Thrivent Builds

Andy Lakatos welcoming and thanking everyone

Dayo expressing her thanks

Wil Mefford of St. Luke's in Ann Arbor with me (Lynne)

Ribbon cutting (note the little family member at front who just had to be a part of everything)

Greetings to all who have followed the 2009 Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity home of the Burrell family on Watling in Ypsilanti. A group of dedication folks from various churches and even some from Miller Canfield law firm in Ann Arbor on Saturday to help prepare the house for Sunday’s dedication.

The only that outshined the fantastic weather was the beauty of the home and the excitement of those present sharing in this celebration. There were lots of compliments on the gorgeous laminate flooring throughout and Dayo’s brand new appliances including a new washer & dryer in the basement.

The celebration began when houseleader Andy Lakatos welcomed everyone and turned the ceremony over the Pastor Julianne Smeck of St. Mark Lutheran Church in Ypsilanti to offer the opening prayer and blessing. Then Dayo’s family support partner, Gwynn Sterken, introduced the family who expressed gratitude for everyone who helped make this day and owning a brand new, affordable home possible.

Rose Marquardt from Christ the King church in Saline presented each family member with their own personalized quilt and then Dayo’s Pastor, the Rev. Deborah South of St. Mary’s Baptist Church in Ypsilanti offered a blessing on the home and family and gave thanks for God’s amazing love and provisions for each of us.

Many churches pitched by providing a variety of refreshments and drinks and paper to serve and eat it all on. There were cookies and some veges leftover, which the family was pleased to take home for school lunches  and snacks.

Thank you so much everyone, I mean that from the bottom of my heart, for all you’ve done this year to complete this home for Dayo Burrell and her two children. It has been an amazing and excellent experience to manage the project and work with all of you.

Lynne Punnett, Faith Relations & Volunteer Coordinator

Greetings Friends of our 2009 Thrivent Builds with Habitat for Humanity project. Just a quick note to say the house is beautiful, very well built inside and out and as a result we passed our final inspection and expect to pick up the CofO early this week. Mr. Bill Dunphy, Habitat’s Construction Manager, passed along compliments of a job well done so I pass that along to all of you.

Please join us Sept. 20 at the house for the dedication of Dayo’s home. We will begin at 2:00pm. Dayona and Deyon are very excited and both want to cut the ribbon, which I’m sure Gwynn can work out with an extra pair of scissors.

Dayo and family and friends are stopping by regularly to water the beautiful trees and shrubs and plants and of course that lush, green sod. Bill and Andy appreciate her owning that responsibility already, it really helps a lot.

Here’s a snapshot of the front of the house. Not much different than the last shot but the trailer is gone now and the lawn refuge and trash bags have all been put out and picked up.

I’ll get some better pictures, without shading and some that show the side porch. It is all very nice. The arborvitaes are really nice.

God bless,

Lynne

What a fantastic build this year! We had great volunteers from churches, corporations and the public come in Friday and Saturday to wrap up the interior (Friday) and pretty much all landscaping was done on Saturday. We extend gratitude and thanks to volunteers from Chelsea Free Methodist Church who were working on the Good News House over on Congress Street and got done right after lunch and drove over and helped finish with plants and shrubs and roll out the sod. The house looks beautiful and once we get the trailer moved, the growing pile of trash and lawn bags to the curb and remove the porta-john, it will look beautiful. Here are some updated pictures taken at the end of the day Saturday.

View end of day Sat., 8/22/09

Extra Arborvitaes along drive to separate the house from the church next door

Laminate flooring throughout the home (except kitchen and bath)

LR view into kitchen (cleaning to do)

Bathroom completed

Front porch, steps & railing - beautiful!

Driveway and sidewalk

We are wrapping this home up and currently discussing a dedication date in mid-September. Once that is finalized, it will be posted immediately and church champions will be notified and in turn spread the news within their congregations.

I was away last weekend and unable to be on-site so sorry about delays in updating this blog. For now I am attaching a few pictures I took Monday. The only reason the entire sidewalk isn’t poured is because we must wait for the gas line to be installed. Once that is done, we will finish the front sidewalk and finalize landscaping. Top soil is expected to be delivered this week so there will be lots of outside work (yep – in the hottest week of the year!)

The interior trim looks nearly complete and beautiful, maybe 100% even as I didn’t walk through every room and inspect. Stove and dishwasher were delivered and will be installed this week. Frig is coming before the weekend is over too. Lots of  clean up needs to be done again on the inside but overall things are looking really great.

Johnson Controls has been an amazing partner this summer, providing countless employee volunteer crews to work on our homes and we are truly grateful. This is another day when Johnson Controls has sent 12 people to work alongside partner families and others to complete Dayo’s home.

This group is expected to spend a good bit of time in the beautiful weather building concrete forms for the sidewalk and driveway. This will take a crew many hours. There is plenty of trim work to do inside, but while the weather is good you do the outside work so that’s the priority today.

Johnson Controls employees