The Build

I arrived in Gray Louisianna on October 16th. Making the 5 hour drive from Houston that day. A last minute spur of the moment change of plans and I got a (relatively) cheap flight home for the weekend.

Went for a hike in my favorite woods at Ramapo Reservation, had good dinner with the family, played games, went to church, had a nice fall bike ride...lovely weekend home.

Came back Monday early to start work. I arrived at lunch time to find the crew in full swing (literally), hammers going. I got set up with Gwen and Jan who were working on framing a wall. I learned about crowning the studs and getting the frame squared up. There were maybe 15 other people about doing all kinds of things.

Day 1 was a bit confusing to me, seemed to be inefficient and I wasn't quite sure how it all got done. But the flow came to me, you really just insert yourself where needed. Being flexible and asking how can I help will get you something to do from whoever looks busy. I had to just take a chill pill and realize it's okay if the house isn't built in a day, that it was just as important to have everyone involved and contributing than "efficiency."

This development was land bought by, I want to say Oprah's Miracle Network and the first 30 houses were paid for and completely stocked after Katrina. Best part, the street is named after Bon Jovi. Assuming he helped out on this too. They now have nearly 75 houses and it's the traditional Habitat model, familys have to show need, income (in a certain range) and put in "sweat" equity on either their house or other houses being built.

Well Day 1 I joined Mike another volunteer to experience some local Cajun music, it was a group of seniors jamming at the National Historical Site in Thibidoux. Had some decent pizza and beer after where we ran into the two Americorps volunteers Lee-Shin and Matt, and the Habitat site supervisor, Kai.

The next day Lowell took charge and wrote out instruction on how to put on the top plate and listed out the days activites which was helpful. So I learned out to put on a top plate which is the wood that holds all the frames of the walls together, ties them to the outside of the house.

Wednesday the house looked like this...

Mainly the group is retired folks who have done the RV Care-A-Vanner builds before. There is Linda, a single mom taking a break from Manhattan on a long deserved road trip, Mike the retired electrical engineer from West Virginia, Janet and Steve, Steve's sister Crystal and the other couples who are just inspiring and great.

Will give more next time, but need to get some rest. I can't keep up with these folks...hard work days...but it's a good tired. A really good tired. I'll take a picture in the morning of what the house looks like now 2 days later. It's amazing.

Cheers!
Kelly