2010 Build-a-thon Day 4

A lot of us weren't sure how much work would get done on day 4 of the build-a-thon. When I woke up after 6AM, the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was gusting -- not great weather for working on roof trusses and not much fun for working out of doors in general. After some pauses, the rain started coming down even harder during the morning introduction and safety talk, with water pooling on the roof of the tent over the seating area. And miraculously, as the safety talk ended, the rain pretty much stopped.

Despite the unappealing weather and the fact it was a workday, we had a great turn out. So many people who were assigned to the Thrivent Builds house showed up in fact, that we shared some out with other houses that had more no-shows. While some people worked on finishing the layout for the roof trusses and sheathing the end truss, another group worked on some interior blocking, and a group of us worked on disassembling braces and moving unused lumber from behind the house to a new location out of the mud. Even though the rain had mostly stopped, enough rain had fallen that it was muddy. But folks worked on despite the messy conditions and pounds of mud clinging to our shoes. After some more sprinkles, the clouds parted and we had sun for much of the day. Hallelujah!

After lunch we stood the trusses and nailed them in place. It was more difficult than on last year's house, because the trusses run the long way on the house and so are bigger and beams above the large front and rear windows meant some of the trusses had to be lifted and set into hangers. A group of us spent the afternoon aligning the trusses and bracing them into their final position.

Everyone stopped a little earlier than the first three days to take the final group photo. In part so we could clean up the work site; it didn't take long on the Thrivent Builds house since we'd spent time in the morning on clean up.

A huge thank you to everyone who volunteered and donated to make the 2010 Build-a-thon a huge success.









More build-a-thon pictures here and on the Habitat website.