August update

Friday most people including Cia, the future homeowner, worked on painting. I was expecting to, but instead I was helping get ready for Grid Alternatives. Grid and their volunteers will be out next week to install the solar panels on the houses at Kinsell! And in the end, I did some painting, too. I painted the vent stacks on the roof to protect them from the elements.

May update

Hard to believe it's only been a month since the build-a-thon. With the great progress during the build-a-thon, and churches like RLC bringing lots of folks, the Thrivent Builds and Trudy Heinecke houses are looking good. In the picture you can see they're getting roofing and windows installed. They've already had some of the plumbing roughed-in.

You may notice the safety rail on the edge of the upper roof. That's allowing volunteers to more safely install the roofing. You may also notice the silver-colored bumps on the roof. Those are for the solar panels that will be installed, meaning the Habitat homeowner will have very low electric bills and their home will have a lighter impact.

Come out and volunteer at the Kinsell worksite. Or bring a group from your church.

GRID Alternatives 2009 Solar-a-thon

Yesterday GRID Alternatives held their 2009 solar-a-thon. More than 250 volunteers and staff installed solar panels on 16 houses in Habitat for Humanity East Bay's Edes development. The unusual weather may have dampened things a little, but it didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the volunteers, and the cloudy skies made it cooler for the crews working on the roofs. I've uploaded more pictures of the solar-a-thon here. A big thanks to all the solar-a-thon volunteers and sponsors. Thanks to you, the Thrivent Builds house and other Habitat houses now have solar photovoltaic systems!