12/12/13 - Working for Habitat in Mandeville

12/9 thru 12/12/13 

After relaxing for a week at Fairview it was time to get back to work.   We started our 2nd Habitat build on Tuesday (12/10) bright and early - 8:00 A.M in Mandeville.  We have about a 20 minute commute in rush hour (I thought those days were over).    This build is very different from the one we did in Kentucky.    There are a lot of outside projects - porch ceilings, siding, soffits, fascias, and porch stairs need to be built.   I doubt we will be doing any inside work here.   The weather is cool (40's-50's) but when the sun's out it's pretty comfortable.   There are three houses and 10 RV Care-A-Vanners working on them plus three construction supervisors.   

We are receiving more supervision on this project than we did in Kentucky.  We had one construction supervisor there and the direction he gave us was to do what we would do in our own homes.  

Marty and I are working together on porch ceilings and other vinyl trim for the porches that I never even knew porches needed - it's scary how much I'm learning!  We didn't work together too much in Kentucky so this should be interesting.  

Using his head

Because the weather was so cool on Tuesday and Wednesday we had to cut the vinyl strips for the ceiling by hand (my job).   Very tedious but not as hard as what Marty was doing - he had to hammer, manually, all the strips into the ceiling above his head - my neck hurts just thinking about it.   It would have been nice to use a chop 

saw to cut the strips but the vinyl would probably have cracked.    We did go to Lowe's Tuesday night to buy a palm nailer for Marty but when he tried it out on Wednesday it didn't work so it was back to hammering by hand.  

One of the couples working with us are both bluegrass musicians.   They are going to play at a small Christmas pot-luck we're having next Friday.   We got a small taste of their talent at lunch on Wednesday.

Lunch time jam session

Thursday was a wonderful day on the build - the temperature was warm enough for power tools!!  We worked with one other couple in the morning putting up the OSB board for the ceiling of the porch and then installing the vinyl slats.   The guys got to use a palm nailer and us girls got to use a chop saw, so much easier than cutting by hand.   What took Marty and I all day on Wednesday was done in about 3 hours on Thursday.    I was a bit apprehensive about using the chop saw but once I saw how much quicker things went I became a convert.    We were so busy working that we forgot to take pictures.