House dedication

When noon rolled around, Tyra Lewis arrived with her youngest of two daughters. This little one is an adorable two years old and can be seen here in her grandmother's arms.

Surrounded by Habitat workers, the Lewis family is excited about their new home and appreciative for everyone's involvement. Rewarding and satisfying work for the volunteers, we leave here after five days, knowing that this family has a bright opportunity ahead.

Week's end on Friday...

We never cease to be overjoyed that after five days of work, a real house emerges. This year was no exception as final jobs wrap up and the Lewis family's house and site get prepared for the dedication. With so many volunteers working, on the interior, all walls recieved one coat of primer and on the exterior, the siding got its second and final coat of green paint. The porch was finished off with beautiful white railings, and much more. Here are the views:

Teamwork gets it done!

All week, in very cold temps, work continues and without the annnoyances of previous times here:
nats, heat, and rain.

Work begins on Herlihy St.

On site this week the team from Paterson is sharing the building work with Americorp young people, Canadian college students, and several small family groups.

At times the site seems very busy with so many hands at work.

The house we are building is a single family, three-bedroom home, situated on a narrow lot. This is supposed to be the Gulf Coast, tropical weather and palm trees, but, Monday morning, that climate disappeared and left us to work in 28oF temps. By afternoon the sun had warmed the area to about 35, only nominally better but manageable. The walls had been raised, roof work begun and the painting of trim and ceiling wood progressing.

More pix:

WE'RE GETTING READY

2010:   Yes, it is time for our team to finalize plans for this year's trip to the Gulf Coast for our 4th time there. Building work begins on February 15th, with most of the team are arriving in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on Sunday the day before.

The volunteers include a majority of the regulars, some newbies and a handful of teenagers. What a group! What a team! You'll be reading more about it all soon.

Nancy DeVries

REFLECTIONS AFTER A WEEK OF BUILDING

As we reflect on the week just past, we realize that our success in completing a house in that time is due to many people.

We must thank: the dozen Americorps young people who are serving for ten months, working on this site and other assignements. They are enthusiastic and wonderful. Not only did they build along side the Paterson group, they were also instrumental in preparing all the "pre-build" aspects beforehand, so that everything was ready for this past week's blitz build.

We thank those, not able to be in Mississippi, who gave support and encouragement to our group.

We loved having the homeowners, Keven and Jahna Landry, as they worked with us and shared the process.

The entire group of thirty from Paterson, of course, we thank. Kudos to all for their participation. And lastly, we thank our own executive director of Paterson Habitat, Barbara Dunn, for putting this together. It was good work. Good for the homeowners and also good for us. We left the area feeling rewarded by our efforts.

Barbara Dunn and husband Andy, show off the beautiful sign, painted this week by the teenagers. Signed on the cut-out of the state of New Jersey by everyone in our group, it will hang at Laginappe to identify our three years here, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Postings by Nancy DeVries and the teenagers.

DEDICATION DAY -- FRIDAY

An exciting day for us and the new homeowners (above).

It has been lots of good work for our group of 30 volunteers as we finished the house in less than a week and in time for its dedication at noon on Friday. It was extraordinary this year to be building the 100th house in that county where Katrina made landfall. I just learned on this visit the awful statistic that after the hurricane, 80% of the residences in the county were uninhabitable following the storm. Clearly a terrible number.

After a few hours morning work, it became a big rush to clean up the residue of construction on the site in time for the arrival of dignitaries and others.

More than six dozen participated in the program of dedication for Landry House #100 and the adjacent House #99 (not fully finished yet). The entire Landry family, Jahna and Kevin with their three children were excited and emotional. It was a special moment for them and for those of us who felt honored to have worked on building their house.

Photo, right, of the homeowner family and Wendy MacDonald (top left), exec director of the Habitat affiliate here.

As we leave this area, we feel rewarded by a satisfying week and we take away lots of the Mississippi clay in our work boots as we look forward to some rest.

It has been a very full week!

FOURTH DAY -- THURSDAY

It is now a sure thing . . . our house will be ready for its dedication at noon Friday, the 100th house build here in the Bay St. Louis/Waveland area. We're told that it is the fastest built house that has ever been done, with end of fourth day and almost finished.

All rooms including four bedrooms have been painted with prime and two coats of paint, all trim molding with two coats of paint, interior doors hung, the kitchen cabinets installed with granite counter tops, bathrooms tiled (there are two). The photo with the ladder, is living room, still awaiting its completion. The steps to front porch and the ones to side porch are done and very neat looking. The step builders wave and celebrate their work. One of the last things finished today was cutting and then nailing in the baseboard trim.

We have teenagers with us on this trip. All eight of them. Here are some of the things a few of them have to say: ( Melanie, Dana, Nicole, and Matt)

1. This is a great week!

2. The back room of the 99th house is always a nice hiding spot from the work.

3. When someone asks if you need a job to do, always just say no.

4. Make sure to fit in some tanning time during the lunch break.

5. You CAN get away with taking naps in the van during work hours. (if you're sneaky)

6. Don't go to Shaggy's. (You'll end up at Sonic)

7. CLYYYYYDESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!! (The secret spot of all the adults with the spray painted sign)

8. If you're clothes aren't fully covered in paint, your boots not muddy, and your fingers not blistered, you have to work harder.

9. Last but not least, don't spill boiling hot water on your hand or else you'll end up like Dana and watch out for falling debris (which Nicole did not do) :)

Special thanks to these neat teenagers (below) for their comments.

THIRD DAY -- WEDNESDAY

At the end of the day, we were in a hurry for showers and clean clothes. Then out to dinner. It had been a long work day.

You can see from the photos posted, that a great deal of progress was made today. Rain threatened, so there was a "hurry-up" mood to get the exterior finished before the storms arrived. Cutting wood, making window trim boxes for trim, building the frame and setting a concrete base for the side steps and more.

Subcontractors on site today were the roofers, who completed shingling the entire roof by day's end.

The final touch and what makes this house really look like a real southern home, is the porch with its white railings. Painted and sanded to perfection. When we stand back and take a look at the finished product of today's work, we are pleased.

SECOND DAY -- TUESDAY

This is the end of another very productive day. To celebrate, the team has reservations at a local restaurant for dinner.

It was a Mexican dinner where we sampled the local beverage called "Lovely Magnolia". Good, but not a favorite.

Our morning began with a look at the list of work on the schedule for our day: a long list. Since the wallboard subcontractors were due in this afternoon, we had to move a three foot high stack of 12 foot wallboad into the front room of the house. Each sheet weights between 75 and 80 pounds and so it was a slow process with two people doing the carrying for each sheet.

Then it was on to the siding. With scafolding surrounding the house and many hands, the work went quickly and even allowed time to get the painting started.

The other good news today was that everything passed the inspections at noon today. So insulation was put in the walls and which means the wallboard would be installed as planned tomorrow. These local guys handle the boards easily, put it up, stay late and finish the spackling too before they leave!

Which means, you know it....we will be painting the interior on Wednesday. Also inside: hanging doors and putting trim around windows and these doors.

At the end of the day, house now has a front door! And siding which received one coat of blue paint....the homeowner choice.

FIRST DAY -- MONDAY

It was 8:30 AM on Monday morning, we've had our orientation and work begins at the 2009 site in Waveland, Mississippi. Foundation and deck are in place and by 9 we have the first walls up. You can see the studs laid out on the driveway to the right of the house. It didn't take long to get them constructed and raised. WOW!

The team of workers on site were rich in experience as many of the Paterson group were returning to this area for the third time. And, also, we have the benefit of a group of Americorps young people who have been working with Habitat here for many weeks, and some much longer.

Two very important people on site today were the new homeowners, Kevin and Jahna Landry. For the last three years they and their three young children have been living in very cramped trailer housing. You can imagine how thrilled they were to see their house beginning to take shape.

By the day's end, they were amazed at the progress, from a bare deck on a foundation to a framed, partially roofed and sheathed house. Photo below was taken shortly before work ended for the day.

IT IS TIME TO TRAVEL TO THE GULF COAST!

This year's trip to the Gulf Coast is scheduled once again for president's week in February. Our group of about 30 will be congregating in New Orleans on Sunday, the 15th. It is Madri Gras time so we will get a taste of that festivities and then head out to Bay St. Louis, our home for the week.

BIG NEWS this year. We will be blitz building BayWaveland's 100th House somewhat near where we built the first year (2007) but it's not a wet/swampy site. At week's end, they will be dedicating the house on Friday about 3:30pm

This year's BUILD is over.....

It's been back to work for most of us and hard to believe that this time last week we were in 70' weather thinking about caulking, painting, hammering, drives around to see post-Katrina clean-up and the many other volunteers we met who had also traveled from home base to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Everyone is talking about "next year" and we've tentatively set a date for week of February 16, 2009. It has been good to get to know the Bay/Waveland Habitat staff and we are thinking about a multi-year commitment.

Overall, most of us were encouraged by the progress in Mississsippi during the past year. Bay St. Louis is definitely in better shape -- from fewer FEMA trailers to no more debris piles to new highway lights to a sign that said "ask me about Girl Scout cookies." Civilization is returning.

Anyone that wants to be on the Paterson Habitat email list to get notices about trips to the gulf coast (both to New Orleans and Mississippi) should email pat@patersonhabitat.org.

And finally when you go to the Paterson Habitat website http://www.patersonhabitat.org/ check out some of the local opportunities to "Help Build It" and help build homes for your neighbors right here in northern New Jersey.

Barb Dunn

LAST DAY FOR SOME OF US

I promised introductions on Day One, but now, on my last day, let me give some "goodbye" introductions. First, here is a pix of everyone after our last day together. Now on to meeting the individuals in our group who developed quick group identifiers...

The Morris guys -- that's Mark (master carpenter from Morris Habitat), Ralph (maker of granny apples slices with cinnamon) and Jerry (organizer of the group who saw the notice by Paterson Habitat in Our Lady of Consolation church bulletin and set up the trip.)

The Siblings -- Susan (part-time Outward Bounder lives in Idaho and is heading to New Orleans on Sunday to run a marathon there), Brian (economist from Boston) and Sally (the farmer who works at Shelburne Farms in Vermont teaching kids where our food really comes from.) These siblings take a trip once a year together to reconnect with each other. This is their first service trip and we hope not the last.

The early arrival/late departure group of Barb/Andy (Exec Dir of Paterson Habitat and husband/veteran Habitat volunteer), Marie (the "ever-ready bunny" with endless enthusiasm & Habitat board member), Kathy ("Women Raise the Roof" veteran and nurse practioner), Craig (current board president and attorney), Paterson Habitat's graphic artist Nancy and her son Bob who turned out to be a great builder. Plus Pastor Bob (of Saddle River Ref Church and Pete Fountain fan fame) who had his own travel schedule and won the "best packer" award showing his former boy scout training.

The Casino group: No, not compulsive gamblers but rather those who want to do good Habitat work but not endure the dormitory life. They opted to stay in the hotel up the street at the Casino. The group consisted of: Judy (past board president and the one who kept reminding us of "every job is important" because another family will have housing), her choir friend Mary and Mary's friend Hiromi from Chicago.

As always it's the people that you meet through Habitat that make the experience so special. We've shared a lot this week -- perhaps not as much hard construction work as we'd have liked, but overall it's been a worthwhile time.

Barb

WEDNESDAY

As I write this tonight, the moon overhead is in eclipse. Oh, the wonder of it all!

This morning we were sent to another site in Diamondhead. Wow, we thought....Hawaii? No, just a nearby community with a couple of mostly finished Habitat houses. An exterior paint job was needed as well as some inside touch up to walls and trim. We naturally did a terrific job. Painted the complete exterior by lunchtime with the help of an Iowa crew who were also here for the week.

In the afternoon, our Paterson Habitat team were able to get assigned to do a blitz wallboard installation on a building here at Lagniappe in Bay St. Louis. When finished it will become a counseling center. Good job, as we hoisted the 12' boards and fastened them to wall studs. There were a few Americorps young people in the building also, and we enjoyed working with them.

On the way to that new worksite in Diamondhead today, we spotted the 3 signs above. They tell a sad story of the after effects of the hurricane. The residents obviously survived as told by the third sign, but the regulations and restrictions following the storm did them in. Their house still stands, a silent memento of the sorry aftermath.

So what do you do after a day like this? Go to a jazz show of course. We discovered that legendary jazz clarinetist, Pete Fountain was playing with his 8-piece band here in town. Pete used to have a jazz club on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, has been on the Johnny Carson show more than 60 times, played for four of our presidents and now lives in Bay St. Louis. He was devastated when Katrina washed away his home on the beach road, but music has sustained him and he is back on the stage again. It was a great evening, a nice break from our workweek.

Posted by N. DeVries

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, TUESDAY

The building behind is complete and our team of Paterson Habitat workers celebrate with the local Habitat staff. HOORAY!

TUESDAY WORKDAY

It was another day at the site. A number of projects had been lined up for us to complete as part of our "pre-build".

So on the list is to cut sill plates for the windows with the power mitre saw (see Andy and Craig above), finish the 12' exterior shed, build the front stairs up to the porch and make headers for the doorways and windows, and frame out boxes with trim attached for the interior side of the windows. All of these will be caulked, painted and ready for the blitz build next week. Weather wise, it was perfect sunny day with temps in the 60s.

STAIRS: an exacting construction endeavor requiring tedious and meticulous measurements and cuts, to ensure the perfection of the finished product. Fortunately we had master carpenter, Mark from Morris NJ Habitat, who led his team of 2 hard workers to assist. The stairs were laid out on Monday and on the next day, with final installation: pouring of footings around the newel posts, afixing risers and treads, and very important, making sure that everything is level and lined up, and is pitched away from the house. (See below for the team's finished product.) By mid afternoon the stairs proved useful for those needing to work on the deck of the yet-to-be-built house.

Photo above: Ralph in foreground with Mark and Nancy in background

Post by N. DeVries with Andy and Mark

FIRST WORK DAY ON SITE

A beautiful day with warm temps greeted us as we arrived at the site for work. In Waveland, same town as our worksite in 2007, this year we will not be doing a "blitz" as previous when we had everything ready for us and we put up a house in 5 days.

This time, we will be doing "pre-site" work, which means, working at various local Habitat sites, building roof tresses, nailing together walls for later raising, painting or anything else necessary to help the teams coming in next week for a "blitz".

So with enthusiasm for the work ahead, we carried, we nailed, and more. The most significant project was building a 6' x 12' shed at a homesite on Forest Street. From plans sketched out on a board for us, we built the floor, dug and cemented the footings, erected walls and finished the roof. And, constructed a door which was hung with a couple of hinges. Good work!

Now we have tired muscles, but they did not interfere with a drive to nearby Mexican restaurant for some burritos and other favorites from the extensive menu. Oh, and we got to sing Happy Birthday while there to one of our Jersey guys whose birthday it was today. Of course, the waiters brought out a tasty morsel topped with whipped cream.

More tomorrow.

Post by N. DeVries

FIRST NIGHT AT LAGNIAPPE

It's Sunday about 10:51 pm. Our group is gathering...several arrived yesterday, the majority on various flights today and I'm waiting for the last 3 who should have landed about 10 pm. We spent the day in New Orleans, walking around, eating, sitting in the 70' sunshine in the park, eating, listening to music, eating, taking a riverboat ride on the Mississippi and, of course, eating. Kathy says it's like carbing up for the big race...which makes it sound almost athletic.

New Orleans is crazy with the NBA All Stars game this weekend and several "greats" like Magic Johnson and others were spotted as well as "the Arnold" from CA ( Iwrote it that way because I can't spell his last name...) We spent all our time in the French Quarter today so it's hard to see much change from last year because that area came through Katrina/Rita relatively well. As we drove to and from the airport, you can see other neighborhoods and there are definitely fewer blue roofs -- but you can still see lots of construction going on.

There was, however, a dramatic change driving into Bay St. Louis tonight with so many new stores, street lights and activity. Our home this week -- Lagniappe Presbyterian Church -- has a wall of artwork from visiting work crews and it's uplifting to see all the names and groups who have come here to rebuild this coastal area.

The Paterson Habitat group was all alone last year here at Lagniappe and we arrived to a parking lot full of cars, trucks and vans -- a rough count seems to be about 75 in attendance with the biggest group from Concord, Mass -- 38 kids and a dozen adults. We have bathroom duty tomorrow and so are calculating the implications of this large crowd :-)

It will be hard to match the terrific construction experience we had last year -- seeing a house virtually completed in 5 days. But we'll be good volunteers and cheerful with whatever is our assignment because "every job is important" (that's a direct quote from what I tell our volunteer groups in Paterson, especially on the days that lots have to be cleaned up) ... Maybe this will be payback/my turn to do one of those "jobs that are important."

I'm ready to sign-off for tonight. We'll do introductions of the group tomorrow. Stay tuned -- we've got some adventures ahead of us, I'm sure.

Barb Dunn