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Day 107 Friday, March 24, 2006
Carl turns 60 years old today. To celebrate, he spent the morning installing all of the accessories and do-dads we bought at the convention. Then it was off to Lowes to buy the rest of the tools we need for the Habitat build. After lunch, we had the coach weighed and learned that it was 700 pounds overweight. It’s only 3 % but in the future we will carry fewer books and less firewood! It is amazing that we have added 1,000 pounds of stuff to the coach since it was weighed in May 2003! We moved to a small campground at the Fairplex where we will stay for the HFH build. After one more call to tech support, Carl got the satellite internet system working. Hurray. What a nice 60th birthday present (along with his very expensive camera). We sat outside for a while chatting with the other couples who will be working on the build. Nice folks, it should be a good two weeks. We went out to dinner at a highly recommended Italian restaurant, Buca di Beppe. Great food, huge portions and enough for lunch tomorrow.
Day 108 Saturday, March 25, 2006
We drove into LA to visit the J. Paul Getty Center. Opened in 1997, this cluster of buildings on a hill with views of the LA basin and the Pacific is an architectural and artistic delight. We saw perhaps 20 percent of the collection, including photographs, early French landscapes by Courbet and a wonderful selection of familiar impressionist artists including Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, and Degas. The audio guide gave short, interesting commentary about each work and was very well done. We also took a guided tour of the magnificent gardens on the property. We learned how the gardens complement the shapes and alignment of the buildings in addition to just looking beautiful. As we prepared to leave, we noticed a long ribbon or red lights winding off to the south. We were looking at miles of traffic on I-405. In the parking lot, we spoke to the attendant who told us there was a huge 500,000 person protest in downtown LA. He recommended an alternate route that had little traffic and got us back to Pomona in less time than we took getting to the museum. We enjoyed it so much that if we have a free day next weekend, we may go back to see more.
Day 109 Sunday, March 26, 20
We filled the morning with shopping and did laundry in the early afternoon. At 4 we met with the full Habitat team and the director of the Pomona HFH affiliate. There are six houses on one big lot nearing completion. We will be caulking and painting the exteriors and doing interior finishing if/when it rains. We work from 8-4 during the week and possibly 8-2 on Saturday. We have all of our tools in our tool belts but since we will be caulking and painting, we probably will not use them. We all went out to dinner after the meeting and got to know some of the couples better.
Day 110 Monday, March 27, 200
Up at six, and on the build site at 7:30 to get a feel for the site and the work remaining. At 7:45 we had “devotions” a brief parable and prayer shared by one of the couples. Today’s assignment was caulking. We caulked what seemed like miles of joints on the siding of these houses. Did we mention there were six houses? Mostly the women worked at ground level and the guys climbed up on to the scaffolding and caulked 10 to 20 feet above the ground. After getting used to the giggling of the scaffolding and planking, even Carl, who only worked at a desk his whole career, was 20 feet off the ground caulking under the eaves of the house. We worked hard but it was fun and we are beginning to see how some couples get hooked on Habitat builds. We have not yet met the families who will occupy these homes; we are sure that will add to the feelings of satisfaction. We quit work at 3:30, cleaned up the work site and we were home by 4:00. We spent a social hour with the other couples then came back to our coach for supper, showers and bed by 9:00. We have to do this again tomorrow!
Day 111 Tuesday, March 28, 2006
We awoke to less soreness than we anticipated. After an early breakfast we were back at the build site. Today our assignment was closets. Six, four bedroom houses have 24 closets that require nail holes to be filled on the door frames and all of the woodwork needed to be sanded. The two of us did most of them and it took the whole day. It rained off an on which limited outside work. Back at the coach we had social hour again then a quiet (not including the drumming of the heavy rain) supper and evening.
Day 112 Wednesday, March 29, 2006
The heavy rain continued all night but by 7 AM there was lots of blue sky and sunshine. The house exteriors were still wet so we did more inside work. We filled and sanded handrails and banisters and did a lot of touch up work on the wood trim. In the evening, the whole group went out to eat. Carl ordered his first “Senior” meal. We spent a lot of time with Allen and Tena DeJong, a Canadian couple who lived in Saudi Arabia for five years while Allen worked as a construction manager at oil and gas facilities. Like us, they still have a home but seem to be spending less and less time there. Back at the coach for some journaling and reading then early to bed. We have developed a real appreciation for people who work in construction. A steady diet of this kind of exertion would keep us in really great shape.
Day 113 Thursday, March 30, 2006
Up at six again, we head to the build site. It is a practice of Habitat build teams to have morning devotions. Today, we volunteered to lead the devotions. Carl told a story about a congregant, the rabbi and a fireplace. Sandy then said, Judaism has prayers for many things but we do not know a prayer for building houses. However, there is an all purpose prayer. We then recited the shehechionu in Hebrew and English. Today was painting day. Sandy worked on interior painting and Carl climbed two stories of scaffolding to paint under the eaves. During lunch, we talked about how long we had been married. Of the seven couples, we have been married the shortest at 38 years. What an amazing group of couples. More painting in the afternoon. Back at the campground, we gathered to talk about the plans for future dinners and unwind after a day at the build site.
Day 114 Friday, March 31, 2006
Rain threatened and we got a few sprinkles but the heavy rain held off. Today was more painting. Carl was two stories up on the scaffolding. Sandy was doing interior painting. By the end of the day we were pretty well wilted and had a great appreciation for people who work in construction and do this every day. Luckily for us we have the next two days off. In the evening we had a welcome pot luck dinner organized by the local Habitat chapter where we met the families selected to get these six homes. It was not exactly a “pot luck” since a local Italian restaurant donated delicious lasagna and garlic bread. We spent most of the evening talking to a young woman who will be moving into house six. She is a single mom raising four very well behaved kids below the age of 6. She is currently in a two bedroom apartment and is understandably eager to move into a four bedroom house, even if the bedrooms are small. Talking to her made us feel even better about helping complete these homes.
Day 115 Saturday, April 1, 2006
Today was a slow lazy day to recover from a week of hard work. We slept late (8 AM) and spent a quiet morning puttering around the coach. Late morning we did laundry then headed for a big mall in adjacent Ontario, CA. We then went to Victoria Gardens, another big mall, in Rancho Cucamonga, CA (we couldn’t make this up!).
Day 116 Sunday, April 2, 2006
We went birding today at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden, not far from the build site. We met the local Audubon leader as we arrived. He told us where the nesting owls and Cooper’s Hawks were. The gardens have 86 acres of native California vegetation including pines, oaks and redwood trees. We saw a total of about 30 species including two life birds; California Towee and Nutall’s Woodpecker. After lunch we drove up Mt. Baldy Road to about 6,000 feet elevation where the hillsides were covered with snow and hundreds of people had come to play in it. Though it was a bit hazy, the vistas from the hilltops were wonderful.
Day 117 Monday, April 3, 2006
Back to work. Rain was forecast so we continued painting under the eaves and in the bedrooms. We all worked hard but at the end of the day someone commented that when you spend the day painting second coats, the house looks pretty much the same when you leave as it did when you arrived in the morning! The whole Habitat group went out for Mexican food for dinner at a nice local place. It must have been authentic Mexican food; our waitress didn’t speak English!
Day 118 Tuesday, April 4, 2006
More rain forecast so the bedroom painting continued. Carl spent the morning helping to move materials into position (doors, countertops and furnaces). He spent the rest of the day working with Allen DeJong, installing countertops. Allen is very skilled and Carl learned a lot. Then Sandy asked if he knew enough to replace the countertops in our condo! Allen saved the day when he said that laminate countertops were easy to install but Corian or granite required a professional. It really poured in the late afternoon so we headed home and enjoyed some quiet time in the coach.
Day 119 Wednesday, April 5, 2006
More rain so we continued on tasks from yesterday. Sandy worked on bedroom painting and Carl worked with Allen installing more countertops. We accomplished a lot. We had planned a pot luck for this evening but the rain kept everyone indoors. We invited Pat and Gary Krumwiede and Lynn and Bob Christiansen to our coach to eat the rest of the lasagna from last Friday.
Day 120 Thursday, April 6, 2006
We were greeted by a bright cloudless sky. Everything outside was still wet so we continued on inside tasks. More bedroom painting for Sandy. Carl worked with Allen again, this time installing molding in the bedrooms. Allen and I began to realize what the painting crews already knew. Six, four bedroom houses makes for a lot of bedrooms! We got everyone to pose for a group picture while it was still light. We had our farewell dinner tonight since one couple has to leave in the morning. After dinner we collected digital photos from several couples, added them to the pictures we took and made CDs for everyone. We also put a caption on the group photo and printed an 8 x 10 for each couple, Christine and the local chapter staff.
Day 121 Friday, April 7, 2006
Our last day on the job brought more molding for Carl and painting for Sandy. We made a lot of progress and left the houses much further along than when we arrived. Several of the local volunteers complemented us on the work we have accomplished. We were back at the campground by four and got together with the other couples for a final good bye. Our Habitat for Humanity build was a wonderful experience and we will definitely do it again (Not too soon though since we are exhausted) and will hopefully cross paths in the future with the people have met here. This was as hard as either have ever worked for two weeks straight.
