I don’t even know where to start. I think this whole build has been a lot of fun – lots of different volunteers came out to the site, and a lot came out to the site everyday that I’ve gotten to know really well. I’m going to miss being out on the site and working with the regular crew every weekend. I wasn’t expecting there to be so many volunteers who came out every morning, every day of the build from start to finish – and being so glad to be out and building. It really was the volunteers that made this summer such a great experience for me – it was amazing working with people who were so nice and excited – and glad to be there.It’s been incredible to be part of the Habitat volunteers who give so much – I’m really gonna miss you all!

We’re really just about done with the Thrivent house. The last couple weeks we’ve been doing all the final trim work, installed the counter tops, we’ve been weatherproofing the house, working on all the final details (touch-up paint, etc.) and the house is really coming together. I am looking forward to seeing you all at the landscaping day and the final cleaning day before the dedication – and of course the dedication itself on September 12!

The house is very close to being done. On 8-6-10 there will be a group of volunteers working on the final punch list.

Mark your calendar! The 2836 Maplewood dedication will be September 12, at 3 pm.

Please send any photos or stories from the build to me, Maggie Porter at mporter@h4h.org. Thank you!

For those of you who don’t know, this is the first build that I (Maggie) have watched from beginning to end, and I can tell you that it’s incredible to see. I don’t know all of my construction terms to tell you exactly what’s been accomplished in the last week, but I do know that all of the painting is done, the bathroom is done, the exterior has been finished for a while, the garage was painted to match the siding on the house and it looks adorable!

There are, as always, so many people to thank: The lunches have been fabulous! Thank you to everyone who has volunteered, and especially to the church champions who have been so instrumental in recruiting volunteers!

Once again please send me any photos you have and I’ll post them!

The house has really transformed – it’s hardly recognizable from the building we started out with.

We’ve finished the windows and siding … the exterior looks great!

Inside we’ve put up drywall and started mudding it, painted all the other rooms, and built the safety wall upstairs. The tub and vanity have been installed in the bathroom. We’re almost ready to install flooring and cabinets.

The garage is a bigger challenge than anyone had anticipated. The rotted wall has been removed, replaced, and the vinyl has

almost been completely reinstalled. The ceiling had to be jacked up to be reinforced.

A huge thank you to Laurie Kuck and Judy Willis for bringing lunch this weekend – they were fabulous!

We passed all our rough inspections this week and the electric work is almost done! Most importantly, everyone has had a great time and Rachelle and her daughter are greatly anticipating moving in to their new home!

If you have updates from the build, stories from helping on the site, or pictures, send them to me at mporter@h4h.org and I will post them here.  Also, let me know if you are willing to bring a lunch to the build!

We have two more weekends planned – please sign up on VolHub at http://h4h.volunteerhub.com/Events/EventGroup/Summary.aspx?EventGroupID=8885.

Outside, the volunteers are on the final steps of finishing off the siding. They have started reinforcing the garage and siding is being cleaned as well as painted.

Inside the house the upstairs walls have been framed in and waiting to be dry-walled as long as the kitchen and bathroom. Once the rough electrical is passed, the upstairs wall, kitchen and bathroom can be dry-walled. In the coming builds the house will be getting prepared to be painted as the Thrivent build moves closer to finishing.

Thank you to everyone who came out and please continue to come out this week!

Here’s what we’ve been working on:

• Lots of landscaping has gotten done
• The windows were built out and are currently being covered with aluminum soffits
• The old asbestos siding was covered with plywood and blue foam board – proving to be a challenging task, but one our volunteers overcame with style!
• The beautiful grey siding is being installed right now
• Some internal work has been started, but right now the concentration has been on the exterior

Thank you for the wonderful and delicious lunches!

Photos:

Please come out and volunteer for a day!

This weekend was focused on demolition and preparing the site for the kickoff on June 5^th and the following blitz week.

The kitchen without cabinets, tiles, and the chimney.

On Friday a group of great volunteers including our two new Americorp summer interns Jeff and Jen, got lots of prep work done. They ripped out an obsolete chimney in the kitchen which will be replaced with a new heating unit and creates more cabinet space in the kitchen. Drywall was removed in part of the kitchen and in the bathroom, and the old inefficient furnace was pulled out of the basement. The kitchen tiles were ripped up and pitched, and the old cabinets and sink were pulled out. At the end of the day it looked like a completely different room! Thank you to Trinity Lutheran for providing lunch!

Saturday morning threatened to rain, but a large group arrived ready to work, and quickly started on a variety of tasks, from framing a safety wall and a closet in the large upstairs room to adjusting the windows out to enable the new siding to go on without a problem. While the kitchen tiles had been removed the day before, the underlying base still needed to be removed. Outside Rachelle led a few of our great volunteers in some initial yardwork and ended up with a pile of tulip bulbs that she’s planning on replanting in the fall.

Also, I’m super excited to let you know that Rachelle has been working very hard and has just about completed her 300 sweat equity (volunteer) hours! Don’t worry, she’ll be working on her house as much as possible, but it’s great that she’s been helping out other partner families for the last few months!

Once again we are incredibly grateful to Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and local Lutheran congregations for sponsoring this build!

Thank you to everyone who came out this weekend! You all rock!

-Maggie Porter

My pictures need some formating help, but here they are for now :

Don, Travis and Andy removed the shutters and will reinstall them later.

Prepping the garden...

The dumpster was full on Saturday morning, showing all of the hardwork from Friday!

Prepping the windows...

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