Habitat For Humanity

Just before Christmas, Patrick and I met a woman at a White Elephant Party who just so happened to work for Habitat For Humanity. This woman was so enthusiastic about her job that her excitement was contagious and Patrick and I couldn't help but ask how we could get involved. She gave us her card and told us building would start up again in the spring. We put her card in our desk drawer for safe keeping but soon forgot about it. It wasn't until we were doing some spring cleaning that we stumbled upon that business card again. After a few e-mails and a quick visit to her office, Patrick and I found ourselves on a job site helping to build a house today! What a cool experience! 

Habitat houses go up in 4 weeks...amazing right?! This particular house was in it's second week of building so the base of the house was already up when we got there. Today we worked to put up all the siding, put in the front and back doors, put up the the ceiling of the roof, and the inside of the home was cocked and insulated. Here is a picture of some of the work taking place early on in the morning...you can see the siding going up...

Patrick and I were first put to work finding all the studs and marking them evenly. This had to be done so that the siding could go up. This was time consuming because the studs were in different places in the top of the house. After, we were told to tape all the seams...including the top of the house...so you see that blue line going down the front of the house?! Yeah, I put that 2nd one up there! It was a long ways up there on a ladder for someone who is terrified of heights! Patrick was then recruited to do some heavy hammering...he was hammering away for hours!

While he did that I got recruited to again go high up on a ladder and weatherproof the front of the house by applying Typar House Wrap. This stuff supposedly reduces the risk of moisture damage and mold growth. My partner measured it while I cut it out with a razor then we both worked together to nail it up there...

By chance, our friend Tim had also met someone from Habitat and had planned to get involved, so we requested to be on the same site as him. We also brought along Patrick's brother, Andrew, who is in town visiting us while on his Spring Break. These two got partnered up and got to work with a bunch of power tools...something Patrick was very envious of as we found studs together lol.

After lunch the 4 of us got to work together on the siding which was fun!

I won't lie, the guys did more of the work there...I was more of a helping hand, while they did the heavy lifting AKA using the nail gun!

While I didn't use the nail gun, I did however use a miter saw!

Yeah buddy! I also used a circular saw which was scary as all getup...today I faced a load of fears!

The new homeowner, Rose, was there helping with the build...what a sweetheart! She works in a nursing home and has two little girls...I was so humbled to be helping her build their new home!

Patrick and I enjoyed Rose and Habitat For Humanity so much that we plan on going back to continue with the building of this home next weekend! I also plan on getting involved with the Ladies Build next month, which has only women on the work site! If you are looking for a great way to get involved in the community and a great organization to get involved with, check out Habitat For Humanity! It was such an awesome experience for us! :-)