Women Build 2012 North Minneapolis home week 9

Hello again from the Women Build home site in North Minneapolis! The cooler weather that CJ spoke about in the last update has continued into this week. A few volunteers were even sporting long sleeve shirts. Gotta love Minnesota weather!

Terra, the site supervisor, gave me a quick run-down for the rest of the week. By week’s end her goal was to be finished with the drywall, as the taper would be there Monday. She also wanted to have the painting finished on the north side of the house so the scaffolding could be taken down. I must say that the few short weeks since my last visit the house had really come along. All of the volunteers have really been awesome! It is phenomenal what can happen when people come together. Thank you to everyone!

Thursday’s crew was a group of women business leaders from Wells Fargo. It was particularly fun for Women Build co-chair, Sharon Pfeiffer who is a Wells Fargo retiree and one of the crew leaders for the day to work alongside old friends and colleagues. Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity is very grateful for the strong support that Wells Fargo has given over the years!

The drywall crews were hard at it this week with the job nearly complete. When I arrived on Thursday morning the women were going strong. Jan and Laurie were adding screws to the drywall that had been hung in place at the end of the previous day. Both ladies were new to working with Habitat and were having a great time learning new skills! Lori and Heidi were trying to size up dimensions for a small closet. While Heidi measured, Lori told me that her mother had razzed her about working at a construction site saying that helping out with a home build would probably be the hardest day she’d ever worked! Lori just laughed and said she was glad she could give back.

Kathy, Sandy, Sondi, and Abby were working in one of the upstairs bedrooms. Sandy and Sondi had volunteered once before with TC Habitat but this was their first time on a Women Build project. Abby and her husband are future homebuyers with Habitat. Their home is being built in Shakopee, which will be close to her husband’s work, but because this site is closer to their current residence she has been able to put in some of her “sweat equity” time here. All homebuyers are required to put in approximately 300-500 hours of sweat-equity at either their future home or another Habitat for Humanity project prior to closing on the purchase of their home.

The other half of Thursday’s volunteers were outside doing an awesome job of painting and taking down scaffolding. Loren, a University of Minnesota student and intern with Wells Fargo was working with Julie, Jessica and Kael painting the upper portion of the house’s two color paint combination. The house was really getting its face on as the siding was being painted!

Thanks also to all the crews who volunteered with us earlier this week - Kari’s Women Builders, Valspar and several individual volunteers. As always we are grateful for the individuals and groups who provided lunch for our volunteers: Betsy Peak and Chris, Diane Blake, the kids and leaders from Camp MSP, and Seema Maddali. The meals were delicious and provided the fuel to keep our volunteers energized! Thanks so much.

Coming together to help others through an organization like TC Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build is a great way to give back to your community. There are still lots of opportunities to volunteer at 401 Newton Avenue N in Minneapolis through August 31^st. Then on September 10^th we’ll begin our second Women Build home at 585 Cook Avenue E in St Paul. Please check your calendars and find a date on VolunteerHub that works for you to join us. See you on-site!

Nancy Rolland

Women Build Committee

P.S. – We still have a great need for volunteers this summer... If you would like to help us build, please visit VolunteerHub to sign up for a day or two. And, visit the Women Build Facebook page to see or add more photos.