Habitat for Humanity (11-30-11)



Paul works on the caulking



    One of the goals we’ve had since we went on the road full time was to work with Habitat for Humanity on a house build.  We finally realized that goal here in Livingston, and now that we have gotten our feet wet, so to speak, I hope we continue to seek out opportunities to work with other chapters as we travel around the country. It works well for our lifestyle that no commitment is needed, and if we can only work for a day or two, that’s fine.. Habitat has built or rehabbed over 500,000 homes all over the world, since it began in the 1970s.  Pretty impressive. I’ve always thought it was a great program because people can donate their time and effort instead of money, and have the satisfaction of seeing the progress on a house that will go to someone in need.  The new owners are also required to volunteer a certain amount of hours before they can move into the house.  Recently, in the Livingston area,  a woman whose house was finished couldn’t move in for a month, because she hadn’t put in enough hours volunteering.

I had contacted the local chapter before we arrived in town to find out what, if anything, they were building and it turns out they are working on a house in a nearby town, but are mostly just working on the weekends.  The Saturday after we arrived in Livingston, we headed out to help.  I spent most of the day painting the outside of the house, while Paul helped with the caulking and a variety of other projects. (The man in the bright yellow shirt is the man who will be the new home owner. )   



Mike works on the interior



Kathi stains the kitchen cabinets



There was a great sense of camaraderie and cooperation among the workers, and at about 10 am, a separate crew arrived from a local church, and began putting lunch together for everyone.  There were about 20 people there that Saturday, but the project leader, who happens to be a fellow Escapee living in Livingston, mentioned to me that they hadn’t had much of a turnout lately and really wanted to step up the pace if they could.  Its the nature of the beast that they are never sure how many people will show up on any given day.  Since they weren’t planning on working the week of Thanksgiving, Paul and I decided to stay a few days beyond that to give them a hand.  This past Monday we went back to the house, and this time brought our friend Mike with us.  His wife was still in Omaha visiting their new granddaughter.  Mike worked at caulking the interior of the house, while Paul installed most of the light fixtures, and I spent the day staining the kitchen cabinets.  Before leaving for the day I had committed to coming back on Tuesday to help two other women polyurethane the cabinets so that they won’t have to be done on the weekend when there are more people around.  The whole experience was a really great one, and one I hope we can repeat with some degree of regularity!