Groundbreaking

On Friday we had the first truckload of dirt delivered to our site in preparation for the groundbreaking on Saturday. The groundbreaking turned out to be a great success. We managed to get Tech faculty, members of Habitat Tech, and the Evans family to help us celebrate. Ms. Evans burst into tears as she gave thanks for those involved in the process of building her a new home. Seeing the expression of joy on Ms. Evans face will really serve as motivation for us as a team to put everything we have into building this home and give the Evans family a new beginning.

Formwork

This past weekend was one of the most intensive work days yet. Not in terms of labor, but in regard to the technical aspects. First of all, setting the batterboards and adjusting the string line for the layout of the house proved to be a little tricky but we managed to get the hang of it thanks to a lot of help from Dale Nugent of Habitat for Humanity. Since very few of us possess construction skills it was beneficial to be there with someone with years of experience working along with us.

Pulling String

Waking up at 7 am on the weekend is something I am going to have to become more acclimated to. This morning we continued where we left off from yesterday. We setup more batter boards and pulled more string to mark the perimeter of the house. This site seems to be littered with an endless amount of diapers, shoes, and other oddities. The Evans family came out today to assist us with clearing out more brush and debris. They were really excited to see the set of plans and the progress that we had made on the site. We look to breaking ground within the next week or two.

Today was a very productive day out at the site. We all teamed up to take down a large tree. We cleared out more fallen tree limbs and picked up more garbage. We intended to layout our house on the site today but we found that our site plan was slightly off. We will continue with the layout of the house tomorrow.