10/21/13 thru 10/25/13

 10/21/13 thru 10/25/13

Working for Habitat for Humanity in West Liberty, Kentucky

10/21/13

We arrived at the job site at 8:00.   Before we start work every day someone in our group does a devotion.  Then everyone joins hand and we say "Habitat is not a hand out but a hand up".  It's a nice way to begin each day and reminds us why we're here.

  We have five houses to work on in varying stages of completion.  The local affiliate hopes to have all the houses done by the end of the year - there is a lot of work that needs to be done in order for that to happen!  Four of the houses are 800 square feet and one is 1800 square feet.  

There is another group here, they are from a Presbyterian Church in Alabama and they are staying in a local church here in West Liberty.  

 Marty and I took down some "unsafe" scaffolding and worked on concrete footing for a porch staircase.  Doug taught me how to use a screw gun and I got to attach some railing - it's harder than it looks!   

 
After lunch, Marty went to a different location to help pour a sidewalk and patio for an earlier project and I went to the "shed" and stained moldings with Marlene for the rest of the day.  I was sure happy to see 3:00 come so we could clean up and head back to the campground.

 

Tuesday, October 22nd

We woke up to the sound of rain and when we got to the job site it was a muddy mess, it looked like nobody was going to be working outside today.      Then the rain stopped, the sun came out and Marty and I went to work on the porch stairs - YAY!

 People say the weather in Chicago is crazy but I have to say it seems   crazier here, everyone seems to have a weather app on their phone and every one of them says something different.  

After work today, we all gathered back at the campsite for "happy hour".  This is definitely a social group and Marty and I are getting lots of information about full time RVing.  

Wednesday, October 23rd

It is so cold and wet today.  Marty worked with Doug finishing up the stair rails on the porch and I put insulation (the pink, itchy stuff) in between window casings and walls.  

The Presbyterian group invited us to the church where they're staying for a  chili lunch.  It was nice to eat inside where it's dry and warm!  

Thursday, October 24th

Since the weather has been cold and rainy and all projects are being done outside or inside unheated houses it was decided that we would start at 9 instead of 8 in hopes that it would be a little warmer. Wrong! Marty worked on roofing and I primed walls and we both froze but next week is looking better. 

Having the "Prime" of her life

After work our group decided to drive into the big city - Morehead, where we ate at a Mexican restaurant. It was good but not as good as what we could get in Chicago.   When we left Morehead we somehow got turned around and drove way out of our way. To get back we had to drive thru the Daniel Boone National Forest, lots of winding roads in the dark and it's rainy - yikes! 

Friday, October 25th

Late start again due to the cold weather, temps were in the 30's last night.  We are very grateful to have a furnace in our rig but It is noisy and eats up our propane so we may buy a small electric heater and not use the furnace anymore.   The electric fireplace gives off heat also so we should be fine except for really cold nights and we don't plan to be anywhere near places that go below 30 (hopefully)      

We primed the walls in the largest house, used 10 gallons of primer and still ran out with 1/2 wall left to do in one of the bathrooms.  That wall will just have to get two coats of paint.  

To repay the Alabamans for their treat of lunch on Wednesday and since it was their last day, we treated them to pizza.  Once again, it was nice to eat inside where it was dry and warm.   Those Alabamans sure worked hard, they put all the flooring in at one of the houses.  

Alabama Boys (and Doug)

On Friday nights during football season, the local bank puts on a bbq for the team.   To show the town's appreciation for what Habitat is doing they invite all volunteers to join them - Yum!

Our first week of work completed.  Exhausting but so worth it, we've made new friends and learned a lot about building houses (at least I have, Marty knows what he's doing).