Habitat - May 25 - First Work Day

Wow!  What a start to our work.  It was, of course, hot.  And sunny.  And humid.  But there was a pleasant wind all day long which kept things reasonable.  We went through the five gallons of water we brought (plus many of us were filling our bottles on the site), so everyone did a good job of staying hydrated.  And, let me tell you - we're tired tonight.  No one wanted to do anything interesting tonight.  But I'm getting ahead of things.

We started the morning with a quick breakfast and got on the road only 10 minutes later than I wanted.  Not bad for 10 teenagers working with jet lag.  We were even on time to the job site (having only gotten lost once - apparently there aren't any street signs in New Orleans.  Who knew?).  We're working in the St. Claude area, which was badly hit by the Hurricane Katrina flooding.  Habitat for Humanity is working on numerous houses in the area, and has done a lot to transform the neighborhood.  Here are a few images of the houses on which we're working and what is being replaced.

Can you guess which ones are the new ones?

We mostly worked on two houses today, cleaning up the area, installing siding, caulking the siding, and putting in a little strip that is integral to making the eaves of the houses be finished.  There was A LOT of ladder work, as you can see below.

 Jenna and Kevin are installing the fancy little plastic strip (F-bar?) necessary for the finished eaves.

 Kevin, Basil, and Katie C. putting in more of the plastic strip.

 Katie G. & Mr. Bray on the ladders installing siding while Stephanie and Jenna melt in the heat.

Stephanie and Mr. Bray nailing up siding.

All of the ladder work definitely took it's toll (at least on the chaperons!)  Everyone is tired and a little sore tonight.  But we got a lot done.  In addition to installing the siding and plastic strip, the kids also caulked the siding and cleaned out the big metal container used as a storage unit.

One of the joys of the day was when the ice cream truck came by!  We told him to come every day.

 Cleaning out the storage container and making full use of Kevin's height.  It was really unpleasant in the back of that unit.  Colin, Alexa, Katie G. and Rachel did a great job of organizing what was a huge mess in there.

 Cleaning up the work area!  Between our group and the other one putting up the siding, we used up most of that pile.

 Colin made sure no one messed with the dumpster!

 Stephanie cutting the siding.  Count those fingers!

 Rachel and Andrea filling the gaps in in the siding.  The stuff installed by earlier groups had much bigger gaps than the boards we put in today!  Our siding looked great!

 Watch out!  Rachel has a gun (a caulking one, that is...)

 Colin and Ms. Grossman in the "hot box."

After a long work day (7:45-4:00), we loaded back in our (highly air conditioned) van and managed to figure out how to get back to our home.  The kids took advantage of the pool, and we grabbed some quick dinner, but it was mostly a "hang out" weary evening.

Tomorrow we'll have one of the students do the write up and get you some more pictures.
That's all for tonight.

The Hammer & Nail Club