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We had a relaxing weekend.  On Saturday, we drove to Champaign, IL which is about an hour away.  It’s the closest town that has a good selection of stores and restaurants.   Bob’s wife Betty lets us use her car, which is truly a blessing!   We were able to do some shopping at Sam’s Club and Walmart, attend an early mass and have lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse :-).  Later in the evening, we enjoyed Chinese takeout with Bob and Betty in the Faith Lutheran meeting room. 

On Sunday, we enjoyed sleeping late and did some laundry.   Around 2:30 on Sunday afternoon, we got a call from Bob asking if we could help at the house.   He wanted to get the house prepped and ready for the wall texturing on Monday… and finish all the prep work in time to make our team dinner plans at a local Mexican restaurant.   We were very happy to help.     We got right to work on taping all of the windows.

We then taped the bathtub.

While we were taping, Bob and Richard were busy prepping the other areas.   By 5:30 we were done, and were able to enjoy our team get together for dinner at 6:00 :-).    When we got home, we were treated to another beautiful sunset.   God is certainly watching over us.

This morning, we started our day as we normally do.   A pastor came to share a wonderful devotional and a morning prayer.   Everyone on the team was very happy to see the mudding complete.  It was really a push for both the mudder and Bob to get it done over the weekend.

Bob then handed out our task list for the day.   We all knew that today’s critical path was for the mudder to texture the walls and ceiling.  Since we had to keep the house completely cleared for texturing, we were focusing on finishing up the fascia and completing the outside punch list.

Our first task was to caulk and fill in the nail holes on the front and back door.

We then moved to cut/set/install the front and back entry door bottom plates.   We were using a new type of board, so we were all learning together.   After a false start, we were able to correct it and get them installed and aligned properly.

While we were working on the bottom plates and helping to clean up the site, the soffit team was making great progress.  By the end of the day, Bill installed the last piece!  It looks great :-).

The outside of house is done, and the interior wall texturing is complete!  Tomorrow,  there are two key activities planned:  1) install the sidewalk and patio and 2) apply primer and ceiling paint to the entire house.    After tomorrow, we will have the house back to start painting, flooring, and ….  

Chuck on our team suggested that we take the day off tomorrow (since there is nothing really for us to do) and work on Saturday.   Bob and everyone on the team thought this was a good idea … so, we will be wearing our paint clothes on Wednesday!

I enjoyed walking through the house with Jennifer (the new homeowner) today.  She’s very excited, and can’t believe it’s only going to be another two weeks.   It’s really looking great!  God is good!

 

 

 

 

We woke up to temperatures in the mid-40s … brrrr.   It was a three sweatshirt day for me, with the high only reaching 63 degrees with cloudy skies and a steady wind … double brrrr!    It’s crazy to think that we were sweltering on Monday with a 93 degree day.   What a weather change!  

After our morning devotional and prayer, we were all ready to conquer our challenges from yesterday.    Since Bob knows that everyone looks forward to his daily task sheets, he handed them out … although it’s ‘the same as yesterday, just a little bit different’.

We were ready to get the East Wall back up.  The problem row was double checked for level, and good to go.   Since all the removed pieces were marked, we knew what order it needed to be reassembled.   Re-installation went like clockwork.  We were done by 11AM!

Since the siding work on the entire house was wrapping up, we put all of the scraps into a dumpster that was just delivered.  We were able to clean up around the entire property before lunch.

After lunch, we installed the shutters.  Bob helped us get started with the first one, then we were off to install the remaining shutters on all the front windows.   The shutters make the house look finished :-).

We’re getting very close to having the outside of the house done!  The only piece left is to install some soffits and fascia on the back and east sides.    Here’s a view of where we were at the end of the day:

Gene and Chuck also made some good progress on the crawl space top cover.

To celebrate our 4 week milestone, the Habitat affiliate treated everyone to a dinner at Yoders restaurant featuring Amish home-style cooking.   It was an unlimited buffet, so I ate way to much!

Everyone on the team felt very satisfied that we are almost done with the outside of the house.   Hopefully the mudder will complete the drywall prep by Monday, so we can get back into the house and finish it up.   It will be nice to sleep in tomorrow morning :-).  God is good!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy First Day of Fall!   The weather here definitely got the memo.   It was more than 20 degrees cooler today, with a high reaching around 72 degrees.    What a wonderful cool sunny day to be working outside! :-).

As usual, we gathered for our devotional, prayer and team motto …”Habitat is not a hand-out, but a hand-up”.   It’s a great way to start every day!    Bob then handed out our task sheets. 

Our first goal was to clean out the house and prep for the ‘mudder’ (or, I guess the formal term is the Drywall finisher, which I only found out because that is what our sheet says).   We thought he was going to get there around 10, so we’d have some time to clean out the house, but as it turned out he showed up before we had finished with our team meeting.   Joe and I focused on removing everything off the floors, vacuuming out the outlet boxes and giving the whole house a final sweep.    The mudder stayed for a couple of hours to plaster in some corners for the windows and giving the walls a first coat.

We then picked up where we left off a few days ago – continuing work on the East wall siding.    By lunch time, we were almost to the top…

… and then ….

Well, I can show you a picture from the end of the day.  Can you tell what changed…lol ????

 

With his ever careful eye to quality control Bob noticed that there was a piece of siding near the bottom of the window that was just a little bit too low.    When he pulled on it, the piece unlocked from the rest of the siding….bummer!   We thought we were very careful to make sure that each piece is locked in and level, but…. it had to be fixed.    Look at the bright side.   We now have a new skill – taking down siding :-0.    The nails are purposely left loose when installing to allow some movement due to weather changes.   Even though it’s not the goal – having loose nails makes it easier to remove.   I got the job of laying out and numbering the pieces so we can reinstall.

When we got down to the problem area, Bob noticed that this row was running right along the wall seam where two sheets of OSB meet.    This wall seam is sealed with silicone calk.   We were wondering if that caused the issue, so we decided to remove the entire row to investigate further.   As Joe was taking off the next piece on that row, he could literally pull the nails out with his hand!   Our theory is that we nailed this row into the bead of silicone in the wall seam.    This would explain why we did not notice it a few days ago.  The temperature change could explain why the nails sagged, since they were not secured into the wood.   It was close to the end of the day, so we decided to leave it right there … and take another quality control check before we reinstall.

While we were practicing our ‘taking down siding’ skills, other teams were making some progress.   The electric company also came today to install power (just a note, that the trench digger that came a few days ago was actually the gas company).

It seemed to be ‘that kinda day’ for many of the team today.   But, oh well, we learned new skills.  It was a beautiful sunny day.   We are working with amazing people…and, most importantly… God is good.

 

 

Today was another hot one – the high was 91 degrees.   It wasn’t quite as hot as yesterday, but it was still toasty.   Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be 67, with the low of 46.   Yeah, I’ll probably be complaining about how cold it is tomorrow :-).

After our wonderful devotional, Bob handed out our task lists.   Our goal today was “…same as yesterday, just a liitle bit different”.    We were all back to drywall hanging….but check out our gold stars!!

Our first task was to complete the bedroom that we had been working on.    Mission accomplished!

We then moved to installing window wrap around each of the windows to give it a finished look.   Spacers were added at the bottom of the side pieces to make room to allow the finished window sills to be slid into place.     It took some measuring and cutting,

fitting into place, and securing with screws.

Just as we were about to finish up for the day, we got the last piece installed.

The rest of the team finished up the remaining rooms.   The drywall is done… hip hip hooray! 🙂

Tomorrow we move outside to finish up the siding, so that the ‘mudder’ can come in and make all those drywall seams disappear.   God is good!

 

Today was almost as hot as the first day of the build.   The heat index got up to 100 degrees!   It wasn’t bad in the morning, but got a bit toasty working in the closet in the afternoon.    Luckily, I was able to use a fan to at least keep the air moving :-).

Our devotional today was about the importance of motivation.   He shared a story about a pastor who gave everyone in his parish a gold star, and told them something about them that he was impressed with.   Although it’s just a little gesture, it became something everyone looked forward to.   So… all through the day, I heard team members giving each other gold stars for work that they’ve done.  So cool … or, maybe today, so hot… lol.

Everyone was ready to get back to where they left off from their drywall adventures yesterday.   Although it was ‘…same as yesterday, just a little bit different…”, Bob handed us our task list for the day.  Our goal was to complete the Northwest bedroom closet and start to hang wall drywall on the Northeast bedroom.  

With some experience, we did a much better job on the second bedroom closet.   We figured out that we need to install the back wall first, so we could feed the large sheets through the open side.    Well, that worked like a charm so we finished the back wall, then the side walls.   Now we had to install the front wall …. oops :-).

It was easy to fix.  We just had to temporarily remove one of the side panels by the hallway to get it in.   We did get a good laugh though :-).

After the closet was completed, we moved to installing drywall on the Northeast bedroom walls.   It only takes one customized 12 foot sheet to cover the entire top of the bedroom wall, so they go up pretty fast.   Once installed, Bob uses a roto zip tool to cut out the window and the outlets.

By the end of the day, here’s a look at that bedroom.

While we were in the closet most of the day, the rest of the team was making great progress.  Here are some end of day pictures – it’s really starting to take form.

Well, that’s the work part of the day … but certainly not the most exciting.   

We have worked with Gary, the local Habitat affiliate president, each year we’ve been coming to Sullivan.   For those that have seen my blog from last year, he got me to actually take his tractor for a spin last year… what a hoot!   Well, this year I was talking to him about  how fascinated I am with how the huge farm equipment harvests corn so efficiently and quickly.   I even watched a YouTube video that describes how these huge combines can cut the corn stalk, remove the corn cob, open the cob, husk the corn off and have just the corn kernels come out the top.    Since Gary knows absolutely EVERYBODY in this town (I guess being mayor of the town for 20 years helps), he sent a few text messages this morning and arranged to have Joe and I take a ride on a combine!   So, today before lunch we went out to the corn fields where they had started to harvest to get a ride.   It was absolutely amazing!   The pictures below don’t do it justice – so if you’re interested in looking at a video on riding one, you can watch a few minutes of this  ‘Ride along with me in a combine cab’ YouTube video.   It was so much fun, and an experience I won’t forget  :-).

Maybe they will make me a farm girl someday … lol.   God is good!

 

 

We woke up to thunderstorms this morning.  Thank God that it was a fast moving storm, so by the time we left for the campground at 7:30am, it had stopped raining.   When we arrived on site, the ground was a little muddy – but we added a plywood path so that we wouldn’t track in too much dirt to the house.     The first thing we noticed was that the roof shingles were on.  The roofers came very early on Saturday morning.   Looks great!

Bob and Richard from our team went above and beyond and worked both days this weekend.   They purchased and delivered all of the drywall, moved the heavy 12 foot sheets into the house (with some help from the Habitat family) and insulated the entire house.   Bob really wanted to get everything ready for us to hit the ground running to start drywall this morning.    Mission accomplished with flying colors!   Here’s what the house looked like when we got there:

Whew, there are a ton of sheets to put up… and this is just for the living/dining room area!

After our wonderful devotional and prayer from a local pastor, Bob handed out our sheets.  Wow, they were full double sided sheets … whew, I’m tired just reading it 🙂 .   Most of the sheet was devoted to providing drywall training 101 (or reminder for some).    Even though we’ve done drywall a few times before, I really appreciated a detailed review of the steps.

We were on the North side closets team.    The first step is to mark the location of the trusses and studs, to help with locating the proper point for the screws to be installed.   After that, we started by measuring the ceiling sheet.   We didn’t have the luxury of using a ceiling lift, so we had to cut the sheet, hold it up and screw it into place.  

My job was measuring and cutting the sheets.

While we were having so much fun in the closet, the other teams were making great progress.   They used the ceiling lift to install 12 foot sheets – so they went up really fast.

While were were inside, the electric company had a crew outside digging the trench and connecting power to the house from the street.

Whoo hoo… we finished the closet!

Tomorrow we’re on to the other bedroom closet.   I’m sure it will go much faster tomorrow.   Typically, I figure out how to do a task on the last piece … lol.

After work and a shower, we gathered for a happy hour on the pavilion.   For dinner, we enjoyed some wonderful left overs from lunch and desserts from the amazing home baked goodies brought for our morning break.   God is good!

 

We had another beautiful day.    As we were gathering, we saw dump trucks  pulling up to our site.   Gary has done a great job at using his tractor to keep the grounds around the house in good shape, so we didn’t know what we would be doing with the soil in the trucks.   We did notice that during the last rain storm, the east part of the yard was very muddy.   Gary, who knows EVERYBODY in town, called a friend of his to see if they wanted to donate some dirt.   Well, the very next day four dump trucks showed up! 

After the morning dump truck entertainment, we gathered inside for our morning devotional and prayer from a local pastor.   This pastor is a great storyteller.   He shared the story of when he was a kid, his older brother would fill up his car with high test gas if he really wanted to supercharge his engine.   After some scripture readings about the Holy Spirit, he related the power of the Holy Spirit with high test gas … it can supercharge your life.  In his local church, he shared this same story.  Some people were so moved, they started singing.  He challenged us not to be afraid to sing to share the Holy Spirit with others :-).

Now it was time for Bob to hand out our task list for the day …. and …. we couldn’t believe it … no sheets again today?    We almost didn’t know what we would do without our sheets.   Of course, he said his famous line ‘same as yesterday, just a bit different’….lol.    Anyway, everyone was back working on siding.  

We continued to work on the east wall siding.   The straight low pieces went up very quickly, but we needed to set up the scaffolding when they were too high to reach.    Our first challenge once we had scaffolding erected was cutting out around the window.

Our next challenge was to install siding over the porch.   We had to first install J channel trim to finish the edges.

We then had the challenge of cutting angle pieces for the roof line, but we knew how to do that from the wall yesterday.   By the end of the day, we had made progress, but we have a few more hours of work before it’s done.

The other teams were making progress also.  When they finished the most complicated back wall, we started singing :-).  I would say that another 1/2 day is needed to get the siding completed.

After cleaning up, we headed back to ‘Faith resort’ and gathered as a team on the pavilion for a TGIF happy hour.   A few of us decided to go out to a local pizza place for dinner.    It’s been an amazing 3 weeks.   We’re half way through the build!    God is good!

After a chilly mid-50’s morning, it warmed up to be a wonderful sunny day in the low 80’s.   As usual, we were blessed to have a morning devotional and prayer.   Bob then typically hands out our task lists for the day.  We were all completely shocked when Bob told us that there were no sheets for today.   Some people commented that we couldn’t possibly work without the list … lol.   I asked if that meant we could take the day off…lol.   He just told us that it’s the   “…same as yesterday, just a bit different”.    Everyone on the team was put on siding today, so it was more of the same.

We went right back to work on the wall we started yesterday.    It got a bit tricky when we had to start fitting the roof line at an angle.   We also had to cut the vinyl around the side vent.

As we got higher on the wall, we needed to double stack the scaffolding.

We got to a point where we needed to cut a single piece with both angles … fun stuff!

Getting closer to the top!

The last top triangle piece was tricky.

We certainly celebrated when it fit … whoo hoo!

First wall done 🙂

Next up was the opposite side wall.   We were grateful that we had some shade on that side.   Since we’ve now gotten the ‘hang’ of this, it was easier to get going.    Here’s a view of where we were at the end of the day.

The other teams were making progress as well.  The back wall team had a challenging wall, with all of the windows and the back door.

Here’s a view of the front wall progress.

Right after lunch, I wanted to make sure we signed a beam before the sheet rock goes up next week.

After work, we were treated to another delicious meal at Ambucs.   They provide such a life changing service to the community by building wheel chair ramps and giving away handicap tricycles.  It’s always an interesting ‘good ‘ol boys’ meeting with amazing food.   On tonight’s menu was bacon wrapped grilled pork, corn casserole, baked beans, salad and dessert. Yum!

God painted us an amazing sunset to end a great day.   God is good!

So far this week, we have been blessed with sunny and fairly cool weather.   Although it was a double sweatshirt morning, it warmed up to the low 80’s by the afternoon.   After another wonderful devotional and prayer, Bob handed out our assignments for the day.

We were on the west end vinyl siding team.    Before anyone started on siding, Bob gave us all some guidance on the proper fastening procedure, so everyone would be consistent.   We even got instructional handouts today :-0.

We used a circular saw to cut the vinyl pieces.   A few years ago, Bob constructed a ‘jig’ with a long base to support the siding and predefined channels for the saw.   The ‘jig’ has places for both straight cuts and roof angled cuts.

Once the pieces were cut, they were snapped into place and nailed.   We frequently checked to assure it was level.   The color is called Aspen, which is a greenish gray color.

We were able to install the first 5 foot or so from the ground level.

Then we had to assemble some scaffolding to finish up the wall.  

The scaffolding was really stable, so it was easy to get the siding nailed properly.

As we reached the roof line, it got tricky to cut the siding at the right angle.   The jig made it a bit easier to cut the right angle.   We started a few strips of the angled pieces before we called it a day.     A touch of color looks great.  We will get right back on it tomorrow :-).

At our 10AM break today, one of the local Habitat volunteers told us that our team was featured on the front page of their local newspaper.   It’s a picture from when we attended a lunch at the local elementary school.   I guess we made it to the big time … lol.

After we got back to Faith Resort (that’s the name we give our ‘campground’ behind the church), we relaxed on the gazebo with the team.   Rather than cooking dinner tonight, we enjoyed some amazing pulled pork, coleslaw, baked beans and brownies that were left over from a lunch provided by a local BBQ restaurant.   God is Good!

 

 

 

 

 

It was another brisk (…i.e. double sweatshirt for me…) sunny morning.    The local pastor that came to bless us with a devotional could not believe the progress since he was there last week.    The house did not have a roof last week – amazing!

Bob talked about the crazy day yesterday.   We all agreed that it was very congested, and difficult for the electricians and plumbers to get their work done.   Today, he was very focused on limiting the amount of time our team would be inside the house, so that the contractors could be more productive.   Here’s our list for today:

Our first job was to mount ceiling boxes for smoke detectors, CO detectors and bedroom lights.   It was important to get these installed so that the electricians had a ‘target’ for their wiring.

Our next job was to run the siding starter strip.   As you can guess, it’s critical that this starter strip is level, and positioned correctly.   Bob worked with us to get them perfectly installed all around the house  :-).

While we were busy with those tasks, a team began running the soffit and corner posts for the siding.

Another team was working on securing the bathtubs and adding a protective cover to protect the tub during construction.

While our team was busy with our tasks, the electricians were making great progress on running wires throughout the house.

 I haven’t mentioned our lunches everyday.   They are sponsored by either a local business or a local church.   Since we are building in a town called Lovington (which is about 20 minutes from Sullivan), the food is delivered to a church hall that is right down the street.   Today we had delicious sloppy joes, homemade coleslaw, lots of sides and a whole list of desserts (from brownies to donuts…).   Often, the extra food from lunch is sent back with us to store in a refrigerator at our  ‘campground’.   For dinner tonight, we had yesterday’s lunch left overs (…and of course left over desserts) that were provided by a local BBQ restaurant.   Even though I bring a ton of food on the build, most of it comes right back home with us 😉

It was another amazing day!   God is Good!