March 31, 2013...

This has been an exciting week. The majority of the plumbing and wiring is completed! We have also been working on a gutter detail that will keep the gutter hidden and clear of any leaves and debris. Once the gutters are complete we can finish putting the roof on! That will be an exciting day!!! The gutter is an interesting detail that will be a part of a band design that will wrap the entire house, some places it will conceal a gutter and in others it will simply be a band.

-Chelsea Moore

                                      
                                                

Making Progress!!

In the last few weeks we have been able to make up some of the lost time. In the coming weeks we hope to be even closer to meeting our scheduled dead lines for completion of different parts of the house!! With the roof mostly in place we have begun cutting the rafters and preparing them to install the gutters. The gutters will ultimately be hidden from sight from any one standing on the ground. Once the gutters are in, we will be able to finish the roof completely!!! All over the site flashing is being put in place for the windows and the roof. The plumbing has also begun and is almost complete. We have accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. With the Easter Break coming up this weekend we hope to be even further along!

-Chelsea Moore

Inspections here we come!

Today was a great work day on site! We were able to finish wrapping the house in the air barrier. The roof sheathing is completed with the felt on it. We finished running all of the electrical wires throughout the house. And all of the windows are in place! I would definitely call that a productive day. We hope to keep at this constant pace if not speed it up a bit!

-Julie Moak

March 23, 2013

56 days remaining!! It has been a very productive week on site this week. Although we are still trying to play catch up from the rainy days encountered at the beginning of the project, our spirits remain positive! The longer days now allow us to get more work done. Also, now that we are deeper into the project we are able to work on several different things at once. The house is very close to being completely enclosed! We have almost all of the Tyvek up. We began running the electrical yesterday. We will be finishing up the plywood sheathing for the roof tomorrow. If we continue at the pace we have been going this week, we expect to be caught up and back on schedule sometime in the next two weeks!  

2 months remaining...

It's hard to believe that we're such a short amount of time away from the completion date! We started construction with 4 months to work with, and now we're halfway there. Time flies when you're having fun! The good news is that we're almost completely blacked in. The bad news is that once that happens, we will be working inside much of the time, and won't be able to enjoy the sunshine like we have been.

Today, we started covering the house with the air barrier that we purchased. We also started laying out and setting the plywood for the roof. Hopefully, we can get some people that aren't scared of heights to tackle the roof situation! The Albritton family has started to obtain their sweat equity hours that Habitat for Humanity requires. They've been working hard to keep the house and site cleaned up, and help us with anything else we need.

The next step in the process is to start setting the electrical and plumbing work. Air Service Professionals from West Monroe, LA is the company we're using for the HVAC system and McMurry Plumbing is being used for our plumbing. We're excited to begin the next phase! Pictures coming soon.

-Mary Alice Milford

Completion of framing

At the beginning of this week, we were finishing up framing the interior walls, drop down ceilings, and rafters. There were people on all 6 ladders that we have pretty much the whole time, using both nail guns, and the table saw to try to get the job done! Luckily, we have had amazing weather all week, and with the time change, it makes our work day extend to 7:30 pm every day. Needless to say, we're all pretty tired, but seeing the progress on the house is keeping us going. Being able to see Mrs. Albritton's happy face every day helps too. She loves getting to come see what we're working on, and all of us can't help but to smile when she's around!

-Mary Alice Milford

Framing

This week we decided to work over the quarter break to get some much needed work done.We started framing a week ago and things have been moving along since. First, we built the north wall, which went along smoothly. Framing walls is new to everybody so it was a learning experience for everybody, but we all caught on very quickly.

After we finished the north wall, we built the center wall which is our main structure wall for the house. This proofed to be more of challenge than the last wall.

The center wall is a 16'-4" 2x6 wall. The wall has 3 clerestory windows at the top and 4 doorways.

After the center wall went up, we started the south wall which was an easy task compared to the challenging center wall.

Now we are working on the side walls which should come up very soon and then we can finally put a roof up.