I've been considering volunteering with them for some time, and decided to sign up few weeks ago. They are on different sites 3 times a week, 2 full days plus one to finish any loose jobs. Because of work, I can only join them on Saturdays, and today was the first time I did. They ask for people to commit to 8am-4pm shift.
They build houses for low income people, who have to meet certain criteria to qualify. Among other things, in order to qualify, their income needs to be low enough, but also high enough that they can pay the mortgage. Because of all the volunteers, the cost of these houses is pretty low, starts from $60K, and owners sign up for a regular, i.e. 30-year mortgage. So, people are not getting these houses for free. Also, they have to put in 400 hours of volunteering with Habitat. 200 hours before they can even sign up for a lot, and the rest working on their or other people's houses.
This house was in east Austin, toward the airport. There are some 50 houses that the Habitat will build there over the course of two years. It usually takes 9 weeks (2 full days a week, so 18 days total) to build one of these houses. Today just happened to be a site that is just starting, so we came to a blank slab. All the tools, equipment, and material were ready for us. The goal for the day was to put up the walls.
A side track: Over the last few years, since I became a homeowner, I realized I like working on different house projects. There are several that I completed myself on my house, and there are many more that I never had a need to do, or that I don't have the tools for or would need additional help before I would attempt them. But I enjoy working on that kind of stuff. I like hands on work. And I like hands on volunteering. I like learning how things are made. And I've never seen up close how houses are built here in the US. Back in Bosnia we build houses completely different; the walls are made of bricks, not wood, to name just one.
Back to the day...There are people at every site who know what the goal of the day is. They have all the blue prints, measurements, the know hows (like to bring in the shower box before the walls. So, I just asked where I can help. Before any wall frame could be put up, an insulation tape had to be stapled to the bottom, green edge. So, several of us started on those, so that others can start putting them up. With that many people, we were very efficient, and by 11 am all the walls were already up! Next they started putting the roof trellises up and were almost done with all of those by the end of the day. Others of us worked on tarp moisture barrier and beams for heavy hanging loads.
In summary, I used: a staple gun for insulation bellow the walls, drilled some boards that were connected to the concrete, measured and leveled for planks that will be used for shelves and cabinets, cut them with table saw(!) and hammered them in, painted some trims, layered and stapled tarp on the outside of the walls, refilled the staple gun numerous times, cut with utility knife and edged the tarp around the door and window openings, and helped carry, push or hold things whenever help was needed.
Yup, I acquired some skills today!
The day started on the chilly side, and I was in two shirts, jacket and gloves. But by lunch time it warmed up enough that I had to apply sun screen. This time of year is a perfect time to volunteer on this kind of outside project. I hope to go again on some Saturdays. It would be rally neat to work on it in different stages and then finally see it all done, and homeowners get the keys!
I just hope we did a good enough job. :)
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