Evergreen SGV Relief team Sgvserve.org
It’s been a long day
Planning to build houses, while exciting, is less strenuous than actually doing so….
There’s much more to come, and we’ll update, but for now, wanted to show you some videos..
Arrival at the work site
Hammering, nailing..
We had a camera that we wore while working. Hopefully to give you a taste of what it’s like to work on site. One of our first camera-wearers was Brian/Bu.
So, here, for your enjoyment is the Bu-Cam
Chris and Keith’s group raising walls
Craig and Tommy’s group raising the roof
3rd day of work at the site.
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| Katrina 2009 04 30-3rd day of Work |
Your video for the day:
Steve’s notes on Chris and Keith’s Group
The day started cloudy,cool and abit breezy, a perfect day in my book to do manual labor. After our site manager, Brad opened our time with a quote from Martin Luther King, which was quite good for a young white guy doing an impression of a deceased black guy. He shared that you don’t have to be an Einstein and understand Relativity. or the second law of thermodynamics in order to to be great. And you don’t have to be rich or famous in order to be great. To be great, all you need is to be able to serve…
Most of the guys from Chris and Keith’s group (also affectionately called Go With the Mo) went to our site which basically consists of a foundation and floor joists. We were intending to finish nailing on the OSB sub-floor, but we soon found out that the foundation on one side of the house was not straight. Kev and Donna, a part timer from the nearby air force base were nailing the blocking between the joists and were the ones that discovered the misaligned foundation. So…Ward, Roy, and Donna used these baby crowbars called cat’s paws to remove the nails that attached the joists to the sills. Meanwhile, I was touching up the three painted doors from our completed home.
Afterwards, Mo, Roy and I did piecework nailing a special vertical support consisting of a king stud and a jack stud. Very boring work but it was nice to make fun of Mo because he is so precise even when it really doesn’t matter.
Vic, one of the Americorp assistant supervisors that works with Brad had the unenviable task of crawling under our finished home (which we found out wasn’t really done) to staple fiberglass insulation under the crawl space. He asked for volunteers and three servants that took to heart MLK’s speech…Gary (who pretty much had to because he spilled a can of paint on the porch that took an hour to clean up), Keith and Rich. Chris said that these three were not “smart enough to say no.” They spent a couple of hours under the house nailing R17 on their back and when they came out they were filthy from crawling in the dirt and itchy from the fiberglass particles. I say that no good deed goes unpunished.
Let’s see, Ward was today’s jack of all trades which included cutting a bunch of lumber to length. So after we solved the alignment problem, we all pitched in and finished sheeting the sub-floor. Chris, Roy, and Duane assembled the cut lumber into one wall frame. We didn’t get to raise it…maybe tomorrow.
We ended early today to get back, shower and get to the Shed before it got crowded. Obviously, priorities are priorities.
Randy’s notes on Craig and Tommy’s Group
We were blessed with overcast skies and mostly comfortable weather on Thursday. Work moved forward on several fronts, culminating in completing installation of the roof sheeting, placing underlayment on half of the roof, sheeting the gables, finishing the rear deck, and installing nine windows. Because of an HFH meeting, work was halted slightly early, although some continued to press onward.
Later that evening, we ventured out from SUMA for dinner. The Shed is an award-winning BBQ joint – a loose assembly of corrugated tin roofed structures. We sat on picnic benches and wiped our ‘cue-covered hands with paper towels. No vegetables were served (unless you count the potato salad) – just tasty slabs of ribs, piles of pulled pork and hot links. Since The Shed is further inland, the temperatures increased as did the cholesterol counts.We invited Jim, Greg and HFH friends from past trips to dinner and were plesaed they were able to join us. We were able to pray with Jim and Greg before they left to fly home through New Orleans. Since we slept, ate, and worked alongside them all week, we were grateful that everyone enjoyed each other’s company. We wished Jim and Greg a fond farewell along with good wishes for Greg’s upcoming SAT’s.
No day in Mississippi could be called complete without a visit to the local Walmart store, where we once again stocked up on supplies.
Thanks so much for the encouraging blog comments, emails and phone calls we’ve been getting. We miss you and will be flying back tomorrow, but now to the pictures and the house:
Just to let you know the technical aspects of trusses (that we all learned too well): They are connected to this home at two points, each side of the house. They are kept in by some hurricane brackets, but initially are positioned with four toed-in nails to a side. The peak of the trusses are kept the same distance apart by a 2×4 that is nailed near the top.
The spacing of these trusses is crucial (we learned all too well) because the plywood that will rest on it needs to be properly nailed in at regular intervals. Well due to our work and re-work, we got the trusses set appropriately apart, but somewhere along the line they fell out of true. This required a little extra help/coaxing
After the trusses were set, (and lunch)
It was Rob’s Anniversary, and he was spending it with us …
.. we went to work on putting up the rest of the plywood on the roof.
At the same time, the rest of the team was putting together, or rather, taking apart a doorway that, like the window, was the wrong size. This time though, we had to tear the doorway apart and widen it..
After a hard day of work, we took photos and went to dinner. We left a signed reminder for the homeowners.
The Shed was amazing. We said our goodbyes to Dave, exchanged contact info and wished him well. He’s a good guy doing a good thing and we’ll be praying for him and his family.
We hope you enjoy the photos of our workday and our dinner
Construction Day 5
Katrina Dinner Day 5
And of course, you have to watch Art reveal his meal..
Art was told to shout “Noise!” so that people wouldn’t think it was a drive-by, he had his own shout.
Steve with yet another power tool
This video records the first of many times we put up this corner.
Because our blueprints were not the same as our house, we had to make several attempts at interpreting them correctly. We got good practice at it.
By the end of the first day, we had put up all the interior and exterior walls, secured them together to the straps in the concrete slab.
Preparing the to put the final wall in place.
Putting the final outer wall in place
Today was our commissioning at church. Pastor Kyle Shimizaki prayed over the team.
(Youtube Video at the bottom of this post)
Each team member had representatives of their Mission Support Group present there to pray for them.
Although we had previously passed on the idea of getting team t-shirts, Dennis received them just in time for today’s commissioning. I have to admit they were pretty cool. Embroidered at that… 🙂 I just found out that Dennis bought them for the team.. very cool.. thanks Dennis
Dennis (Team Leader)
Mathias, Frank, Gary
Mo, Mathias
Dennis
Steve, Robert, Tommy
Peter, Steve
Best Dressed: Tommy (who was an usher today)
But.. where’s Art?
Video of the Prayer Time