Recently I took a break from sanding drywall seams to create a dish holder for our dog. What was cool about this project is that it only cost me about $8.00. The wood for the holder came from an abandoned oak TV tray. All I had to do was buy the wood for the legs. I drilled holes in the legs and used threaded rod to screw the legs into the holder. That way I can remove the legs and modify them later if I need to. 

We started work on a new house on 37th Terrace. On Tuesday I was immediately put in charge of a crew to build framing and covering the hole where the storm shelter will be. We did not want a repeat of the accident last week when a man fell in the basement. The framing will support cement that is going to be poured on top of it to create the ceiling. It took us most of the morning to complete the job. After lunch we moved up the street to the other house on 37th Terrace and continued to put up framing for the walls. I spent most of my time on clean up, fetching tools, and measuring and cutting lumber.

To the left is a picture of the 37th Terrace house with the framing for the walls put up.

Wednesday we worked at the Women Build house. A crew started installing tile backer board in the kitchen and bathroom. I worked in the basement and learned how to set tile.

Thursday we immediately picked up where we left off on the tiling project at the Women Build house. I was tasked with cutting the tile, so I learned how to use a tile saw. (Not taking any chances, I wore safety glasses on top of my regular glasses). Another crew continued to work upstairs installing the backer board. By the end of the day, most of the tile in the basement entry was installed and nearly all of the backer board but one piece was installed upstairs. It was a very productive, gratifying day.

More cold, rainy weather kept us working at the Women Build house on Friday. I became adept at using the tile saw. By the end of the day the basement bathroom was completely tiled and only two rows needed to be completed in the entry way.

Saturday morning I cut the remaining tile for the basement entry way. At lunchtime, the owner's mother had set up a chili luncheon spread for us. We sat outside and enjoyed the rare sunny day. The food was fantastic and the laughter and camaraderie was a joy. After lunch a couple of women and I grouted all of the tile save for the tile we set in the morning. It was messy, but satisfying work. What a transformation!

This was the last day of my sabbatical and I was sad to see it end. The staff gave me a "thank you" gift and card, which touched me. I'm going to miss seeing them on a daily basis. I have learned so many new things, met some great, caring people, and have just had a lot of fun.

The experience gave me much to be grateful for and allowed me to give something back to the community.  I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to do so. It's not the end, though. I will go back as time allows so that I can continue to give and receive.

On Tuesday we worked on installing the decking (subfloor) at the 37th Terrace house. To install the big sheets of we put glue on the floor joists and them nailed them in place. That process should help ensure quiet floors after the house is finished. I did get a little discouraged when the guys took over, but some things I physically couldn't do (lifting heavy boards) and that frustrated me. I may have to take up weight lifting to build some upper body strength.

On Wednesday we were at the 37th Terrace house again. We finished installing the decking and then unloaded the pre-built wall framing. We put up two wall sections. Raising the wall sections was exciting. We had hoped to do more, but rain moved in and prevented us from continuing. Other volunteers left, but Jim (the site manager) and I went to another house and built and installed a handrail.

I'm really starting to understand how a house it built from the ground up. The process seems simple, but I think that is because the site manager is prepared and makes sure everything is done as correctly as possible. 

More rain on Thursday, so we worked at the Women Build house. I was tasked with fixing some gaps in trim work and then was put to work on caulking the windows. The crew volunteering for the day had to leave early, which disappointed me. I wanted to to put in the full amount of time. I enjoy the work so much that I don't want to stop before quitting time. I want to squeeze out every moment of this sabbatical because I'm enjoying the chance to work outside, work with my hands, and meet new people.

Cold wind made it a blustery day on Friday, but we worked outside at the 37th Terrace house anyway. Before any work could begin, though, we had to wait for the volunteers to show up. After they arrived we began raising the framing for the outside walls. All was going well until one of the volunteers was walking backwards and fell into the basement, which was a 9-foot fall. Fortunately he wasn't seriously hurt (his glasses didn't even fall off), but a team was immediately assigned to build framing for the opening and covering it with plywood. I spent the afternoon measuring and cutting studs. A note about measuring: always make sure you check your math with the person who wants the job done. We were a one half inch too tall and had to re-cut every single stud. It didn't take us too long to fix our mistake, but we could have been helping with raising walls if we hadn't made the error.

On Saturday I was asked to lead a crew at the Women Build house. I felt honored that the site manager trusted me enough to lead a group of volunteers. We spent the day painting trim in the basement and finishing the caulking in the windows. The group was fantastic. Once I told them what needed to be done, they got right to it and didn't need any help from me. One of the women provided lunch for all of us. We sat outside as we ate and enjoyed the warm sun. 

My third week at Habitat was full of a variety of tasks, which make volunteering for this organization so much fun.


On Tuesday I helped apply grass seed and spread hay over the seed, while the site manager, Jim, and another volunteer set forms and poured cement to fill in a sidewalk slab. Later that day Jim taught me how to drive a Bobcat Skid Steer Loader. It was a blast.

The weather continued to be cold and rainy, but Wednesday we worked inside of the Women Build house, which does not have heat or electricity yet, but at least we were out of the rain and wind. We built window jambs, attached the casing and installed them into the window frames. We also started installing pre-hung doors. Split jambs made the installation much easier. (One half has the door already mounted to the jamb, with the casing already attached to it. The other half of the jamb also has casing applied to it.) As we used the table saw extensively, I am finally losing my fear and apprehension of using one.

Thursday was a busy day at the Women Build house. A large number of volunteers arrived and work immediately began on finishing the window boxes, cutting and installing the trim and baseboard, installing the rest of the doors, and caulking the windows and doors. It was fascinating to see how people gravitated to various tasks and started getting the work done. By late afternoon almost all of the trim and baseboard was installed and caulked on the first floor. While a team installed cement backerboard for tile in the kitchen, I ran a caulk gun. The work was tedious but gratifying, and it was a good way to make a contribution while staying out of the way. After hours I went to the house where the Americorps volunteers are living and installed their blinds.

We spent Friday at the 37th Terrace house. My construction vocabulary grew quite a bit that day. I installed a sill plate all on my own. (A sill plate is the first component of the framing, bolted to the foundation walls, supports the building while anchoring it to the foundation.)


While I was working on my sill plate, another team was attaching the rim joists and then installing the floor joists.



Near the end of the day some of the subfloor was nailed down. I spent a lot of time helping lift floor joists, fetching tools, holding things in place, and watching one volunteer fearlessly walk on the sill plates and foundation while helping to nail down the floor joists. His balance was amazing. We were lucky to have him helping because most of us agreed that we neither had the courage nor the sense of balance he had.

One of the things that strikes me about volunteering for Habitat is that people step up with the right skill or courage to learn and typically take on a task with fervor. I have enjoyed being a part of that process.

Cold and rainy weather dominated week two at Habitat, but it didn't stop us from working.

At the Women Build house, the retaining wall and porch railing were finished.

While volunteers were working on the porch railing, I assisted at another house raking out dirt clods, preparing the soil for seeding and hay.

I'm learning that so much of construction is preparation. Get and load the right tools, build walkways to cover the clay mud so that workers can access the house without falling down, have some experts who can direct and teach the unskilled, and have a plan B if the weather prevents work. We did all of that last week. The plan B included cleaning up the outside of the Habitat Headquarters in preparation for the 30th birthday celebration on Saturday.

On one of the clear days, we built and raised "down walls" at the 37th St. Terrace house. There are more picture here. From the photos you can see that most of the volunteers are men. I don't mind being one of the few women on the site. I'm learning a lot from the skilled guys. They are great about offering their building tips: how to pull out a nail, make a cut without the wood binding, and using a Sawzall. I don't get treated any differently than the guys and I don't hesitate to ask when I don't know how to do something.

On Friday, despite the cold and muddy conditions we proceeded with work on the 37th Terrace house. We added sill plates, bolted down the front wall, put in the supports for the beam, squared and plumbed the walls, and set several of the floor joists, but ran out of time to install them.  About midday, a ceremony was held to dedicate the house to the homeowner. At lunch we enjoyed barbecue and then we continued our work on the "guts" of the house. I'm learning how important it is to get them right so that the next steps can be done correctly. Make things level and square. When you make mistake, and you will, catch them and fix them before you move on.

Saturday was the 30th Anniversary celebration. I volunteered at the "decorate you own cupcake" table. Unfortunately, the weather was windy and near freezing, so fewer people showed up than were expected, but it did not dampen the celebratory spirits. Habitat KC has been "building houses, building hope and changing lives" for 30 years and they continue to do so. I feel privileged to be a small part of that progress.

I work at an organization that grants one-month sabbaticals to employees who have been employed for 10 years or more. I have worked at the organization for almost 12 years and applied for a sabbatical this year. My application was approved and I am now spending the month of October working for Habitat for Humanity. I started on Thursday, Oct. 1st.  Happily, my days will be filled with working on other peoples' homes. No cubicle for one whole month!

I'm still working on my own house, still working on replacing the tape in the seams in the master bedroom, making slow progress. But with Habitat, the progress is faster and the reward for the work is much greater.

My first day was spent at the Women Build house. The Women Build projects "provide low-income families
with decent, affordable homes and an opportunity for women to learn
construction in a supportive, encouraging and empowering environment." I spent the day helping with building the retaining wall. The picture is a little dated because the driveway, front steps, and siding have been completed. The next time I'm assigned to work on the house I'll take an updated picture.

This sabbatical opportunity is a gift to me. I'm getting to learn new skills while helping someone else acquire someplace safe and comfortable to call home. As much as I struggle with the progress on my own house, I'm heartened by seeing progress being made on other peoples' houses and know that someday I will have a house I can be proud of.

Throughout the month I will be sharing my experiences of my volunteer work with Habitat, so keep coming back for updates.

Well, my previous slow progress on the master bedroom may have saved me in the long run. The walls stayed unfinished so long that when I was ready to start sanding the seams I noticed that they were cracked or cracking. What in the world had happened? I took such care in hanging, taping and mudding the drywall that I couldn't believe the seams were coming apart. And then I learned, too late, that fiberglass mesh tape was not a good choice for seams. In his book Sheetrock and Shellac, David Owen says, "Amateurs (and a few misguided professionals) sometimes use plastic-mesh tape, rather than paper tape, with ordinary joing compound, but they shouldn't." Of course I read the book after I drywalled the room. I also Googled the use of mesh tape on seams and some drywall guy posted in a forum that people who used fiberglass mesh for their drywall seams kept him in business. The mesh doesn't have the strength that paper tape does.

When I finished the kitchen, I was a rookie and followed the "rules" listed in my copy of Drywall: Pro Tips for Hanging and Finishing and used paper tape. Having zero problems in the kitchen, of course. So why did I switch to fiberglass mesh tape for the bedroom? It was easier to use. I'd also been fooled into believing that it would hold up the way paper tape did. To heck with the "rules".

Now, I'm tearing out the fiberglass mesh, sanding and will be installing paper tape in the seams. Nothing like doing work twice. I'm mad at myself for not sticking to the tried-and-true rules. But I've learned my lesson. Not only about drywall tape, but about paying attention to expert advice.

This hardly fits into the category of renovation, but these are a couple of storage projects I've done to make our lives easier or at least less messy.

 

The corner shelves are at the top of the stairs that go to the basement.

The shoe rack is near the front door. These are our "take Annie for a walk" shoes. I found the shoe rack plan in a recent Family Handyman magazine. It was easy to make and works great for keeping our shoes organized.

Well, it took almost two years, but the dining room wall is finally finished. That is the last time I brag about how fast I can get something done.

Start the clock:

Saturday, March 3rd

10 a.m. - 11 a.m. Rip out the stinking, rotting drywall and cuss about the laziness of the people who "restored" the house.

11:10 Stop and take a picture of how thick the "texture" was on the wall. Kind of hard to see from the photo, but it was about 3/8".

11:15 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Drag the debris out to the deck and apply two coats of Kilz to the framing.

2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Ok, I had to stop and get something to eat.

3:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. All but one piece of drywall hung (the piece around the heat vent near the floor)

6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Clean up. Why does this always take so long? (mop the floor, put away the tools, hide the piece of drywall I'll need later behind the dining room table.

 

Sunday, March 4th

11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. cut and cram the last piece of drywall into place. Why did I have to cram it? There was supposed to be 1/2" space in the corner of the adjoining wall for me to slide my piece in for a nice fit. Ha ha. What started out as 1/2" tapered down to the floor to about 1/4". So I did the best I could to butt it into the corner. I'm glad hiding drywall mistakes is fairly easy.

Wednesday, March 7th

Taping and mudding complete.

Because I've been doing so much drywall work, I thought I'd share my version of a drywall hawk (the tool that allows you to carry wet compound as you finish joints and fastener heads.) When I began my adventures into
drywall finishing I thought it would just be one room, so it seemed unnecessary to purchase a professional hawk. I experimented with a few things, and then I came up with this: I took a plastic lid from a cat litter bucket, trimmed of two sides (one side with a longer edge so I could load a 10-inch knife). Then I cut a piece of 1x2 scrap to serve as a support, screwed it to the lid with drywall screws and then screwed the piece of dowel through the lid into the 1x. You can see from the photo that it has had a lot of use (2 rooms and the hallway). The great thing about it is the plastic lid is easy to scrape and wash off, and I don't have to worry about it rusting.

As I was preparing to put new corner bead on the end of the hallway. I did a little scraping on the dining room side of the wall. And, yes, you guessed it, more rotten drywall. And it was the same ridiculous scenario as the hallway. Just a portion of the charred wall was not replaced. Probably too lazy to make the measurements to fit around the opening to the dining area.

The discovery of deception seems to have no end in this house. Every time I fix one thing, I find something else that was covered up to save a few lousy bucks. Granted, we knew the house had had a fire in 1996, but we were led to believe that it had been properly gutted and restored.

We were gullible first-time home buyers, but even our inspector could not have found the covered up, charred mess that hid under the "texture." Had I to do it over again, I would have demanded a report from the fire department about the severity of the damage, and I also would have demanded a report from the seller about what repairs were made after the fire. Like the old cliché, hindsight has 20/20 vision.

I find myself not only feeling angry, but also disappointed in the utter disregard for craftsmanship and respect for others who would come to own the house. I guess one of the things that keeps me going is that as I fix the problem, I know that one day I will be passing on a house where things were done with care and respect and a desire to make things right.

The computer "came back to life" on its own, so I can continue my work on the hallway. I know, though, that

it will probably really die when I'm in the middle of either sanding the drywall or when I have a paint roller in my hand. I should just fix the darn thing and be done with it. It's a tough call especially when we have a perfectly slow, but useful spare.

With the house in need of so much work, I struggle with the distractions of daily living, e.g., the need to go grocery shopping (what's wrong with an array raman noodle recipes every night?), staying an extra hour or so at work, shoveling snow off the driveway, etc.

I'm driven by the desire to walk into the house and feel at peace, not despair. I'm convinced that environment affects mood and well being.

In an article I read recently by Dr. Alberto Pérez-Gómez titled Hermeneutics as Architectural Discourse he is really discussing the interpretation of language in architecture, but I found a sentence that resonated with me.

"My working premise is that as architecture, architecture communicates the possibility of recognizing ourselves as complete, in order to dwell poetically on earth and thus be wholly human."

The new drywall is up. I still need to finish and sand the seams, but at least we don't have to look at the gaping hole. I've had enough practice now that it will go quickly, once I get the time.

The little emergencies and necessities of daily living really slow my progress on the house. Yesterday, Cathy called me at work in a panic and said that her computer wouldn't boot up. By the time I got home, it had come back to life, but I spent the evening backing up her data because I know the power supply is getting ready to die (one of the downfalls of providing techical support for a living is that you end up doing more of it when you get home). So tonight I will be looking for a power supply replacement, and then when we get it I'll have to take the computer apart and put the new one in. I keep trying to convince her to get a Mac because they rarely fail. I'm using a MacBook Pro and it performs flawlessly (I still have a Mac from 1996 that is slow but still works great), but she is hesitant to try something new.

To be honest, I'd much rather be finishing drywall and continue working on fixing up the house than fixing computers when I get home. Even though I get frustrated with the imperfections of the house, at least I know that I can fix them and then enjoy the results. Fixing computers just doesn't give me the same satisfaction.