I've just signed up for Habitat for Humanity

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

The company I work for is involved with its first Habitat for Humanity. I don’t know exactly what commitment the company has made, but I suspect it is largely financial. The company is seeking volunteers from amongst its employees.

So I signed up for for the first day of framing on January 31st, and the first day of dry-walling on April 11th. I’ll keep an eye on my schedule and see if there are other days I can help out. The Home Dedication Ceremony is scheduled for August 1st, so there are plenty of Fridays and Saturdays available. There are a lot of openings left for roof sheeting, mechanical/exterior siding and insualtion/exterior siding.

I’m really looking forward to learning how to frame a house and drywall it.

2

Yay! :slight_smile: Habitat for Humanity is a great organization. I just signed up for Women Build with them. The house I am helping with will be finished on Mother’s Day.

3

I’ve helped out with them. It’s a wonderful thing to do and I had lots of fun as well. I went with the Rangers (Girl Guides) on a couple of different weekends and we had a blast. Plus we found it hilarious we did a neater job of drywalling than the policemen :wink:

4

Good on ya Johnny ! Very admirable.

I think you’ll like the framing part. It’s kinda fun building walls and seeing them tilted up into place. You’ll get a sense of pride seeing your hard work turn into something.

Doing drywall is easy for the most part. Cutting and hanging it is easy, as is taping. Mudding the joints is best left to someone that’s done it before. It’s a dusty dirty job, but kinda fun.

Construction work can be physically demanding though, so make sure you stretch all your muscles and warm up a bit before you begin. Oh yeah, drywall is heavy, especially if they are hanging 4x12 pieces.

Good luck and be sure to follow all of the safety precautions.

5

Yep, Habitat for Humanity is a great organization, and they build a great house.

I’ve done it, it’s a blast, and I second two earlier thoughts…
a) framing is fun! mistakes don’t show in the final product. :slight_smile:
b) it is AWFULLY hard work, be sure to warm up, and have lots of water on hand.

Enjoy it! It’s great work, for a great cause, and you are you to meet some fine folks, too!

6

I keep meaning to get involved with one of our local Habitat chapters and it keeps slipping off my to-do list.

Do not read the spoiler box if you are easily discouraged.

[spoiler]I went one day when I lived in Winston-Salem. It was an disorganized disaster. Most of the crew was getting started on one house, but a few of us were tasked with “finishing touches” on the house they had just turned over to the homeowners. One of these finishing touches was to paint the popcorn ceiling which had somehow never gotten painted before the keys got handed over. Ever painted a popcorn ceiling? Usually it’s done with a sprayer or a thick-nap roller in a nice empty room. I and two or three others got to do it with a brush. In a room filled with furniture that proud homeowners have just moved into place and are loathe to move out of the way.

I left at lunchtime and decided that that chapter of Habitat would get along just fine without me and my attitude.[/spoiler]

7

Y’all make me want to get off my butt and do something!

8

I’ve wanted to work with them here in town, but for some reason, most of their work is done during the week. I haven’t got vacation days to spare, so I guess I won’t be building. Ah well…

9

The Honcho of the company has directed department managers to allow employees time to work on the H4H project. The company I work for is big on community service; we were the top money-raisers for Race for the Cure this year. (Last year we were beat out by $25. This year we were the top money-raising company by thousands.)

For three years our little corner of the company provided Christmas for kids in Olive Crest homes. Those are group homes for abused kids. I don’t know why we haven’t done it for the past two years, but I suspect it’s because the departments have been reorganized and most of the company has moved to a new campus. I was on the committee the last time (the Committee were the only ones in the company allowed to have Christmas with the kids), and it was fun being nice to people, buying gifts, setting up the tree, etc.

The schedule for H4H calls for Fridays and Saturdays. Most people are opting for the Fridays (the better to get out of the office). Before I left work today I sent an e-mail requesting two more Fridays and two Saturdays.

Maybe I’m being selfish. This is a good way for me to learn about framing and dry-walling, and maybe other things if I can get in on some of the other facets of building a house. While we have been told that lay-offs are farther away than ever, I think it’s good to learn skills that can be done anywhere. But it’s still a “win-win-win-win” situation. The company gets its tax credits and goodwill for donating to a worthy cause, I’ll get experience doing things I would otherwise have no opporunity to learn, Habitat for Humanity gets people to build its homes, and people who could not otherwise own a home can get one.

Still, I can’t shake the feeling I’m being the tiniest bit selfish.

KneadToKnow: AFAIK, I’ll be in on the earliest stages, so I don’t think I’ll get into the situation you mention. Of course, my job is data quality. If such a situation arises, maybe I can apply that to home-building sequence quality? :wink: Good on you for doing it!

Slainte, Obsidian Flutterby, Mr. Skinny and Parrothead: Good on you for having already done it! And thanks for the encouragement.

Zoe and FairyChatMom: I’m sure your opportunity will come. And the God and Goddess know that I need to get off of my butt! :slight_smile:

10

It turns out I have a very specific skill in homebuilding; I put in bathroom vent fans in three H4H houses in South Seattle.

Usually it’s “yes, Kakkerlak make dump run, rarrh…”

Drywalling, I have been told, is far beyond my skills. But dangit, people have pleasantly airy bathrooms.

11

I’m getting this image of user-specific bathroom vents. Like, there might be a model for the excessively flatulent that has a burner on top – like they use at refineries to burn off the waste gas.

Everyone I’ve talked to says dry-walling is easy.

12

Good for you Johnny L.A.. HforH is my personal pet project. I’ve helped on builds, served on the Board of Directors, prepared food for volunteers, helped out in the thrift store, worked with applicants on qualifying for the loans, heck, a little bit of it all.

This summer I will be involved with building several easy access homes through HforH. I’m all psyched up over it. Easy access homes are homes that are accessible for persons with physical disabilities. Can’t wait.

HforH is truly the most rewarding volunteer work I have ever done. You’ll have a blast and feel good for doing something great for the community.

13

Ok, now I feel really guilty for not pursuing this here. I doubt much is going on in the winter here in MI, but come spring, I will look into it. I worked with them years ago and loved it.

14

Drywalling is fairly easy, you just have to cut the drywall to fit the wall (To put in places where the whole sheet would not fit or fill in places where there is space after you’ve put up as many full sheets as possible) and hold it up slam the nails in and voila. The hardest part of this, we found, was the roof and where the outlets were because you had to hold the drywall over your head and cut the holes carefully, respectively.

Like I said we were pretty proud after being shown the rooms the policemen did, that there was very little gaps between the sheets. They left like an inch or so in between. We didn’t get as much done but it was lots of fun, and we also helped out with the insulation (why do I want to say stuffing?), painting and outside walls. Great fun for us and I certainly felt wonderful for helping. We were all 15-17 at the time.

I would like to go back do it again, but I haven’t had the opportunity. Last time was when I lived in Calgary.

I’m sure you’ll have a blast doing it. Let us know after your first time!