Debbie and Joe's Travel Adventures

When we woke up at 5AM, before the sun, we heard rain showers.   Fortunately, the showers ended fairly quickly, but unfortunately it brought the high humidity.  When we started at the job site at 7AM, it was already 79 degrees.

The guys started the day by installing fascia boards.  They are long boards that run along the lower edge of a roof, covering the ends of the rafters.  They protect the structure from moisture, give the roofline a clean finish, and are where gutters usually attach.  They had that job done in less than an hour.

At 8AM, the pastor from the Methodist Church shared an inspirational devotion, talking about how Jesus wants us to work joyfully.   What an amazing way to start the day ♥    

We then got right back to work – trying to beat some of the heat.  The guys started the  tough job of sheeting the roof by attaching plywood sheets to the trusses.  They assured that the trusses were properly aligned, and were very careful to assure they didn’t have any ‘shiners’ (nails that go through the plywood, but didn’t hit the truss).   By mid-morning, it was getting really hot in the sun, and by this afternoon it was in the low 90s and steamy.   But, they got half the roof done!

While the guys were getting a nice tan on the roof (…. or should I say sunburn?), the ladies first task was to install ‘rat runs’ on the opposite side of the house.  ‘Rat Runs’ are boards that are fastened across the bottom of the roof trusses to assure a consistent 24″ spacing between each truss.   This spacing is needed to assure that ceiling drywall joints have something to attach to.

One of our Care-R-Vanner friends, Terry, custom made a measuring tool that helps to assure the right spacing.  When the rafters are properly aligned, this tool drops right in and the ‘Rat Run’ boards can be easily fastened.   Unfortunately, some trusses needed some convincing (or, should I say clamping) to force them into position before fastening.  It was quite the job, with some trusses needing to be pulled together, while others needed to be pushed apart.

We were able to install the ‘Rat Runs’ on the front and middle of the attic, and will continue tomorrow on getting the final one installed on the front of the house.   

I then moved on to installing hurricane clips.  They are metal connectors that fasten roof rafters to the wall top plate so that the roof can’t lift off in high wind.  Each small hurricane clip has 10 nails!   We used to install them manually with a hammer, which took a very long time.  Fortunately, Gene now has an air nailer that makes the job much quicker.  After getting a lesson on how to use it, I was on my way.  I got the front side done today and will continue to the back of the house tomorrow.

 

This team works great together … we really are joyful workers ♥   God is Good!

 

Whew … and I thought Florida was hot!?   

Since we knew it was going to be crazy hot today, we started at 7AM this morning to take advantage of cooler weather.  While it’s tough to get up early, it is a beautiful and refreshing time of day.  God paints beautiful sunrises.

Everyone was ready to pick up where they left off yesterday.  The truss team was like a well oiled machine, and the trusses seemed to be flying overhead every few minutes.  Joe was busy positioning the trusses and getting them secured.  

By 9AM, the team was ready to set the end gable, which is much heavier than the other trusses.  While it’s on the ground, the team installs the ladder framed gable overhang so that the roof extends past the wall to support fascia, soffit and sheathing.  It’s much easier to do this on the ground than try to hang off a ladder after the end gable has been installed.

 

While Joe was working on Trusses, I was working with Ramona to finish setting up the small bathroom walls.  After squaring and leveling, we added a top plate – just in time for the truss to be installed over it.

After the walls were secured, we then started to prep the windows with flashing tape.  Ramona was the expert, so she guided us through the process.  It involves using special tape to seal the edges to assure that there is no water penetration.  We were thankful to get them completed before lunch.

To finish the morning, we secured the end gable and sealed the edges with Tyvek tape.

By lunch time, all the trusses were up … now, it’s starting to look more like a house!

To finish the day, we left a message on the studs for the new owner … it’s a wonderful tradition where everyone who helps to build the house leaves the owner a message.  

By noon, we were all feeling the heat.  We were so thankful to be served a delicious lunch at the Catholic Church (in amazing air conditioning ♥).   After lunch, we went back to the job site to finish up a few things and then called it a day.

After we showered and rested, we joined some of our team at a local restaurant for ‘Taco Tuesday’, and to celebrate Dave’s birthday.

 God is Good!

We are so thankful for all the blessings that God has given us, and are excited to do God’s work by helping to build another house for Habitat for Humanity in Sullivan, IL.     

We started our road trip about a week ago, stopping in Red Bay, Alabama.  Our Tiffin motorhome was built in Red Bay, so this is the place to come when you want experts to work on your vehicle.   After a few days there, we made our way up to Sullivan and arrived on Sunday afternoon.  

Tiffin’s motto is ‘Roughing it Smoothly’ … we really do have everything we need, including TV, fireplace … with of course, popcorn.

 

Once we got settled, we enjoyed a happy hour to catch up with old friends and to meet some new ones.

In the past, we have helped to build an entire house in 6 weeks.  This year, the local Habitat affiliate decided to add an additional 10 feet to the home to accommodate special handicap needs of the family who will get the home.  Since the house is bigger, this year’s build is scheduled for 8 weeks.  Joe and I are joining the team at the start of week 3, and are planning to help build for the last 6 weeks.   In those first two weeks, the previous team was able to get the walls built and set.  Here’s the view of the home when we arrived earlier today.

On our first workday, the team decided to start at 7AM (an hour earlier than the typical 8AM start).  We woke up before dawn to a chilly 54 degrees!  It was still dark outside as we were having breakfast.

Our goal today was to start setting the roof trusses.  The first step is to set up the scaffolding on both sides of the house.

It’s time for trusses … and time to put on the hard hats.

The first step is to place the extremely heavy end gable on the end of the house.  We are thankful that the Habitat team was able to get a Lull telehandler to carry the trusses across the yard to put them in place.   It is a slow, careful process.

After the end gable was set, Joe and I were on either side of the house setting the rest of the trusses and nailing them in place. 

By lunch time, we were making great progress.

For lunch, one of the many Sullivan churches hosted an amazing lunch of homemade lasagna, salad, bread and a wide selection of desserts.  The hospitality of this community is truly wonderful.

By the end of the day, we set about half of the trusses and hope to be able to get the rest of them set tomorrow.  We are so grateful to work with amazing people.

 

 

We were again up before the crack of dawn.  While getting up this early has some issues (…lol), there are certainly advantages such as watching the sunrise.  Here we are enjoying breakfast while the sun is just coming up over the horizon.  It is amazing when you think that the earth is rotating on it’s axis about 1,000 mph!

The sheetrock crew wanted us to blow in the attic insulation before they finish the taping.  So, when we arrived one of our team members had already picked up the insulation truck.  After our wonderful devotional and prayer from the local pastor, we got right to work.  Our job was to load the hopper … which we had done before.  Once the hose had been placed in the attic, it was time to start feeding the hopper. 

After about 2  hours, we had blown in close to 100 bales of insulation into the attic.   While we were cleaning up, we noticed some dark clouds on the horizon.   The forecast was for no rain today … but, can you believe it?  Yeah, they were wrong.   But, we had gotten the insulation done, and our inside crew had finished up the window sheetrock trim and covered the outlets.  Since we had pretty much finished our tasks for the day, we decided to end early.  But – of course … we had to come back to enjoy the delicious lunch prepared by a local church.

It’s hard to believe that today is the end of our two week adventure.  The local affiliate is hosting a 2 week build dinner for the team at a local Amish home.  If it’s anything like we’ve been to in the past, it will be a family style meal served in an Amish family’s living room.  After dinner, we will be leaving Sullivan.  We have some sightseeing planned before we return back to Celebration.

We leave the finishing of the house in good hands.  There are some local volunteers that will finish up the remaining tasks, with the goal to get the family into the home before Thanksgiving.

Thank you for virtually joining us on our latest adventure.  We truly felt the love from everyone, and we are truly blessed to have such a wonderful extended family.  God is good!

On a typical build, today would be sheetrocking day.  It usually takes a full team about 2 days to complete the installation, and then another day to tape and spackle the walls.   This year, the local Habitat affiliate was approached by a local sheetrock company who wanted to volunteer their crew to install and tape the walls.  Of course, they graciously accepted their offer … so today that crew was busy installing.  The crew was already well underway by the time we arrived at the jobsite at 7:45AM this morning.  By the end of the day, they will have all the sheetrock installed … with impressively small seams between sheets 😉

So our focus today was to continue clearing the backyard.   We sorted the extra materials – with some being donated to the local Habitat ReStore, some being used by local volunteers for other projects, some recycled, and the rest put in the dumpster. 

The concrete team came back this morning and cut some grooves into the patio.  I had always thought these grooves were for aesthetics, but I was told it also helps reduce cracking by allowing some expansion/contraction due to temperature changes.

While the concrete team did a good job on the patio – they did leave some unwanted concrete along the edges.  So, we kept getting bigger power tools until we were able to break up the concrete and get it into the dumpster.

But the real highlight of the day is Thursday donuts.  We’ve been spoiled and blessed by so many local organizations providing us with snacks, lunches and dinners.   Every Thursday, a local bakery delivers delicious donuts.  Since it was a light day of work, we enjoyed a nice long team break on a beautiful sunny 70 degree day.

Tonight, we are being treated to dinner at the local Ambucs meeting.  Ambucs is an amazing organization that helps disabled people by building wheelchair ramps and purchasing handicap accessible bikes for kids.    They work hard, but they know how to cook!  At every one of their meetings, they cook for all their members on a huge grill.  I hear that tonight’s menu will be grilled ham steak.  Yum!  God is good!

Brrr … it was in the 40’s this morning.   We are very thankful that Roadie’s heat is working!  When we got to the jobsite, it was barely in the 50’s … but by afternoon it warmed up nicely.

Typically, today would be sheet rocking day, but because a company donated their time to install the sheetrock, our day was a little different.   One person from the company did show up this morning and installed metal ceiling nailers.  As we’ve been told, these allow the middle of the sheetrock to ‘float’, to reduce future cracks.

Since that big job is being done by a contractor, today was a day for catching up on loose ends, cleaning out the house, storing tools that will no longer be needed and cleaning up outside.   Some of our tasks were to seal penetrations around the doors,

load the trailer up with tools and materials that we won’t need anymore for this build,

and helping to clean out the shed and tool trailer.

Our ‘entertainment’ while working in the yard was watching the concrete crew pour concrete for the back patio and sidewalk.  They certainly make it look easy, but it is definitely a work of art.

So – you may be wondering … so what are the firsts for today?

Well  – we had a bird in the house!    It’s not just any type of bird .. but a woodpecker!   I’ve been told that this was a first :-).

I was laughing watching Dakota (the future owner) inside with a broom trying to convince the bird to leave … lol.

The other first was getting a tour of the unique Agricultural center at the local school.  The teacher gave us some history about how this Ag center started.  It’s a wonderful story of a collaboration between the Army Corps of Engineers, the principle, the school district and an incredibly passionate teacher.  This is the only center like this in the mid-west!

During the student’s 2 hour Agricultural class, they do everything from farming, designing and building fences, taking care of hogs/sheep/goats, breeding via artificial insemination and everything else needed to take care of their farm.  It is certainly an amazing place where the students get an appreciation of farming while getting an understanding of the importance of a work ethic.   It’s an amazing place!

Just another amazing day with an opportunity to work with talented and generous people.  God is good!

It’s hard to believe it’s October!  Being up north, it’s definitely noticeable.  Tonight the low temperature is supposed dip into the low 40s … brrr!   While the mornings are cool, the afternoons are crisp autumn days in the mid-70s.  It’s nice to see some leaves starting to change  🙂

Our job this morning was to drive the trailer to Menards (a home improvement store) about 45 minutes away to pick up 16 additional sheets of drywall.  It was a long, but scenic drive – passing by cornfield after cornfield.  It does give us an appreciation for how blessed we are in this country to have hard working farmers and fertile farmland.

When we got to Menards, I was very impressed with their system.  They had three huge drive-through barns with all kinds of construction materials.  When you checked in at the front gate, they sent someone to help you load.

By around 10:30, we had arrived back at the job site with the sheetrock.  When we arrived, we were amazed at how much activity was going on at the job site …

…the sidewalks and back patio were being prepped for concrete

…the plumber was finishing up some work

…the electrician was installing the furnace

… some of our team was setting the shower base in concrete and assembling the shower

… and others from our team were finishing up the siding on the south wall.

We always have a little fun along the way 🙂 …. and no, he wasn’t falling … lol…

After another wonderful lunch at a local church, we unloaded the sheet rock from the trailer and started to clean up the worksite.  

It was certainly organized chaos today – but there was much accomplished!     After a team get-together at a local VFW for ‘taco-Tuesday’, we are all ready to call it a day.  God is good!

Hurricane Helene visited us on Friday, but it was not too bad – just some wind gusts and a little bit of rain.  We called off the workday, but the sponsoring church blessed us with a wonderful lunch at the local library.  The weekend was good  – with some time to catch up with some friends that we hadn’t seen since last year.   We even got to see a first …. a robot delivering drinks at a local restaurant.   The middle of farm country would be the last place you’d expect to see this … but it was pretty cool.

The 5:30AM alarm on Monday comes very early :-).  The morning routine is getting a little easier, so it doesn’t feel as rushed getting ready.   When we arrived at the job site, we were able to take a look the completed foam insulated walls that were done on Friday.  This is the first year that we are using blown in insulation so we were very curious as to how it would finish.

We also saw a very full load of sheet rock that needed to be unloaded, both 12 foot and 8 foot lengths. 

It would have taken our small six person team a long time and a lot of effort to unload these heavy sheets.  After the pastor shared a wonderful devotional this morning, we got to talking about the big job ahead of us.  She asked if it would be helpful if some high school students could come and help unload.  Well … of course our answer was YES!   She made one call to the principle, and within 10 minutes, there were about 8 students at the job site (the high school is on the same block).   The students came from PE class – so lifting sheetrock was their lifting weights today :-).   With everyone working together, we were able to get all the sheetrock unloaded before 10AM.   God really does provide us with everything we need!

After unloading the sheetrock, we enjoyed a special snack today.  One of the team members baked some apple and banana bread to celebrate Gene’s birthday.   Then, it was back to work.  After setting up scaffolding and figuring out how to cut roof angles on the siding, we made some progress on the south side of the house.   I was on cutting duty, and Joe had the measuring/installing job.

After a productive day at work and a relaxing happy hour, the team met at a local restaurant to continue Gene’s birthday celebration.   We all have so much to be thankful for.  God is good!

We woke pre-dawn to another brisk morning, with temperatures in Roadie around 61 degrees…brr.   Thank goodness for the electric heater fireplace!

As expected,  we had numerous hurricane, cyclone, tropical storm and wind warnings for Florida in advance of Hurricane Helene.   We are thankful that it will mostly miss Celebration, but pray for the safety of those along the Florida coast.

What we did not expect was Hurricane warnings for Sullivan, IL!  A hurricane in Illinois?  How does that happen … where’s the water?   Anyway … this was the storm tracker yesterday.    Sullivan is in central IL, where the big red circle is.    OK, maybe we brought it with us … lol?

Since there is a good probability that we will have rain and high winds tomorrow, we wanted to get as much siding done as possible.  The back of the house was just drying up from the last storm – so we really wanted to get that done today so we would not have to work in another mud pit.   We finished the side of the house up to the angled roof line, and then decided to put everyone to work on the back wall.  I had the job of cutting the pieces while Joe was on the scaffolding doing the installing and nailing.  This team small, but amazing.  We all stayed a bit late this afternoon and got it done!   The afternoon weather was amazing with sunshine in the mid-70’s and a nice breeze.

After a successful day, we gathered under the pavilion for a happy hour.  It’s a nice time to just relax and share stories. 

While we were outside, we enjoyed watching the cornfields being harvested.  I’m sure the farmers were putting in overtime to beat the storm.  As we’ve learned over the years, the moisture level of the corn during harvesting is a huge factor so it is critical for them to get as much as they can done before the rain.

It was the first time I saw them working, even after dark.

We had another wonderful and exhausting day.   Let’s hope the winds aren’t too bad … although a local volunteer already offered for us to stay in their home if the storm gets too bad.  Amazing people!   God is good!

We woke up to a brisk 54 degrees!  Not only is it brrrrrrr…. but also very dark at 5:30AM.   As we were having breakfast, we get to enjoy a nice view of the sunrise from Roadie.   From our fogged windows (from the cold), it was just another reminder of God’s goodness.

Even though it was a chilly morning, it turned out to be a beautiful day for working.   By the afternoon it was in the mid seventies and sunny.    Two of our team members worked on removing/replacing a shower enclosure and picking up/installing the back door.   While they were busy with that task, the siding team was hard at work installing siding.  We were able to complete the front porch and front wall siding.   By the end of the day, the ground had finally started to dry up.  We are hoping that tomorrow the back side of the house will be dry enough to start the siding. 

 

 

When everyone returned to Faith Resort, we gathered under the pavilion to relax and enjoy the beautiful afternoon.  It was another blessed day!  God is good.