Monday, Habitat For Humanity Day 1

I usually blog about my day the next day but I am going to blog when I have wifi so....

Baraboo, Wisconsin is a nice little town but we are are in the AT&T "donut hole.  Very little coverage and the place where we are parking the RV does not have wifi.  No cell service means no hot spot.  We are able to find spots here and there so we will go with what we have.

Day one of Habitat was good.  I am sure our bodies will be fussing at us by tomorrow morning.

We got to the site at 0830.

 We had a brief meeting and discussed what we were going to work on.  The build was supposed to be about framing houses but weather and contractors  have put things behind a bit.  No footers means no framing.  There was still work to do so we got at it.

Our goal for the day was to start building an ADA(Americans with Disabilities Act) ramp going to the house.  This required lag bolts getting connected to the house, poles being set, and boards being cut for braces and flooring.

THIS IS WHERE OUR RAMP WILL GO

The hole digging for the poles became a bit of a circus

ROB DIGGING FOR THE POLES.  

 so Megan and I got going on setting the floor joists and framing the deck of the ramp.  Megan got some really good first time experience with driving wood screws with a drill and measuring, squaring and cutting boards.  I got to use a big ole saw, drills and hammers.  I was in heaven.

DRIVING WOOD SCREWS

MEASURING CUTS

The house is small at 880 square feet finished but it has plenty.  It also has an unfinished basement.

GETTING OUR MORNING BRIEFING

TRUSSES

Shout our to Whirlpool for their donations to Habitat.  I was told that they donate all the appliances that Habitat uses for the homes they build.  Dow also donates the blue foam that goes on the outside of the framing.  Kudos to these companies. 

The Habitat motto is "not a hand out but a hand up."  Habitat homes are not given out but they are offered to qualified applicants.  Loans are interest free and recipients are counseled on what it takes to successfully own a home.

We had a first good day and Megan and I got the entire decking done.  

We got back to the RV and had a really cold beer.  Boy did it hit the spot.  I cooked dinner and we kinda ate like pigs.  We were hungry, hungry, hungry.

We took the girls for a walk, and got our much needed showers.  

We will be sore in the morning but it was a great Monday.

Another great day in this thing we call life.