DONATIONS

Dennis Harrand
Construction Committee Chair
HFH of Lapeer County
Office #810-664-7111

07-04-2011

Happy Independence Day,
 
Hope you are enjoying a restful and fun 4th of July. 
 
The LeValley Project is coming along nicely with great progress on drywall and deckbuilding last week.  Volunteers started early and stayed late mudding, taping and sanding.  They also completed the 10' x 16' deck off the back of the house.  This week we will finish drywall and prime paint our interior in preparation for finish painting on Saturday.  Also on Saturday, we will work on landscaping with a crew of Master Gardeners and Pro Landscaper Pete McCreedy.  We will also be laying out forms for paving a pad in front of the garage and for the front sidewalk and pouring cement during the week.  We may also work on wood window trim in the house.
 
The schedule for this week is Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (July 5, 6, & 7) starting at 8:00 am, and Saturday (July 9th) starting at 9:00 am.  Parking can be found about 4 driveways to the west of 4159 LeValley Rd (on the southern edge of Columbiaville) along the right side of the drive back to the water treatment plant (room for 15 cars).  We also have parking available in neighbors driveways.  Parking on the lawn will be a problem on Saturday and from now on as the landscape work will be worked on and finished then. 
Someone will be there to direct you for parking.
 
Hope you can join us this week.

06-26-2011

Hello Lapeer Habitat Friends and Volunteers,
 
Thought I'd try to catch up on happenings around the LeValley Rd. project.  It has been busy at the worksite with lots of progress and  one setback.  About three weeks ago, we excavated around the perimeter of the crawl space to waterproof and set drain tile.  Early this week, Evestec out of Lapeer installed gutters and downspouts which now drain to the front ditch through a buried tile.  Since those improvements along with regrading the site, we have enjoyed lots and lots of rain -- but none of the moisture made it to the crawl space which is drying out nicely.  (Of special note - Evestec has donated gutters and downspouts for all seven Lapeer Habitat house built so far - thank you!)
 
We have passed all of our rough inspections (following modifications to the bedroom windows), and have had our perimeter walls insulated with spray foam, inspected, and approved (thank you Efficient Foam - Attica).  We did have to replace bedroom windows as they were not egress compliant which caused us to have to remove most of the siding and about half of the brick on the front of the house, install new windows, and replace siding.  Our plumber, Kobelle Plumbing (Lapeer) spent extra time and hooked us up so we now have water on the site and don't have to borrow from the neighbors.
 
Wednesday of last week, we began hanging drywall which is now complete inside the house, and have begun taping and mudding.  We are working Monday (today) through Thursday this week to finish this task.  We will begin our workdays at 8:00 am each day to finish before the weather gets uncomfortable in the afternoon heat.  We will also be deckbuilding this week. 
 
Schedule: 
   Monday - Thursday,  June 27th - 30th  8:00 am start  -- Finish drywall   
   Saturday,  July 2 -- No work scheduled
   Tuesday - Thursday,  July 5th - 7th -8:00 start-  Finish Drywall, paint priming and misc jobs
   Saturday, July 9th   --   Landscaping and Painting day
   Monday - Thursday, July 11 - 14th  --  Hang doors, wood trim, clean the house
   Saturday, July 16th  Home Dedication - 9:30 am followed by Columbiaville Days Parade 11:00
                
Following weeks - Schedule to be determined - cleaning, flooring, finish mechanical installations, kitchen cabinets, etc
 

Thanks for your continuing support and encouragement.   See you at the build.

05-23-2011

Hello Habitat Friends and Volunteers,

After another great week of effort by our regular volunteers and by the Lapeer Ed-Tech Center's Honor Society, we were able to finish the exterior siding of the house and move 20 tons of pea gravel into the crawl space and spread it around to help alleviate our water problems.  The students worked for over 4 hours Saturday, filling and hauling 5 gallon buckets and wheel barrels, picking debris from the yard, organizing the wood pile from the downed apple tree in the back yard, shoveling pea stone onto the conveyor, collecting the stone from the business end of the conveyor and then wheeling and carrying buckets and barrels of stone to each of the rooms where they dumped the stone into the crawl space through 6 holes that had been cut into the floor.  Then students climbed into the crawl space armed with shovels and rakes and proceeded to level 4 hiches of stone throughout the 1100 spare foot crawl space.  It was a tremendous effort and with all the great help, finished in record time.  

Thanks once again to the Evick family from the Lapeer Area Seventh Day Adventist Church for providing Thursday lunches to the regular weekday volunteers and to the  Leah and her mom from Zemmer Middle School Honor Society and Zack and his mom from Goodrich Middle School for serving delicious chili with cornbread, chips, cookies, and drinks to the crowd on Saturday.  We all really appreciate the great food provided by our volunteers to our volunteers.

This week, we really need dry weather so that we can begin the process of digging around the foundation so that we can finish waterproofing the crawlspace.  Our contractor for this job is behind on other jobs that he had scheduled before us (and was unable to complete) because it is too wet.  I spoke with him last night and he indicated we may be waiting another week before he can get to LeValley Rd.  In the meantime, we are planning to work on the site on Wednesday when we will bury a new sump crock and dig trenches to drain water.  We may also work to clean the interior and prep for sub floor repairs.  Our electrical and heating contractors are scheduling inspections for this week, and plumbing is soon to follow once we get the crawl space dry enough to work on running pipes.  MASCO has donated a tub and shower and surrounds and has volunteered to bring a crew to the site when needed as they did last year.  Our weekday volunteers have done such a great job that they are running out of thinks to work on and may be taking some time off until we are ready to drywall in 2 - 3 weeks.  They will definately work Wednesday May 25, but will decide whether to work on Thursday.  We did not schedule a workday for Saturday as it falls on Memorial Day weekend.

Thanks to all who volunteer and to all who support the volunteers.

See you on the worksite.

05-17-2011

In spite of the weather, volunteers have been making great progress at the LeValley Rd site.  The roof is finished, the soffit and facia are complete, and the porch siding is done.  If weather cooperates, we expect to be installing siding this Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Also, Saturday we are hosting 15 young people from the Ed-Tech Center's honor society who will help move about 20 ton's of pea stone to the crawl space to help prep the space for a sump crock and drainage, and work to clear debris from the yard.  Because of  regular rains, we have been unable to get the perimeter waterproofed as the trench we need to dig to access the footing would collapse.  Keep your fingers crossed that this can happen early next week.  Once the crawl has been drained and dried, our plumber and heating/cooling contractors can finish their rough installs.  The electrician is ready for the rough inspection at this time.  Thanks to the Seventh Day Adventist Church for lunch (Thursdays for the rest of the build) and to Columbiaville United Methodust Church for the pulled pork sandwiches and other goodies in the rain last Saturday.  (Really good!)
 
Once the digging around the crawl space is finished, we will begin deck building and then consider working on the yard and landscaping.
At that  time, rough inspections will take place so that the insulation and drywall contractors can begin.  We will have about a two week period when this is happening that we may need to pause for a break.  Also, we do not work over holiday weekends (Memorial Day - July 4th) so keep that in mind when planning to join us.
 
Our goal is to finish by the end of June/early July with dedication around mid July (Columbiaville Days might be a good goal for this).  The prison build system (Ann Arbor Women's Prison) has finished our kitchen countertop, and we are awaiting the cabinets from Jackson Prison before we schedule a trip to pick up both.
 
We start at 9:00 am and finish around 2 - 3 pm most workdays.  Bring good shoes appropriate for a construction site, gloves, tools you think you might use, and a lawn chair.  Thanks for your continued support.