Today was our first build day. After having a scrumptious breakfast provided by the Webbers we were driven out to the build site in Lawrence, MA. The site most of us worked on featured 3 houses, two of which were double residences. Last year, they had previously been nearing completion on one of the houses and close to finishing the others when a fire burned down the entire nearby area, and the family who had put in 500 sweat equity hours and had already ended their previous lease had to then scramble to find housing.
Construction began anew this may on all 3 houses. One group worked on assembling the framework and constructing the rafters of one house that had already had a fully built two stories, while my group worked on framing and lifting walls today. I spent a good portion of the day nailing studs and then plywood to those finished stud walls. By the end of the day we had put up the long side and the back walls of the house, while the other group had nearly completed installing the roof rafters.
The volunteers we worked with were all really nice and e
xtremely informative. Mike was a computer consultant who became involved with Habitat ten years ago when his wife was sick of him watching college football on Saturday and professional football on Sunday. (He still watches professional football, but only sometimes watches college ball now). Arthur was a retired CPA who joined Habitat to keep busy and to support the affordable housing cause. Tony worked in I-Banking and was the on the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity of Miramack Valley.
There were many interesting things I learned today about the building site. Its one thing to see a built house without sheet rock, but quite another to see how things are constructed part by part. Perhaps the thing that surprised me the most was how uneven the building material was. In architecture, we are used to planing any wood we use until it is level and straight. Today we somehow took 2x4s that bowed every which way and made them square and level, which seemed to be an art in itself.
Construction began anew this may on all 3 houses. One group worked on assembling the framework and constructing the rafters of one house that had already had a fully built two stories, while my group worked on framing and lifting walls today. I spent a good portion of the day nailing studs and then plywood to those finished stud walls. By the end of the day we had put up the long side and the back walls of the house, while the other group had nearly completed installing the roof rafters.
The volunteers we worked with were all really nice and e
xtremely informative. Mike was a computer consultant who became involved with Habitat ten years ago when his wife was sick of him watching college football on Saturday and professional football on Sunday. (He still watches professional football, but only sometimes watches college ball now). Arthur was a retired CPA who joined Habitat to keep busy and to support the affordable housing cause. Tony worked in I-Banking and was the on the board of directors for Habitat for Humanity of Miramack Valley.There were many interesting things I learned today about the building site. Its one thing to see a built house without sheet rock, but quite another to see how things are constructed part by part. Perhaps the thing that surprised me the most was how uneven the building material was. In architecture, we are used to planing any wood we use until it is level and straight. Today we somehow took 2x4s that bowed every which way and made them square and level, which seemed to be an art in itself.
Pictures of raising a wall 
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