Thursday, 9/27/07

Reminder that this Thursday night (9/27) is Suits and Boots. The tent folks will be there to put the tent up Thursday morning. I would like the site as cleaned up as possible so no guests get injured. Thanks

Also you are all invited to the event. Call Leigh Ann at (610) 384-7993 ext 18 for info and cost ($25). Food is being provided by local East End restaurants for free.

Thank you all for being a part of the WC team.

Friday 9/21/07

Today was another amazing day. The walls sections for 22 single windows are completed, and some of the lumber is cut for the remaining 3 double window sections. The Saturday crew will finish those. The lumber packages have arrived for both the single and the double to build the first floor walls and the second floor deck. There are some design issues to be worked out, but some wall framing may get done on Saturday.

Thanks to all who helped today.

Tom Stalnaker
Bill Boyer

Thurs 9/20/07

Dear Faithful Volunteers,

Here is our most recent update. It seems we are making good progress. Praise the Lord for such exciting times (and good weather!!)

We had a great day today, with about a dozen volunteers including one of the future homeowners. All worked very hard and we accomplished a lot. The decking is finished on all 3 houses (except for trimming around the outside edges). The waterproofing is done. The temporary electrical outlets are mounted, although we are still waiting for PECO to hook up the service. Much of the trash has been picked up and put in the dumpster. The lumber package for the first floor walls and second floor deck on the single arrived today. It will need to be moved before Thursday morning so the tent can be put up. Bill has the jigs ready and a plan for building the window frames tomorrow. At the rate we are going, the first floor walls will be finished this weekend (just kidding).

Thanks again to everyone who showed up today.

Tom Stalnaker

Burns Blurbs 9/17/07

To all,

A special thanks to Kitty Knox, she saved the day Saturday, when it was discovered a major component of the floor system ordered and didn't arrive, she quickly went shopping and came back with the parts......Thanks Kitty

We have turned a huge corner........ we are actually building a house now.... carpentry has begun.

A big Hoorah to everyone, it has at times been trying, moving stones, then dirt, then more stones and more dirt. Thank everyone for their patience and perseverance. A job well done.

The singe house has the first floor deck on it, and with a small amount of detail work is ready for walls.

The twin has all the floor trusses we had ( the rest to come Thursday or Friday) in place and the decking started. This should continue to completion this week. Lumber will arrive, the first floor package, for at least the twin if not for all three.

Window and door headers, as well as window and door wall sections will be in order. This is slightly different than the normal type of construction, which is to build a complete wall and then raise that wall, then do the next wall and so on. I have built habitat houses both ways, and the degree of quality and accuracy is much greater if there are large amounts of repetitive prefabrication completed first, then final wall assembly.

I will not be overseeing the project this weekend, however I have in place three very qualified people to continue the progress.

See everyone the following weekend.

Tom

Sept 13th, 2007

Burns Blurbs

To all,

First, I was reminded this week, that there hasn't been an update for a couple of weeks. Sorry about that. With all that led up to the walls being poured, waiting for the crawl space floors to be poured there was little news and an equal amount of work, and the last big Holiday weekend before Halloween, well there just wasn't much to update either.

Alas, the crawl space floors are in, the sill plates are installed and trued, some of the first floor lumber package arrived. We have nearly completed the foundation waterproofing, and have begun backfilling the foundation with the drainage stone. Yes more stone... only one truck load and some is already in. We did install the first two floor joist on the single house, in preparation to decking the first floor. The lumber package for the twin first floor decks will hopefully be here by Thursday of next week.

At this point, I must offer the plan for the few next weeks, leading up to September the 27th, Boots and Suits night.

I have been asked, if "We" can have the foundations filled in and the first floor decks completed for Boots and Suits, along with having the trailer "red up". "Red up" you ask. It's straightened up, and I plan to meet all three requests, however at no point will we compromise the quality or safety of our work. Thus we may be doing some things other that framing a house. This is very important to Habitat and our future.

As a reminder for scheduling, we will continue with no more than 6 volunteers per sponsor, unless specifically requested and/or approved by myself and/or Kim. It is merely a safety and work availablilty issue.

We certianly have been blessed with good weather, and I hope to take advantage of it while it lasts. Getting the foundations completely filled in and graded in time to maybe grow some fall grass will pay big rewards through the inclimate weather ahead.

I'll give everyone an update over the weekend, but we musn't loose site of the ball........ Halloween is only a meer few weeks away and there is so much to do.......

A little sick humor, come on smile..........

Tom

August 28, 2007