We hit the work site at around 8:00 a.m. and meet up with our Habitat for Humanity project sponsors, who give us a quick overview of what we need to do that day and any problems that need to corrected from previous days. We're working at two houses at once, so our team is split between two sites. When we first arrived, our first task was to hang drywall. It wasn't a hard job, but it was very time-consuming since we had to measure each wall, cut the drywall down to size, then screw it on to the exposed studs. We had plenty of faulty cuts and measurements, but eventually we got the hang of it. It was also challenging getting the ceiling pieces in using a special lift to jack the drywall into place.
Currently, we're working on mudding, which is using joint compound to fill all the screw holes and seams between drywall pieces so the walls are nice and smooth. It sounds easy enough, but it's a very time-intensive process since you really have to have each surface flawless. Even with two teams working for more than a week, we still aren't done with the job. Each seam, corner, and all the outlets and light switches must be lined with tape, which is adhered with mud. That also takes a really long time since you can't have any air bubbles, and the angles near the ceiling are really hard to get right while perching on ladders. We have a contraption called a banjo that coats the tape in mud, but it's a pain to use since it's heavy and unwieldy. The ceiling and corner pieces then need to be rolled and glazed before it's knifed. This process is repeated three or four more times throughout the entire house. It's become a very tedious process, but we manage to get through each day.
For one day last week, when the weather was (relatively) warmer, we got to do some shingling and got one entire side of the house done. This involved nailing on roof shingles using pneumatic nail guns, which were a lot of fun to use. It was probably my favorite day of work since we got to be out under the sun, and we had a great view of the surrounding landscape from our perch on the roof. It was also fun to scramble around on the slanted surface and on the scaffolding.
We just finished our first full week of work; last week was interrupted by the Thanksgiving holidays. Our team works from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday since the weekend is a popular time for volunteers to come out. I was dreading it at first, but then we got into a comfortable groove, which made the work tolerable. We have a radio, so we can blast tunes and hook up our iPods. Even more fortunately, mud cannot freeze, so the houses are heated while we work.
Every Thursday, we have a meeting with our project sponsor, Jessica, the executive director of Habitat for Humanity of the Eastern Bighorns. We've only had two meetings, and they've been casual question-and-answer questions that have been really informative. We've learned a lot about how Habitat works and the process aspiring homeowners have to go through to complete the program. We have a lunch break from noon to 12:30 p.m. We used to bring our own lunches and sit on the street to munch on our sandwiches, but lately we've had local folks bring in really tasty, hot food for us to eat. At first we felt a bit guilty that people were going out of their way to make us lunch, but then we learned that preparing food can be counted as volunteer hours toward the completion of the house.
It's been a great learning experience so far, and I feel fairly confident in my drywall and mudding abilities after the weeks of labor. Hopefully we'll get to learn a little bit about wall texturing before we leave since one of our on-site construction mentors is a pro at it and has been really talking up the different kinds of finishes we can do.
Josh, we have many2 project for you to do now since you know how ;-). If you don't get the chance to do the texturing, at least ask him how to do it.
ReplyDelete2 more weeks!!!