Today is the last day of our Habitat for Humanity Build in Adrian Michigan. We have really enjoyed our time here and feel we have done lots of good work. In fact, we have enjoyed our time with Care-a-Vanners in Adrian so much that we signed up for another build in Tuscaloosa Alabama which gives us a week travel time between when we leave Adrian and when we have to be in Tuscaloosa. But before we leave Adrian, I wanted to show you some of the work we have done in the last two weeks.
In my post at the beginning of our time here (see previous post) I talked a little about our first day. Since then, we have ripped off all the old siding, built or rebuilt several walls that were rotting or missing, insulated and wrapped the house, repaired and put aluminum around all the windows on the first floor, and gotten the vinyl siding started on all the walls. This old house had more than four sides – there were lots of little indentations that made everything more complicated. The last few days I have worked mostly with siding, while Tom has rebuilt a wall and worked up high on the scaffolding.
The crew we have been working with has been terrific. Tim, our construction manager, makes sure we are doing things correctly while understanding that most of us have had some experience and can be trusted to work independently. He has also taught me a lot. The most useful tip: When the head comes off a nail, turn the claw of the hammer around the end of the nail to get a grip and be able to pull it out. He has supervised us, with our strong opinions and own ways of doing things, with humor, patience, and enthusiasm.
Doug is our Habitat project manager. He has a very laissez-faire style of leadership that lets everyone do their own thing. He keeps saying he just has to fill out the paperwork at the end. I’ve worked with him quite a bit during the two weeks and he has been fun to work with. We spent a while today putting J-channel around windows and the other workers were teasing us that we were having too much fun.
Every day the local Habitat people stop by to see the progress we have made. We have also had lunches provided by various church groups and volunteers every day. Our crew has all worked really well together and enjoyed each other while we have been doing it. We hope that we will see some of these Care-a-Vanners down the road. Tom and I are looking forward to doing this again in Tuscaloosa.
