Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity, Day 6

Friday we woke up to rain. Worse, there was more showing on the Doppler radar and it was headed our way. Team pictures of each group with the Carters had been scheduled for Friday morning, but given the limited shelter at the Framing Frenzy on the beach in Biloxi, photos for those teams were moved into the hotel, and their work day canceled. Those of us who'd been building new houses or rehabbing old ones had some shelter, and the worst of the storm was supposed to be past by noon, so we headed out to our work sites.

On the trip to Pascagoula, I spotted a pine tree in flames from a lightning strike...not a promising sign. We arrived to heavy rain and water puddling in the streets. The lightning started getting closer, so they moved people out of the dining tent (which was handily equipped with 6 giant lightning rods) and shuttled people to the houses in vans to wait for the team pictures and to work on what we could.When we got to the house, we discovered that one of the roof vents we'd put on yesterday was leaking. D'oh! Tom supervised the installation, and I've installed similar vents (albeit shorter in length) before the same way with no leaks, so I think Tom was correct that one of the seams was broken. The other vent installed the same way didn't leak, lending further support to the theory. Frank kicked a hole from above to let the water out (in hindsight, I probably would have done what one the drywallers who showed up later said we should have done, and just punched a couple of small holes with a screw driver to simplify the repair, but c'est la vie.) We hauled some no-longer-dry drywall and a couple of very wet bats of insulation out to the dumpster.

We were the last house in Pascagoula scheduled for our picture, so the mayor of Pascagoula and various other dignitaries were waiting with us for some sort of special presentation to the Carters. The rain slowed down the previously tightly-scheduled photo shoots, so we waited quite a while. As they got closer, some photo assistants came and pre-arranged us for the photo and reminded us of the Secret Service rules. And then we waited some more.

As the rain continued, the water in the streets continued to rise. Eventually some trash cans started to float, and debris and garbage were strewn everywhere. While he may have been partially motivated by the impending arrival of the Carters, the mayor quickly called the DPW to send someone over to clear the drains and clean up the street. After 10 minutes there was no sign of them, so he called again, and was a bit more terse with whoever was on the other end. Finally, after another 10 minutes and they still hadn't shown up, the rain eased up so he went out and started picking up the trash himself. In a couple of minutes we had the drains cleared, the waters receded, and we got the trash out of the street. When the DPW finally showed up in another 15 minutes or so, there was nothing left for them to do.
The photographer finally arrived, got us back into our places, and then the Carters arrived. As we'd been told, there was no messing around. The Carters stepped into place, put Christine the homeowner between them, and that was that. They then presented her with the Bible. But maybe because we were the last house in Pascagoula, they stopped and chatted. As in my previous encounters with the Carters, they were very gracious and humble. If it weren't for the Secret Service agents moving around with them, you'd never know they were a former president and first lady of the United States and not just a couple more Habitat volunteers.They then moved out to the porch for the presentations with the mayor and others. Finally we were out of 'wait mode', but while the weather was much better than it had been, it was still raining and the ground around the house was soaked.

A number of people opted to take an early shuttle back to the hotel. It had been a long week made longer by the weather, and with the ground soaked, I thought about it myself. But Tom reminded us that we came to the Gulf Coast to help build a house for Christine, so a number of us stayed. We nailed up OSB and installed siding for the ceiling of the porch, and installed siding on the front and left side of the house, and despite the sloppy conditions, got a fair amount more work done. I have a great deal of respect for Christine...she's the hardest-working Habitat homeowner I've ever worked with. And I'd like to thank Tom, who (despite me having 13 years of volunteering with Habitat) taught me quite a bit during the week and was patient with my sometimes glacial speeds.While we didn't get as far as the schedule called for, we left Christine a lot closer to owning a home. A couple weeks more work (at a more normal pace) and she'll have her home. And that's what Habitat is all about -- decent, safe, affordable housing for all.

Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity, Day 5

With rain in the forecast for Thursday and Friday, four of us (Tom from NY, David from FL, Rich from CA and myself) decided to get an early start on finishing the roof. We left the hotel in Biloxi about 5AM (my body was just starting to get the idea that it wasn't 3AM) and arrived at the work site about 5:30AM. The drywall guys doing the texturing were just finishing up inside house #17.The Carter Work Project is a blitz build, moving at an unbelievable pace. A big part of that is incredible work on the logistics for the event, including food for thousands of volunteers (provided mostly by the Salvation Army), building the foundation and framing the walls ahead of time, and staging the tons of building materials needed, all spread out across multiple towns in multiple states. Another big part are the Habitat 'gnomes'. These men and women come in at the end of the normal work day, run the plumbing and electrical, and hang and texture the drywall after the volunteers go home. A huge 'thank you!' to all the Habitat gnomes who made the project possible.

After chatting with the drywall crew, we got up on the roof and got to work at first light. It was overcast when we started, so we worked through breakfast (Frank, our house leader, got us some food while we kept going). But the forecasters were right. We got down off the roof (and back up later) because of heavy rain or lightning multiple times. The rain didn't bother us much (though I think us being up there was raising Norm the block manager's blood pressure because none of us were wearing a house leader's yellow shirt), but we got down very quickly when the lightning started up.Others worked mostly indoors or on the porch installing trim, spreading insulation in the attic, hanging doors, and installing the kitchen cabinets.
After lots of trips up and down off the roof, we eventually got it finished. The work day ended a little early for the closing ceremonies back in Biloxi. Because of the weather, they were held at the hotel instead of at Yankie Stadium. That was OK by me because it meant one less bus trip.

Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity, Day 4

Wednesday we worked on siding, doors and various bits and pieces of framing inside the house. Our house in Oakland has v-rustic redwood siding (on the original house; finger-jointed pine or some such on the addition), and the HFH East Bay houses all have Hardie Board cement siding, so I'd never worked with vinyl siding before. With Tom the contractor to instruct me, I found that it's very easy to work with. I don't know about longevity or greenness, but for ease of use it's hard to beat. As with all siding, getting the starter course and the first couple of courses on straight and level are key. After that, each layer snaps into the one below, and with some not fully driven nails (to allow for expansion and contraction), it goes up very quickly. One finer point in working with it is figuring out which way to lap the vertical seams. If you lap it consistently so that the side it's commonly viewed from laps the next piece over, it's hard to see any of the seams.
We got a start on shingling the roof, but Wednesday ended a little early with a block party put on by the people of Pascagoula. Volunteers from the other building sites were bussed in, good food provided, and I think most everyone went home tired and happy.

Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity, Day 3

Tuesday's tasks included putting the roof sheathing on, installing windows and attaching the roof trusses to the house with endless hurricane clips. While the basic construction of the homes was similar to what I'm used to, there were some differences. Here in earthquake country, there are large holddowns to bolt the house to the foundation, and a lot of thought goes into providing shear strength in different directions. We use hurricane clips to secure the roof to the house, but in flood- and hurricane-prone Pascagoula, there were no holddowns, and even more hurricane clips than I'm used to. When we started on the shingles, we also used 6 nails per shingle instead of 4 nails.

Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity, Day 2

Very early Monday morning, busses began shuttling volunteers to the various work sites. Some people were constructing new frames for houses, working near the historic Biloxi lighthouse; others were rehabbing houses in various cities around Biloxi; the majority of the volunteers were building new houses up and down the Gulf Coast. Our group from Habitat for Humanity East Bay worked on a new house in Pascagoula, MS. It's one of of 20 houses being built in Pascagoula as part of the Carter Work Project. We started Monday morning with a foundation and a pile of pre-framed walls. Because of the risk of flooding shown by the 2005 hurricanes, the new flood plain data means the foundation was about 5' tall. Most of the existing houses in the neighborhood sit barely 1' up, sometimes less. After a bit of figuring out where things were and the experience levels of different people, we got to work and fairly quickly had some of the exterior walls standing. We had a variety of people working on the house. Besides our group from HFH East Bay, there were a number of young people who work for the Knight Foundation (the biggest sponsor of the 2008 Carter Work Project), several people who work for Habitat for Humanity International, and individuals from all over the country. The house leader for #17 was Frank, a building inspector in Michigan. The assistant house leader was Gregg, who works for the host affiliate for the Carter Work Project, Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast (HFHMGC). We were also fortunate to have Tom, a contractor from New York. He's served as a house leader on past Carter Work Projects.The Carter Work Project goes at an accelerated pace, and Frank and Gregg were feeling the pressure to try to keep up with the aggressive schedule. So a bunch of us stayed late to get the last roof trusses installed. By the end of a late day on Monday, we had all the walls standing and the roof trusses installed. It was a tiring day for all of us, but especially for those of us on Pacific Daylight Time.