I am happy to report that the Brown’s home is complete. We passed the final inspection and got the certificate of occupancy at the end of September. Gwendolen has been living in her house for a few weeks now. The dedication was held on October 1, 2011.

Sunrise Presbyterian Church’s youth group along with interns from Blackbaud came out to dig the water and sewer lines.  Digging is never a  fun job, but definitely essential!

Since the last post, we have had multiple groups join us. Members of St. Peter Lutheran’s youth group drove many hours from Iowa to spend the week working with us. They were joined by members of the Catholic Heart Work Camp. The Catholic Heart work camp takes place every year, and youth from all over the United States come together to participate in a week of service. They came out last year and we were so happy to have them return! The groups did a lot of landscaping that included leveling the yard, laying sod, and planting shrubs.  They also dug a drain line that will prevent runoff from flooding into the neighbor’s yard and house. It only took a day for the groups to complete all of the above tasks, so they spent the rest of the week laying the laminate flooring and priming and painting the Net Zero House.  

The Good Guys and Regulars picked up right where the groups left off and finished the flooring and installed the appliances. Then minor punch list items, cleaning, and touch up painting was completed.

The house looks great and Gwendolen and her boys are so happy to be living in their new home. I’m so glad that we are still building next door because we get to see a lot of them!

The Dedication:

Most of the focus recently has been on the Net Zero Energy House, but a few things have been accomplished on Gwendolen’s house. The porch is nearing completion, the drive way has been framed and poured, and the interior painting is nearing completion. The driveway was framed by a group from Binkley Baptist Church in Chapel Hill, NC. They have been coming down for many summers to build with us for a week.  They played an instrumental role in finishing the interior painting, framing the driveway, and they also put up a lot of siding on the Net Zero house.

Members of the Binkley Baptist Church group work on framing the driveway.

Members of the Notre Dame Alumni along with employees from e group joined us to pour the driveway. The driveway is huge! Gwendolen’s sons can’t wait to turn it into a basketball court.

Throughout our workdays, you can look up to see our favorite neighbor, Sabrina, pulling her dog, Princess, in the cart behind her bike.  Princess just sits it the cart smiling. It’s great!

The house is getting closer and closer! Gwendolen and her boys are starting to get excited!

As the finish work continues, more and more minor changes can be seen throughout the house.  

Recently we have put down luan board in preparation for vinyl flooring. Baseboards have been put up and most have been caulked. The cabinets were assembled and hung. This time they were shipped to us as pieces and had to be put together. It costs less to buy them this way, but the jury is still out on whether it is worth it.

Regulars worked on putting down hardy backer in preparation for the installation of tile in both bathrooms and the laundry room. Rosey put his skills to work and began laying tile. So far, the master bathroom has been completed and it looks awesome. This time Rosey angled the tiles and it looks fancy!

Last Saturday at the Apostle’s Build, we changed the color of the exterior of the house. The homeowner decided that she hated the school bus yellow that it was originally chosen. Luckily she decided before a second coat of yellow was applied, so it was an easy change.  We had a great turnout for Apostle’s Build. St. Andrews, SeaCoast, and Sunrise Presbyterian were a few of the churches represented. It was a fun and productive day.

Now that the painting is getting closer to being finished, the porch crew has begun more work on the porch. They started installing the floor boards and soon the railings will be up.

This house is going to be finished before we know it!

John vacuums in preparation for the luan.

The luan is in

Angela and Diane cut hardy backer

Mike worked with Rosey on installing the tile floor in the Master bedroom

Fancy!

Baseboard is in

Richard works on hanging cabinets

A new color!

Color!

The drywall is up, interior doors are installed, and paint is on the walls! All the rough framing work is complete and we are switching gears to the more precise finish work.

A group from Blackbaud joined us on Friday, May 13 to begin the priming and painting of the interior walls. They were awesome painters!

Then on Saturday May 14, another group of football players from Wando HS began the painting of the exterior walls of the house.

Between the Regulars and the Good Guys, soffit was put up and interior doors and window sills were installed.  Everything is looking great!

Build-A-Thon 2011

Each year Habitat for Humanity International organizes a Build-A-Thon for its AmeriCorps members. For those of you not familiar with AmeriCorps, it is a service program similar to the Peace Corps, but in the states.  There are positions found many fields, not just Habitat. Habitat has about 450 AmeriCorps members serving around the United States.  Members commit their time to improving the community. I have been fortunate to serve as an AmeriCorps member since August and therefore had the privilege of joining 65 other Habitat AmeriCorps for a regional Build-A-Thon in Birmingham, Alabama. I have to admit when I first read that I would be going to Alabama to build I was less than thrilled. Shortly after receiving the notification that I would be headed to Alabama, the tornadoes ripped through the state causing massive destruction. Then I knew that we were headed to right where we needed to be.

We spent Monday conducting disaster relief in a suburb of Birmingham. I had never seen destruction like this before. Houses were completely destroyed, trees were blown over and uprooted, and cars were blown around.  The tornadoes took out everything in their path. It was mind boggling though because on one side of the road would be total destruction and on the other side of the road would be a house that was untouched.

The first that we worked on was a Habitat house that had recently been dedicated. The homeowner was still moving in and unpacking. She said that she had no idea that there was a tornado of that magnitude on the way because they have warnings fairly regularly, but they never amount to anything.  She said that she started to hear windows breaking, so she grabbed her 8 year old and 6 month old and stood in the doorway of her laundry room.  Luckily her house was still in one piece after the tornado passed.  We helped to fix broken windows, a broken door, and siding that was blown off and cracked. We also clean up debris that had been blown into her yard.

For the rest of the week, we worked on the Brush with Kindness project which is a part of Habitat’s Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative. There is a theory that if you clean up a neighborhood, it will encourage others to clean up and reduce crime rate at the same time.  The theory was tested in NYC’s subway system. Each night the graffiti was cleaned up and painted over, in the end the crime rate fell.

The house was originally a pinkish/red and we painted it green

The almost finished product

It was interesting to see that after our neighbors say us painting and cleaning up a house, they came outside and started to clean up their yards and cut the overrun grass.  The program was working right in front of our eyes!

Progress...

Over the past few weeks, a lot of miscellaneous work has been accomplished. The shingles were finished with the help of employees from The Holiday Inn- Mount Pleasant.  The ridge vent and cap shingles were are installed.  The siding was finished by members of the Rotary Club, Regulars, and members of a new group of regular volunteers called the Good Guys.  The Good Guys have been a huge help of the past month or so. They have done some warranty work as well as help with new construction.

Below are images of The Holiday Inn-Mount Pleasant staff finishing the shingles.

This past Saturday, we were joined by members of the offense of Wando High School’s football team.  They were given the unpleasant task of insulating the house. Insulating is one of my least favorite jobs, but they tackled it without complaints. While the players were insulating the coaches spent the morning mowing the lot that had become overrun by weeds. They also cleaned the lot and stacked the lumber. We had comments from the Regulars on Tuesday morning that they didn’t even recognize the lot because it was so clean.

Our tradesmen have been hard at work. The rough inspection for electric and plumbing was passed this morning, so we will have drywall up soon!

The plumbing for the laundry room

Bath tub has been installed!

Electric Box



Garden Day at McAdams Court

The Junior League of Charleston joined us on Saturday to create a community garden for the children of McAdams Court.  The last garden at McAdams Court was not successful, so a different approach was taken this time.  This time a lasagna garden was created, and no I don’t mean the spices for lasagna were grown. We build 4’x3’ boxes out of 2x10’s. Cardboard was the first layer and it was covered with newspaper to seal any cracks. A layer of dried leaves were added on top of that and then the rest of the box was filled with compost and soil.  Then our boxes were ready for plants.  A variety of fruits and vegetables were planted including tomatoes, potatoes, squash, peas, and watermelon.  A few marigolds were added to help with pollination.

The children joined us in planting the garden and they were given the responsibility of watering. Different houses were assigned different days of the week to ensure that the plants would not be over or under watered.

The kids also decorated mini garden flags and then stuck them in their new gardens. I think the flags added a nice touch! One of my favorite flags was made by a second grader named Bub. His flag read “I like Clemson. I have a lot of friends.”

We ended the day with entertainment from the Diamonds, which is a group of girls from the neighborhood that have choreographed dances. I think they brought back memories from everyone’s childhood!