"Daisy, where are your fingers?"

The Mesilla Valley Habitat affiliate (along with Albuquerque and Santé Fe) was started back in 1987 after a visit by Millard Fuller to New Mexico.

We arrived at the HFH office/warehouse location today where we are to be parked for the next 2 weeks, along with 10 other rigs.  They’ve had to pack us in pretty tight because there are so many of us and the new RV parking lot across the street isn’t finished yet.  This is the beginning of the build season for MVHFH (there was 1 two-week group before us), running from the first of October to May.

There was a pizza party/potluck tonight where we got a chance to meet everyone and learn a little about each other. There were 19 people in the room, plus the family whose home we will start work on tomorrow.  It seems that we’re the only rookies on the crew; many of these folks do multiple builds a year.  Don, the project coordinator and his wife, Elaine, are here for the whole season. 

 It was wonderful to get to meet the future owners of the house that we start on tomorrow; Tina and her children Jimmy, 14 and Janelle, 12.  Tina has to contribute 250 hours of sweat equity towards her home.  She has been the sole support of her children since they were in diapers.  Her children are bright and polite and the whole family is so grateful for this opportunity.  Jimmy even made a chocolate cream pie to bring for the potluck and Janelle is in advanced placement classes in school.  Tina told me that a couple of weeks ago, they went out to the home site (the concrete pad is poured) and they each took turns sitting in a chair and taking pictures in what will be their respective bedrooms.  Tina’s home with be the 80^th home built here in Las Cruces by HFH.  For us, she put the human face on why we’re doing this.

 Monday

We don’t know what to expect today, as we gather together outside the RV’s to caravan out to the build site.  It’s certainly cold, but we’ve dressed in layers, knowing that it will warm up as the sun rises in the sky.

We arrive at the build site and find a concrete slab, chalked and numbered, ready for the walls to be built.  There are 2 other houses, on each side of this one, in various stages of construction.  A group of four or five head up to the roof of one of these houses to work on laying felt and shingles.  The rest of us, along with a few regular locals, begin to unload and assemble the prefab walls.  It’s a very clever system.  Each wall is pre-cut, marked and numbered.  It’s a little like paint by number.  I’m told that not all builds are like this, but it sure made things easy and took a lot of guess-work out of it.  Apparently there is a group of locals who do this prefab work in the warehouse.

The pictures really tell the story:

8:20 a.m.  Concrete slab ready for walls.

Standing at the garage and looking to the back.

9:00 a.m. Walls being built. There are 18-20 people working on this.
Shot at the back corner.

10:00 a.m. First wall is up.
Same back corner.

12:00 and time for lunch.  Four exterior walls are up.
From the front.

2:15 p.m. End of the work day.
Another exterior wall up & some interior walls ready for setting.

2:15 p.m.  From the same back corner.

Up at 6:30 and back to the RV by 3:00, we feel like we've put in a very long day and we are most definitely tired!  We also pretty amazed at how much it feels like was accomplished in a very short amount of time.  This, to me, was reminiscent of an old-fashioned barn raisin'.

Tuesday


Up and at 'em early for another day of pounding nails.  I'm feeling a little discouraged, as I find that I'm not very good at driving nails and I'm not really sure what to do with myself to be useful.  I'm really impressed that so many women on this build are old pro's at this.  Some of them take a while to get that nail in, but they have persistence!  And a couple of them are giving the men a run for their money!

At one point during the day, we need a board cut and I carry it over to Daisy at the chop saw and ask her to cut it and she promptly tells me that I can do it.  I reply that I don't know how and she says it's time to learn.  .  She gently guides me through the process and  voilà, I have cut my first board. Now Daisy is an old hand at Habitat work and, I think, plans to be here in Las Cruces for 4 months. The most important thing she taught me about using the saw was this: "Daisy, where are your fingers", she says as she holds up her hand and shows me the missing end of one finger.  It's a very powerful visual image.


I proudly take the board to my hubby, who promptly bursts my bubble by telling me that it's too short!  We walk back to the saw where he makes an attempt to retrain me on the ins and outs of cutting wood.  Not exactly how Daisy had done it, but I grudgingly listen.  Another board is needed soon, and I head straight back to Daisy and ask for a refresher course. Bless her very patient soul.

2:00 p.m. At the end of day two, the bathtubs are set in place and the interior walls are up.
From the opposite rear corner.

From the front. 

Wednesday

At the end of the day Tuesday, a request was made for a couple of people to stay back and paint the laundry room at the new RV parking lot.  Now painting is something I know how to do, so I volunteer.  

A coat of primer on the new texture and 2 coats of paint.  Since the exterior will get stucco, just the trim and the door need paint.  It's a small room and should only take a day.  As the rest of the crew drives off, Karen, Sandra and I haul the paint supplies, ladders and saw horses across the street.   Our first delay came when we discovered that the texture mud wasn't dry.  Then, the stucco crew showed up and we were jockeying around each other for the rest of the day working on the exterior.  We finally got a coat of primer on after lunch.

In the meantime, the build crew were busy getting the OSB nailed to the exterior of the house and continuing to work on the roof next door.

Thursday

Due to a little miscommunication, I found myself working alone on Thursday to finish the laundry room.  A coat of primer on the ceiling and 2 coats of paint and it was done inside.  I wasn't able to put the last coat of paint on the door yet because the stucco crew was again trying to complete their part of the project.

The build crew got the garage and porches finished and trusses are planned for tomorrow.

Traditionally, the whole group goes out to dinner together on Thursday night.  This night was at Si Senor's and I think we had 17 people.  Fun time!

Finally Friday

It has been a long week and we are 'good tired'.  Les has been threatening for a couple of days to "call in sore".  We were certainly ready for the end of the week. It's been a long time since we've had to get up early and work full days.

Today's goal was to get the trusses set:

Moving the truss from the stack.

Pushing it up on the roof.

Don hauling it up.

Pushing it along on the roof.

While the truss crew accomplished their goal, some of us spent the day blocking the duct work in the other two houses.  I was really excited to get to hone my chop saw skills.  I'm sorry that I didn't get a photo at the end of the day on Friday but the trusses were all set and we were off for the weekend.  Woo Hoo!