Habitat for Humanity

On March 6th, Dramatic Changes was on-site to help with the Habitat for Humanity Women Build. If you’ve never been a Habitat volunteer, I highly recommend it. It was so much fun! At the end of the day, I wrote a blog entry for the Richmond Times Dispatch, who is following the progress of the build. I’m including it here, as well.

A Floor to Stand On

As I stood at the Women Build site this morning, I couldn’t help but to smile in anticipation of the day to come. Sixty-five degrees and sunny, 20 of the most friendly and able-bodied volunteers anyone could hope to work with, coming together to make a lucky family’s dream of home-ownership a reality…Oh, and mud. Lots and lots of mud. It was quite the recipe for fun, if I do say so myself.

Bill (one of the project managers) filled us in on the day’s plans, which included putting a floor over the home’s crawl space. We were quickly put to work heaving sheets of plywood onto the foundation and nailing them into place. The sound of hammers echoed through the air, sprinkled with the occasional, “Owww!” as volunteers accidentally connected their tools with their fingers instead of 3-inch nails. The women and men chatted happily as we worked to lay the floor on which our Habitat family will stand in just a few short weeks. I think we were all very thankful for the opportunity to be part of such a special project.

Because our group of volunteers was SO incredibly awesome, we finished laying the floor by around lunch time, which meant that we could move onto the next stage of the project, framing the walls for the house. Our last 2 hours of the day were spent preparing materials for the front steps and porch, as well as building a frame for the rear wall of the house.

Our project managers, Bill and Jerry, have this process down to a science — I was amazed at how quickly we were able to get things done with their guidance. At the end of our 7 hours, I smiled in satisfaction at our progress, and chuckled at the sight of our crew. Every volunteer was painted with a fine layer of mud, sawdust, wood glue, and doughnut glaze. In my case, I even had a bit of a sunburn! We left with smiles on our faces, having learned some new skills and made some new friends. When I arrived home, I collapsed in bed for a much-needed nap.

Thanks to Bill and Jerry for their help today, and thank you Robin Smith for help getting us all involved in the project! I look forward to seeing how the house progresses in the coming weeks!