Last fall I signed Bob and I up for Habitat for Humanity. I was told to check the local web site frequently to find volunteer opportunities. I didn’t realize how popular this organization was because I checked daily for 7 months for openings. I finally found one for this past weekend and jumped on it. We didn’t know what we would be doing. The only indication we had was that it was in the “construction phase”. This could have meant framing, windows, floors… pretty much anything besides painting and landscaping.
We rolled out of bed early on Saturday morning to be at the construction site by 8 am. Anyone that knows Bob would realize that having him wake up before 10 am on a weekend is almost as rare as seeing Halley’s comet. We learned that is was drywall day! Bob and I grabbed a pair of safety goggles that strongly resembled the size of our prescription glasses from elementary school. We were given about 10 minutes worth of instruction from a supervisor and then we were assigned to drywall the bathroom for the day.
The bathroom may seem like a small place to spend a whole 8 hours on, but it was very difficult! We had to measure and cut drywall around all of the water pipes, outlets, shower spout, tiny linen closet and so on. It didn’t help that the framing crew didn’t exactly line the studs up evenly. Some were off by as much as 1/4 inch, which meant we had to do a lot of patching up with cardboard and scrap plywood so the walls wouldn’t look warped.
One of the biggest feats was trying to get around the shower and a thin side strip. It was during this time that Bob learned the meaning of the phrase “measure twice and cut once”. We got to practice cutting that giant piece twice! At the end of the day, we didn’t get to finish the bathroom, but still felt pretty accomplished.
The place is a 1 bedroom, 1 bath unit in a 4-plex. It is going to a single lady. Her mortgage on the finished unit will be about $500 a month (for a total of around $140,000). The condos across the street that are non-habitat units are selling for nearly $700,000! Habitat certainly helps people in need to afford their own home. Habitat homes are much less expensive because they only need to cover the cost of land and materials. The labor is free through volunteers.
The kitchen cabinets are built by local prisoners that are in a wood-working class while in jail. Habitat covers the cost of the wood and the prisoners make them for free. It is a good way for the prisoners to learn a trade (and get away from their cell-mates “Butch” and “Rebel”). After they learn this trade, many are allowed out of prison and some have opened their own wood-working studio. It is really win-win for Habitat and the prisoners.
