Author: Debbie and Joe

We started our day with an inspiring morning prayer devotional from a local pastor.  She talked about how it is home coming weekend at the high school and related that to the many ways we feel comfort in coming home.   This thought is also very appropriate in our work in building this this new home for Patricia, the new homeowner.

Then back to work.  Joe and I worked with Gene (a local habitat volunteer) to continue putting flooring into the master bedroom, closet and bathroom.   We made a lot of progress yesterday and were ready to go!

Joe got to be an expert at cutting around the HVAC vents in the floor 🙂

I finally got the hang of how to easily snap the pieces together.  It’s all about making sure the piece is square when you snap them in.   It did get a little tricky as we got closer to the wall.   So much fun trying to install the boards from the opposite end and on the other side.

A few people on the team worked on getting the cabinets installed today.   It was fun to see the kitchen start to take shape.

For lunch, we were again spoiled by an amazing lunch at a local church.   We had a delicious salad topped with fruit, home made lasagna, garlic bread and an amazing array of desserts.   The community support is incredible.

It was a bit tough to get going after lunch, but we went back at it.    We were in the closets and bathroom, which slowed us down since there are a ton of cuts.  It was also 88 degrees today, so it got really warm in the afternoon (we hear it was 20 degrees above the average temperature).   There was a nice breeze, so it wasn’t too bad.

                         

While we were making good progress on the floor, the kitchen cabinets really started to take shape.   It’s amazing what some paint, flooring and cabinets do for the house.   The future homeowner did join us for lunch, and stopped by to see our progress.   She is super excited about getting her own house!

We headed back to camp, washed up, enjoyed a happy hour in the pavilion, and then enjoyed leftovers in the community room at the church.

We should be able to finish up the flooring tomorrow.   I then hear we will be off to install some doors!

 

Today was flooring day!   We headed out at 7:45am with tool belt and knee pads ready to go.

After our morning prayer from a local pastor, the entire team started on flooring.  We used vinyl strips that looked like wood.    The strips were easy to cut, either by scoring it with a razor blade or using shears.   They locked into each other and did not require any glue or screws to the floor to hold it in place.  

Joe got really good at cutting and installing the end pieces.   We then got into a groove and started picking up the pace to finish a closet.

 

At noon, we were treated to a wonderful lunch at a local church.   We had our choice of 4 different types of soup, 2 types of sandwiches, chips and a wonderful apple cobbler with ice cream for dessert.   It is truly amazing how supportive the community is for our Habitat team.

At around 2:30, we decided to call it a day.   The team had done about half of the flooring in the house … pretty amazing!   For dinner, we were treated once again to a wonderful dinner of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and amazing desserts made by a local volunteer who used to own his own restaurant.  Delicious!

 

 

 

 

Every morning at 8AM we meet at the build site and have a devotional prayer from a representative from a local church.   We then join hands in a circle and say “Habitat isn’t a hand-out, but a hand-up” as we raise our hands together.   It’s such a wonderful way to start our day of work.

Today’s mission was to paint all the walls in the house.   We broke into teams, and set out to work.   We first had to clean up the floors and prep the walls.   Then, we got to painting the master bedroom suite area with Ramona and Richard from Louisiana.

It was the first time I cut in without using tape (free hand).  I quickly got the hang of it, and it came out pretty good 🙂 .

              

Everyone on the team worked really hard.   The first coat of paint was put on on the entire house before we went to lunch!    We were then treated to a wonderful lunch at the local Catholic church, with quite a spread of pulled pork, beef, chips and homemade desserts.   We then went back to the house and put on a second coat of paint, and were finished by 2PM … ahead of schedule!    The Florida Sand color looks great.

Everyone came back to the campground, got cleaned up and then met for happy hour around the campfire.  The weather was beautiful, and it was very nice to just relax with the team.   Looking forward to working on the flooring tomorrow 🙂 .

We enjoyed the extra hour of sleep on Sunday, since Sullivan is in Central time.   After attending 10AM mass in town, we stopped at Bo Wood Camground a mile down the street to empty our holding tanks.  The weather was beautiful … about 80 degrees.  We decided to take a short walk around the campground to view Lake Shelbyville in the heart of central Illinois.  The lake and surrounding land offer outdoor activities for people of all ages, including fishing, swimming, picnicking and simply relaxing.

We decided to have pizza for lunch, fully realizing that it would not be NY pizza.  Well, that was certainly the case.  The round pizza came cut in squares.   I can’t figure out why they think that’s a good idea.  It just creates pieces that are all crust, and some that are to flimsy to pick up.   Oh well, will have to wait to get back to Upper Crust in Celebration 🙂 .

After lunch, we hooked up Breezy to electricity and fresh water.    We can now take long showers and not worry about it!   Later in the afternoon we attended the Team 3 welcome meeting.   We met up with some Care-A-Vanners that we knew from our build last year, and met some other great folks.   There are 7 RVers on this build.  It was amazing to hear about how these folks came from around the country … some from Michigan, Ohio, Arkansas, Minnesota, Illinois and us from Florida.  Amazing!   We then enjoyed a fabulous dinner hosted by the Faith Lutheran church.

I hear our first job is to paint the inside of the house tomorrow …. should be fun!

We made it to Sullivan, IL!

Since our motorhome is in NY, we had to travel from Florida to NY to begin our trip.   We left Celebration, Florida on Monday, 9/24 and arrived at our home in Brewster, NY on Tuesday evening (actually, ‘Tessie’ did most of the driving on auto pilot).  The trip was more adventurous that usual, since we had to take an alternate route around I-95.   Some Tesla superchargers were closed on I-95 from the last hurricane, so we had to take an alternate route.   It was a bit longer, but no tolls!  🙂

After visiting with Joe’s parents for a few days and overcoming some motor home battery issues, we got packed up and left for Sullivan in ‘Breezy’ on Friday afternoon (‘Breezy’ is the nickname for our Tiffin Breeze motorhome).

After about 8 hours of driving on Friday, we pulled into a ‘Wally World campground’  (i.e. a Walmart parking lot) in Mansfield, OH.   We finished up the drive on Saturday and arrived in Sullivan around 9pm.   We met up with some of our fellow RV Care-A-Vanners, and joined the other RV’s behind the Faith Lutheran Church in Sullivan.  We ‘dry camped’ for the night, which means that we did not hook up any water or electricity.   In Breezy, we are able to spend 3 nights ‘dry camping’ before we have to empty the tanks and fill with fresh water.