Iron Mountain Build - day 2

August 3

We started work on the Iron Mountain build for Habitat for Humanity (HFH) Monday. 9 rigs - 3 from California; one from South Carolina, Oklahoma, Minnesota,Texas and other parts of the U.S., and me, the sole Canadian. You're welcome – glad to hold up the side.

The picture on the left is at the start of our work - there is a foundation poured, but that's all!

The picture on the right is at the end of Day one - centre beam down, all joists in, flooring begun.

FYI, the Habitat “Care-a-vanners” here all have rigs that are substantial – except for me of course. Several 40' RV's, several couples are 'full-timers' who have sold their land-based homes, and live on the road year round. More on this later.

We were welcomed Sunday with several orientation meetings, one led by our 'group facilitators' who are part of the construction crew; one led by the HFH local affiliates Executive Director, and followed by a picnic dinner put on by the local affiliate and the young couple who will own the home we're building. Joe and Aimee are their names.

Joe and Aimee and their three children will live in the 3 bedroom home which they hope to be able to move into by Christmas. Like other HFH buyers, they're chosen by a local committee according to 3 criteria; currently living in sub-standard housing (Joe and Aimee's family live with her adoptive father, his wife, her sister, 2 other children.) Second, they have income adequate to make the payments that will arise from the purchase (Joe works full time in Green Bay, Wisc, about 70 miles from here – he commutes 2 hours each way). Third, they have agreed to put in sweat equity (work on the house, or related to it). Joe has taken two weeks vacation from his job to work with us while we're here, and Aimee is here all day, as is her grand-father, and her sister when she's not working.

It's now the end of Day 2. We've gotten a good start, putting down the centre beam, adding floor joists all along, as well as ?sill? and other boards around the edges (no laughter from the house builders among you). And, today we got all of the flooring on. The pre-fab exterior and interior walls were delivered today – and unloaded by hand, by our crew. And, just when we we were feeling a little overwhelmed, another truck delivered the roof trusses, and the pre-fab materials for a shed we're also building.

End of Day 2

Tomorrow morning we start with the exterior walls. That will be fun, as they have to be lifted by hand. Thank goodness for the crane that's coming Thursday to put up the roof trusses.

It was a good day, but hot!! Temperatures around 100 degrees, and no shade where we are. We have good leaders, and they insist that we drink lots of water, wear hots, sunscreen etc. All good, so far.

After today's shift I went for a swim in beautiful Lake Antoine (that's An-toy-ne here in Michigan); and really enjoyed the cool water after a hot day!!

While I hoped I might lose a few pounds on this Build, I'm learning that Builds are classified as either 5-pounder, or 10-pounder – not according to the difficulty of the build, but according to how much weight participants gain. We're well fed at lunch by the local church people, and the donuts just keep coming for morning break. Ah well.

Now, I'm off to have some ice cream - I deserve it, after all that hard work. ::)