Job Site Day 1

First day on the job. Our construction supervisor is named Jamie, we also have three Americorps assistants: Joel, Steve, and Mike. We are working on three houses, all of which are in various stages of construction. The job site is located just east of the 110, for those of you who have been before. For those who haven’t its about 5 minutes from the beach, just east
of the Biloxi lighthouse. All the houses are on 10 foot stilts.


Steve, Jamie, Mike, and Steve

Today we split into four sub-teams:

Mo, Mathias and Daryl worked on attaching hurricane straps to keep the roof attached to the rest of the house in the event of a hurricane. They also put up scaffolding around the outside of one of the houses. They worked with Mike, who is from New York and is a second year volunteer with Americorps. Mike is in charge of getting the House roofed. He promised to catch anyone who is about to fall off the roof, including Daryl.


Mathias and Mo setting up scaffolding.

Helen, Hilda, Ron, and Yosh, worked with Joel on the stairs and deck leading into the back door of one of the houses. They are becoming experts in decking and stair building, they learned about smiling and frowning wood, among many other interesting facts. Pastor Ron was the guinea pig of the group, he had to try everything first before anyone else would do it.


Helen and Yosh working on the stairs with their supervisor, Joel

Frank and Joy, worked together to straighten out some of the beams holding the house up. They worked tirelessly to bend the warped boards back in to alignment.


Frank and Joy straightening out beams.

Carol and Steve were part of the window hanging crew. Steve took over the palm nailer for the bulk of the day. He and Steve, the Americorps assistant, hung windows while Carol taped the weather stripping on the outside and assisted the other teams with their tasks. She has became quite adept at moving up and down on the scaffolding.


Carol with her weather proof windows.