September 9, 2022 – Dried in!

Today was the first day that we had our team meeting inside…whoo hoo!

Before the sheet rock goes up, it’s tradition to have everyone sign their names on a beam to wish the family blessings in their new home.   We noticed that the new homeowners family had been there overnight and left their signatures :-).

   

After our devotional and prayer, Bob handed out our punch list for the day.   The overall goal was to get the house dried in – which means that it’s water tight with all the windows and doors installed.

We were on the interior framing crew.  Our first job was to complete the house wrap on the front porch.   There was only about a 2 foot section left, but the challenge was that the existing brace that is temporarily holding up the porch needed to be taken down and then reattached.   We created a new temporary vertical brace to hold up the porch while we wrapped the house, and then reattached the old brace.   It was fun to design and build it….and… the porch didn’t fall …lol.

We were able to finish that first project just as the team was taking a 10AM break.   One of the local Habitat volunteers lives across the street from the house we are working on.   He graciously set up a table and some chairs under a tree so we could go across the street to take breaks.   Many days we are treated to home made snacks provided by different local volunteers.    Today, we enjoyed the porch swing :-).

Our next job was to install drywall nailers to the exterior North-South walls (to provide a nailing surface for the ceiling drywall).

After that was completed, we helped to install additional supports so that the new stud claws would work effectively.   The stud claws are brackets that allow the space between the roof truss and the top of the wall to slide vertically while still being firmly attached.   Theoretically, this should eliminate ceiling cracking due to changes in temperature.    This is the first year that we are trying out this new bracket, so we’re all learning together.   In addition to the bracket installation, it requires a significant number of stud extenders to allow attachment of the dry wall at least 8 inches from the wall.    There were a team of 4 of us installing these stud extenders in the ceiling, and we’re still not finished with them.   This new bracket certainly seems like a lot more work.

While our interior framing crew was keeping busy, the window crew installed the remaining windows, the door crew installed the front and back doors and the wall sealing crew completed sealing where needed.   Milestone accomplished – the house is dried in!

After work, the Habitat affiliate treated us to a dinner at a barn at a local farm.   We were there last year, and were amazed at the huge tools used to work on tractors.   The meal was delicious – fried chicken, ribs, beans, mac and cheese and for dessert they had blackberry or peach cobbler with freshly made ice cream.   

To end this amazing day, we were blessed to see a gorgeous harvest moon.   God is Good!