Far from being a 'rest' day from bike riding, today's and yesterday's builds were quite a challenge, in a different way. Yesterday we were on a build site in Durham. I learned all about blocking, which was very difficult. All I was doing was hammering nails, BUT it was with long nails, tough wood, small spaces, and awkward angles. Here's a picture of the small pantry area that we finished blocking, after several hours of hard labor...
Here's me using power tools! (For the first time, I think.) They were very fun. :o)
Here's a picture of us with the woman that will be living in the house we were working on. She had applied to Habitat 4 times for housing, but was turned down. She works in the cafeteria of Durham public schools and several of her students from elementary, middle, and high school helped raise money for her to get this new home! It was an awesome story.
Just FYI, Habitat isn't a free ride for the homeowners. They have to pay a portion of the house (like $45,000), and do a sweat equity of at least 325 hours of work on their own house and other Habitat houses.
Today, I learned all about siding! It was a lot of fun, because you could see the clear progression of your work. My group sided one side of a house! Here we are:
Lastly, I love Chapel Hill/UNC. It's a beautiful campus, and we are staying in a beautiful chapel (which I think is THE chapel on THE hill). The members of the church have been so wonderful in feeding us well and supporting our endeavors... It has been a wonderful stay here! Another thing I really love about UNC is their arboretum, particularly, because I saw this (and 4 others like it, all at the same time!!! It was amaaazing...=):
4 comments:
It's Mr. Buns...
Anita I'm sorry I missed your call! Judging from the posts, I'd say you're being lazy as all heck and you should get off that bum and get to work. HA. I don't think I've ever heard of such insane hard work... mixin' up the hard exercise (biking) with hard labor...
I went to Costco yesterday and spent a fortune, but I will not have to buy home goods for awhile, I hope. My life is so boring compared to yours. Thanks for being a vicarious do-er. I MISS YOU!
Hey Anita, your trip sounds amazing! I love powertools (except table saws) and I'm glad you got to do some construction. keep us updated!
hi anita! How *excited* I was to read that you were near Duke albeit you were closer to our archrival UNC. It looks like by the end of this you're going to be a lean mean fighting machine between power tools and legs of steel! :o) It's so nice to hear that this trip sounds like it's what you hoped it would be mentally and physically. Keep on going!
Good luck!
Hugs, Ling-o
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