Front after gutters, etc. removed

Long-time Lutheran houseleader Andy Lakatos, Don Schoenberg, Mark Ritz, Don Stauffer, Gary Vogt, the McQuistons, and others too joined Rachelle Wilson at the 2836 Maplewood house for the first pre-build workday of 2010.  Roofers were scheduled for today (4.19.10 and came) so we had to get some tilted soffits and fascia and gutters off, replace all that wood working before new roof, installed nice Windsor I trim boards and built it all out to accommodate the insulated siding that will be installed on top of Dow blue board on top of new OSB on top of the existing siding.

Mark, Gary and Don Schoenberg ripping a board

The windows will likely be removed and reset in order to not have to build them out so much, but details of that are yet to be determined. The furnace is being replaced with a high efficiency unit so no need for the old chimney anymore. The roofers removed the existing shingles and tore down the chimney before reroofing.  So, the roof is on and we are basically ready for kick-off on June 5, at least from a construction perspective.

Don S. up on the ladder

We need 90 volunteers to “pledge” themselves and another bit of funding pledged too then we will have everything we need to meet our second Thrivent Milestone. WooWoo! We are way ahead of last year and it’s going to be great. We do, however need those 90 volunteers to actually sign up and we also need lunch providers to sign up THEN we’ll be ready to go.  June 5 will include gutting the bathroom and 2 walls in the kitchen and lots of siding work and likely a crew will dive right into the garage, which needs a lot of work.

Burrrr..., Rachelle and Andy Day 1

Example of work done all around the house

Burrrrr is all I can say about last Saturday.

Where is your coat girl?

Rachelle relocating her Peonies

Don Stauffer and sample of new trim

The wind was blowing and we had plenty of lawn bags but forgot the rakes for the morning volunteers.

By the afternoon, we had some on-site just about the time Rachelle found Peonies in the backyard along the back of house and decided to relocate them so they don’t get trampled when the siding goes on.  She LOVES them and doesn’t expect they will bloom the first year after being moved, but is crossing her fingers that next year they do well.  She’s a little worried because of the frost that came Sunday night right after they were moved.

Signing off from the first 2010 blog entry…

Lynne Punnett, Construction Project Manager

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

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

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.

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

Here is a picture of Matt’s friends, most of whom flew in from out of state (and country) including Texas, California, Germany and Michiganians too!

Matthew Witt and Friends

Shed sans latch (Wil will finish on Sat.)

Shelving installers

Hopefully Kayla got some pictures of Saturday people. If so, I’ll post them when she gets in on Tuesday.

Kitchen cabinets in

Another view of kitchen cabinets/pantry

Porch nearly done

Floyd finished Dow board on porch

Lynne & Krystle Niemeyer (earning her sweat equity)

First-time vol. Rob & regular vol. Mark cutting basement floor

Andy eating Pot Belly's (no I didn't say Andy had a pot belly!)

Thursday was another great day with individuals from churches and others who had signed up via the internet and fun, fun, fun was had with 5 Habitat staff members joining the crew.  E.D. Sarah Stanton, Theresa Dumais and Kayla Clement finish laying the laminate flooring in the living room while Lynne (yep, me) worked with partner family Krystle Niemeyer who was on-site earning sweat equity for her home on Garland Street (they only work Saturdays there.)  Family Support Coordinator Floyd Robinson also worked on-site and joined a crew on the front porch getting ready for Friday’s crew who will hopefully complete porch soffit and siding. We had a lot of fun and we all learned a lot about this new flooring we are putting in our homes now.

Today (Friday) we have 8 people from Johnson Controls who are removing the wavy siding from the west side of the house so that we can assess the problem and correct it. Andy is a perfectionist and wavy siding is a no-go for him so despite the original installers working hard to eliminate the problem. It is all coming down today and furring strips or some other solution will be implemented to correct that problem. Saturday’s weather is expected to be really crummy so if we can get that done today, great. If not, we’re going to have a “full house” tomorrow with everyone being forced to work inside.

Here are some pictures of yesterday and today’s group from Johnson Controls. Thanks again to them for amazing groups of volunteers coming out to work with us on company time!

Scalloped siding going on porch gable end in the morning

Porch siding at the end of the day

Fun times in the hall Sat.

Hallway flooring underway

LR floor (whole house) almost done

Looking forward to Johnson Controls coming again on Friday and Infor joining other volunteers on Saturday, but here is the big fun… some of Habitat’s staff members will work on site Thursday and others of us will be out at sites working with volunteers on Friday. Friday staffers may work over on Congress at the Good News House since we have a pretty full crew on Watling Friday.

This weekend we will finish the living room floor and cover it with protective paper. We need to get the kitchen cabinets in place, the shed is mostly built in parts but needs to be assembled and roofed, lots of work to do on concrete forms for the driveway and sidewalks and now we turn to interior doors and trim. Baseboard trim needs to be painted before it is cut and installed. This was less important when we had a gap at the floor and carpet was going in, but now that the baseboard trim sits right on top of the laminate flooring, we can’t be painting after the fact or it will end up all over the beautiful floor. There is lots of work to do. Bill expects to extend the build 2 weekends at most, might wrap it up by August 8 but we will assess that and decide after this weekend.