other. Those that didn’t were quickly welcomed and by the end of the day, we were all sharing jokes about the movie “Talladega Nights.”

Everyone donned their fancy safety goggles and hard hats, and this time, we actually put the correct names on our hard hats. (Kyle had the name “Mary” on his hat on Thursday and never responded when people called him that name!) We figured out that if you take off your stocking cap and wear your hardhat directly on your head, it doesn’t fall off as easily when you lean over. There is a lot of leaning over when you are hammering window frames, door frames and wall frames! (And since all of the subflooring was secured down, I couldn’t lose my hardhat in the crawl space, as I had on Thursday.)

Seven wall frames were built, and six of those had to have windows and/or doors put into them. Again, very satisfying to start with just subflooring at the beginning of the day and end the day with 7 walls up – ok, 6 walls and one wall frame -- satisfying nonetheless.

Part of what also made it such a great day is the supervisors that are employed by Habitat – they are not only skilled in home construction, but they are really good at working with people like me who don’t use a hammer on a regular basis and who have no idea how to read a home blueprint design. It takes a special kind of person to get 5 giggly women – two with gorgeous fingernails – to use all of their arm strength to build frames and lift up heavy pieces of plywood. Many of us had sore arms the next day. At one point, the side of the duplex with the most women volunteers had more walls up than our guy friends on the other side – and we made sure to point that out to them.

As I wrap up, I want to once again thank my friends for all of their hard work and incredible energy. Thanks also to the Habitat guys – Spencer, Brady and Adam, who put up with our silly jokes all day, and still motivated us to build 7 walls from scratch. Thanks to Habitat for all the good work they do, and for providing this opportunity.

- Mary

CSC Staff hammers Habitat House....

The hardy team of Community Shares enthusiastically embraced our sponsored Habitat House on a very cold and snowy first day of February. Marty, Alyssa, Mary, Jesse, Kyle and I, along with CSC board member Greg Trainor, wore our nail pouches with pride as we hammered, sawed, carried, cut twice/measured once, slipped, and froze our way to finishing up the subfloor and door/window frames for the house.

Everybody's individual talents really shone on the different projects we worked on. Marty "Numbers" Kennedy took charge of any project requiring measuring or counting out studs for framing. Jesse proved he was the glue that holds us together by laying down beads of adhesive for the subflooring. Kyle and Alyssa built access panels to the crawl spaces beneath the floor. (Does that mean they're subversive or excellent at forging into unknown territory? You decide.) Mary and I got to crown studs for most of the morning. That's a real job, we swear! Email me and I'll tell you how it's done.

I think these photos really say it all. Those are not Kyle's every day glasses... he just likes retro look safety glasses.

- Beth

Habitat House: the first day of work

Alyssa and I arrived at the Habitat House at 9AM this morning for the first day of volunteer work along with eight of our friends. The snow was coming down at a steady pace and the bitter cold had us anxious to get to work so we could stay warm. Some of the cement for the foundation had already been poured and the rest of the foundation is scheduled to be completed on Tuesday. Much of our day was spent clearing snow and moving building materials so construction can continue over the next week as planned.

Sorry, we forgot the camera this time so we don't have any proof of our hard work! We'll be sure to get some photos this Thursday when the whole staff volunteers on the house.

- Kyle