Welcome to Women Build 2018

Guest Blog by CJ Fitzsimons, 
Women Build Committee Member 

Another exciting year of Women Build kicked off June 4th with a strong showing of support from many volunteers and leaders.  One in particular, Twin Cities Habitat's new President & CEO, Chris Coleman, decided his first on-site involvement was to come out and support this excellent program; how awesome!

He shared a brief background of how he grew up in the area and why this particular house/neighborhood was important to him.  It was a great way for many of us to meet and welcome him to Women Build. After a brief howdy do and coffee, we started off the build with our famous "raising of the wall".  Donned in our safety hard hats and tools, many volunteer hands made light work of it.  While a group lifted the wall and held it in place, a very enthusiastic volunteer used the sledge hammer to pound it into place along the marked red line. 

Once in place, several women slung hammers and nailed the bottom plate of the wall to the floor decking.  We continued on prepping the next walls and gave a learning opportunity to two volunteers on how to "plunge" the skill saw into the completely sided wall and how to measure to cut out the openings for the windows and doors. 

I'm sure some are wondering why we sided the wall first....well, it's easier to do it this way while it is rested on the floor decking, vs trying to hold up siding and nail it in place using ladders because we can't reach the height from the ground once the wall goes up.  That does happen on occasion, but it's a lot simpler to do it beforehand.  Same goes for cutting out the openings while it's down. 

Along with the walls, the glass liner was being installed with several volunteers not afraid to get muddy as they dug a two foot trench along the entire foundation of the house.  The liner is an important piece to help keep out unwanted water/moisture getting into the foundation.  Plus the finishing of the bottom layer of siding and insulation to the bottom of the floor decking to the top of the foundation was being done.   As you can see from the pictures, lots of smiling faces and good times were had. 

Thanks to everyone who has or will come out and build this year!