Day Seven: January 2008

Day Seven: Monday, January 14

We got a little extra sleep today, but still found ourselves slowing down a bit after our day of 150% performance on Sunday. Maybe it was the 35 degree temperature to which we awoke; maybe it was the fact that we are just plain tired. Maybe we are tired because one member of our group has started some very high-volume cartoon snoring (like the loudest, log-sawing spoof version of snoring you’ve ever heard). Another group member seems to be responding sympathetically to this snorer by matching his rhythm (but happily, not his volume). In short, things have gotten pretty loud in the bus.

In any case, we had another full day at Rosie’s, where we finished hanging sheetrock on one whole side of the double. Everyone on the inside of the house did every job available, including measuring, marking, scoring, cutting, and hanging the drywall. On the other side, we almost finished the ceilings and we covered some of the walls. There’s still a lot of work to do there, but it is possible that we will be able to finish it tomorrow.

We got more evidence today that Jack Verrips is the most impressive worker we have ever seen. Yesterday one of our teams spent most of the morning struggling with the complexities of a very tight closet that houses the heating unit. Jack, on the other hand, covered the parallel closet in the other unit in about 30 minutes. Sure it was demoralizing on one level, but it was so awesome to see that we didn’t let it get us down. We’re glad Jack is here to show us the standard to which we aspire.

Erik showed some excellence too, as he went through and finished all the insulation in the center wall between the two units. Now no one has to deal with little fiberglass bits all over them for at least a little while. In general, lots of people have developed some pretty advanced skills. Most of us actually look like real pros while working, especially because we all have flat pencils behind our ears and tape measures hanging out of our back pockets. Some real standouts on the drywalling have been Samantha, Briana, Bryan, Aaron, Emily, Serg, and Matt W. Another team that dealt with some of the trickiest spaces was Matt P., Obi, Mark, and Scott; they sounded like a comedy team as they tried to conceptualize why there is a difference between the way a piece of sheetrock looks when it is lying on the floor and the way it looks when it is hanging from the ceiling.

Out in the backyard we conquered the stump once and for all. Serg, Linzy, Brad, Jed, Tommy, Nicole, Justin, and many others hacked at it for hours to reduce it down to near ground level. And then we rented a stump grinder. A stump grinder is like a huge oversized circular saw with enormous teeth that take off layers of the stump by scraping it across the top. We took this huge chunk of tree that had been occupying the center of the yard ever since the tree toppled (and even when it stood) and reduced it to a pile of sawdust in no time at all.

The rest of the yard crew spent the morning digging dozens of bricks out of the dirt so we could till the entire space and make it level. We also dug for buried treasure, which we still expect to find because we know that Rosie and her mother buried it about thirty-five years ago. We spent much of the afternoon running alternative scenarios for how to lay out the landscaping across the three backyards. Rosie was right in the center of it all and we discussed and drew option after option for how to arrange things. One of them even involved a fleur-de-lis-shaped patio. When we realized that whatever we did had to be done with no budget whatsoever, we decided to make use of those muddy old bricks and every other piece of usable debris that we could find. The plan now involves the use of bricks, blocks, extra roof tiles, rusty metal poles, and lots of seeds to bring beauty back to the space. We think it will be an entirely different place when we are done. Rosie is pretty excited and so is Nicole, who has taken on the role of the prime designer of the yard. We hope that our grand plans aren’t thwarted by the expected rains later in the week.

Tomorrow we will split our group. Some of us will return to the Habitat site where we’ve been working and some of us will go to Rosie’s to finish the drywall. It’s better when we are all together, but we will make things work until we all return to Rosie’s at the end of the Habitat day.

Today was a nine and a half hour day. That means we did 280 hours of work, to take our running total to 1735 hours of manual labor so far. Whew!


Chris shows the boys how it’s done as he grinds down the trunk of a 60 year old pecan tree in the middle of Rosie’s backyard. The stump is stubborn but so are we.


The sun shines in on Matt as he carries the drywall and ladder from the front of Rosie’s house to the back room.


Nicole lays down the bricks for the patio in Rosie’s backyard.


Shawny grabs hold of the stump grinder from Chris and shows the boys how it is really done.


Tommy measures the small space in the closet in order to lay down the drywall.


Everyone joined outside to watch the stump grinder do in an hour what we were able to do in a few days.


Shawny taking control of the stump grinder.


This group gets to work putting sheet rock on the ceiling of the second house.


Rosie looks over her soon-to-be new garden.


Putting up sheet rock isn’t easy, but here everyone works hard to get it up.


Day two of the stump and almost gone…


Emily finishes putting the insulation in one of Rosie’s houses


At the end of another looonngg day, what’s better than a hug? Matty and Shawny celebrate as we clean up.


Soulja Serg raising some dry wall up to the ceiling.


The longest yard… Julie and Jed measure out one of the many pieces that will make the ceiling of Rose’s houses.





Our meal of quinoa. It’s a healthy grain that everyone actually happened to enjoy!


Everyone is putting up installation and drywall.


Yummy Lunch at Rosies prepared by the SOULJAS!!


After the other part of the group removed the massive tree stump and continued to landscape the backyard of Rosie’s rental property, the sun begins to set on the pee pee tipi :) .

Day Six: January 2008

Today was a slower day. We were all getting

Day Six: Sunday, January 13


Today is Shane’s birthday! This is the third birthday that Shane has spent with us in New Orleans, including his legendary 21st birthday two years ago. It’s hard to believe that now Shane lives in New Orleans and is working to improve things here along with his longtime girlfriend Brianna Hardy. We are very lucky to have him as part of our team, not only because he lends a helping hand, but also because he is hilariously funny, deliriously happy, and exceptionally skilled at some of the tasks that we are undertaking. Happy day, Shane!

Today we started the big push at Rosie’s other properties next door to the house we moved her into last May. As we’ve noted before, Rosie is unable to cover the taxes and insurance on all three houses that she inherited from her family unless she can rent one or both of the ones in which she is not living. We hope to get them ready for occupancy by the time we leave. If today is any indication, we will succeed.

We slept in just a bit since we didn’t have a deadline for our arrival set by Habitat. We decided to wait until 8:00 or so to go to work, rather than our usual 7:30 start time. We got moving so fast once we got up that we made it to Rosie’s right on time. She was gushing over our group, as she had not yet seen all of us working at the same time. Actually, the word “working” doesn’t even begin to capture it. The level at which we were laboring exceeded our sense of our own capabilities.

Most of us jumped right into the job of sheetrocking, whether or not we had ever been trained in drywall before. Jack helped us to figure out what we were doing then he, Chris and Justin each took a section of the house and supervised as we learned what to do. All of them were astounded at the speed with which we learned the ropes. We started with the ceilings, which are, of course, the most difficult parts to install. Thirty of us shared a total of only five ladders, which complicated our ability to do everything we wanted to do as quickly as we wanted to do it. Because we have an abundance of very tall team members, though, we managed to make do.

We had all gotten the bare basics on drywall installation from Chris and Justin, but we had not thought carefully about a number of things: 1) the walls of houses in New Orleans are generally not square, making lots of difficult cuts a necessary part of any job, 2) there are dozens of little places like switchboxes, light fixtures, vents, and door frames that require very difficult precision cuts, 3) to install drywall on a ceiling, it is necessary to hold your arms over your head for a long long time, 4) there is quite a bit of math involved in installing drywall, and 5) it is not at all difficult to break the corner off of a brand new piece of sheetrock.

Another primary job of the day was to finish the installation of insulation. Lindsay S., Briana R., Brianna H., Emily, Alec, Mark, and Erik were particularly dedicated to this undertaking. They had to learn once again that fiberglass is, in fact, glass. They had little bits in their hands and even on their faces, but they all followed instructions and washed with cold water to remove it.

The final big job at Rosie’s was the continuation of clearing the back yard, including stump removal and elimination of a series of fences. As it turns out, in the days that theses fences were installed, the practice was to drop some concrete into a deep hole then drive the poles four feet deeper than the concrete blob. We decided to remove them entirely rather than just cutting them off at the ground. We have a tendency to choose the more difficult path. We rocked them fiercely in all directions until we looked like we were stirring dirt cauldrons, then dug under the concrete blobs until we thought they were free. Then we employed our most powerful weapon of the day: Alec.

Once we were ready to pull the huge poles and their anchors out of the earth, Alec would squat all the way to the concrete blob and just slowly lift it all by himself. It was like Hercules had joined our crew. Once he had cast them aside, it took two or three of us to drag them out front and lift them into the dumpster. We had to make sure that they didn’t fall down vertically or they would stick out over the top, so we had to javelin them into a container that was higher than most of our heads. We managed.

Whenever someone needed a break, they didn’t sit on the porch or hang out on the sidewalk; they went into the backyard and hacked at the massive pecan tree stump with an axe. We have made quite a difference in just one day, but we are considering renting a stump grinder to get the thing all the way to the ground. Still, we like hacking at it so much that we might just leave it there and chip away at it day by day.

Our special guest worker today was our friend Jerrad from Habitat. He brought the puppies, who are now named after Mardi Gras crews: Bacchus and Isis. We took turns cuddling them and feeding them, and those of us who have been here a few times before started realizing that there was a metaphor unfolding before us. That is, in our first trip, we made the sad discovery of a dead puppy in one house we were gutting on this same street; at that point, the city, too, was lifeless, hopeless and sad. Last year, we were visited by a three-legged dog that managed to get itself around even though it had been abandoned; the city then seemed to us to be getting somewhere, even if things weren’t at all “normal.” This year, we have these sweet puppies in our world, and we can see that it will take lots of love and care for them to survive and flourish; we sense that hope is growing in New Orleans too, and we are glad to provide some of the love and care that this grand city needs.

We finished another ten-hour day today, with a couple of extra crew members helping us out. That means we did 335 hours today, bringing our running total to 1455 in five days’ work. We hope to put in 5000 hours this month. We’ll see. . .


Everyone helping to put up drywall on the ceiling.


Shawny and her motherly side


Lindsay and Tommy measuring out a piece of drywall.


Justin putting in a last piece of insulation.


Before the yard was torn out.


As you can see what used to be three yards is now one, and is almost completely cleared out and ready to be landscaped.


We had quit the feast today! Angel hair pasta, meat sauce, and homemade tomato sauce, left over birthday cake, and ice cream from Rosie. Thanks Chicas and the Men!


As darkness quickly approaches everyone works diligently to complete the sheet rock in the front room.


Mark and Emily put up their very last piece of insulation in the ceiling.


Here Rosie is looking out over her backyard while we work to clear it. In the background you can see Sarah’s beautiful house, which we painted last Jan Term, and the amazing ramp we built over Spring Break 07.


Elijah is taking a break from work on the roof.


Today was a slower day. We were all getting a bit tired. During lunch Amanda, Eric, and Brad take a quick nap during our lunch break.


The BLOKES and Wild Dogg (Zac) have formed a pretty tight group.


The Morning began with the whole group moving wood across the site. Lately people have been stealing wood from the Habitat site so we had to make it harder to get to.


The floor is finaly done so all its artists stop for a fun picture with their beautiful masterpiece


Erik and Brad cut into one of our favorite New Orleans delicacies. A treat courtesy of Rosie after a long day’s work.


We wanted to get one full piece in before sundown. The entire crew worked hard to get it done.


Kate and Lindsay R. work by floodlight. Kate sports a genuine Justin Verrips original; it’s said to bring superb sheetrocking skills to anyone who dawns it.


We wanted to get one full piece in before sundown. The entire crew worked hard to get it done.

Day Five: January 2008

Day Five: Saturday, January 12


Today is Justin’s birthday! This is the third birthday he has shared with us in New Orleans and we are honored that he has chosen to spend his day here. Thanks for all you do for us, Justin, and happy, happy day!

As for the rest of the group, we actually almost made it to work on time today. Almost. Five more minutes and we’ll be there. Soon. Soon. The breakfast and lunch crews started cranking things up just before 6 today, with everyone else keeping their heads on the pillows until about 6:05. Elijah headed up the BLOKEs as they served some mean chilaquiles while the Souljas got up a big pot of TVP and couscous for lunch. (TVP is texturized vegetable protein, a soy product that looks a bit like sloppy joes if you drown it in barbecue sauce. They added hunks of tofu to make it a bit more nourishing, along with some pieces of water chestnut just to make it interesting.)

The day was beyond beautiful as we went from a clear 39-degree morning into a sunny and breezy afternoon. We started the day by visiting with the still-healthy puppies from Thursday, who were staying warm in Jerrad’s car and waiting to be fed through a syringe at appropriate intervals. They make sweet little moaning sounds that we imagine to be signs of contentment. We hope we’re right.

We cranked more floors, shingles, and roof trusses today, and we even got out a sledgehammer and removed some huge boulders of leftover concrete that had been set aside as the foundations were poured. One group re-stacked and reorganized lots of wet lumber that was finally drying out. As we were figuring out the system that would better organize the lumber, a neighbor (Miss Varela?) came to one of our houses and told us that people with trucks had come in the night to steal the wood that was there. She and her husband called the police and scared them off. As she was telling the story, we got to introduce her to our new friend Miss Anne, who will soon be Miss Varela’s immediate neighbor. As they met for the first time, they exclaimed like they had been eager to meet for a long, long time and held each other in a warm embrace. It was a beautiful thing to watch and it helped us to recognize that we are not just building houses; we are building communities.

Miss Anne is a full-time missionary who was born in Jamaica and who now lives in New Orleans. Today is the day that she will complete the 350 hours of labor that constitute her “sweat equity” in her new home. Most of those hours have been spent working on houses that are not her own. Though she plans to continue working on her own house (along with those of her soon-to-be neighbors), this day is a huge milestone on her road to home ownership. We are happy to be here to celebrate this day with her.

It was a pretty happy day all around, as just before lunch the target game that is played from the rooftops really took over the site. Whoever had been working on the rooftops in the morning took turns taking shots at the targets with their shingle scraps. Once again, Mark was the champion who pegged the 250-point sign, complete with a bonus for knocking over the water bottle and the sign that were attached to that target. Shane and Julie also combined for a double-whammy on the 250, meaning that they got to leave at lunch with Jerrad and eat McDonald’s for lunch. Most of us thought that eating at McDonald’s didn’t sound too appealing anyway, but we were still proud of our teammates. Along with those two 250’s, Katie also hit the 50-pointer so solidly that her shingle just rested right on the sign marking the spot.

Whether or not they hit the targets, our rooftoppers are all aglow, mostly because they are getting some serious sun exposure. We have some spray-on sunblock that everyone shares, so we are doing what we can to avoid awful burns. We heard that during the week before we arrived, volunteers were working in temperatures in the low 20’s, so we are very grateful to have such clear and beautiful skies, at least for a few days. We even capitalized on the dry weather last night by clearing out the lower level of the bus and vacuuming up the scrunge that had accumulated on the floors. We know that this state of cleanliness won’t last long, but it was nice to see, if only for a moment.

In the afternoon, the floor crew finally found its groove with their house leader,
Zac, aka “Wild Dog.” Their secret weapon today was specialization. They paired up and operated as an assembly line of sorts and they found that their system moved way faster than any method they had tried before. They were very proud at the end of the day.

The shinglers were proud too, as they finished their job with the exception of the ridge cap. Their lines were incredibly straight and their overall work was truly professional. The roofers next door created lovely ratruns and facing all around the eaves of the house. A few others did some beautiful siding work, while another hearty team braved the confusion and complexity of a double hip roof.

Everyone was so drained by the sun that we decided to go straight from Habitat to camp. We got the special privilege of taking the puppies home with us for the evening, as Jerrad needed to go after a crawfish pot for us to use for Justin’s birthday party. Justin decided he wanted to stay “home,” so we had our own crawfish boil with 80 pounds of live crawfish that we soaked, prepped, boiled, peeled and LOVED. Serg made up some great hamburgers and Emily and Lindsay S. put some vegetables on the grill that were a perfect compliment to our feast.

The crawfish lessons were a hoot and our best student seemed to be our beloved busdriver Leo. We can’t get enough of Leo and his stupid jokes and we couldn’t be more impressed with his driving skills. Every time we wonder if we can cut a corner or fit into a space, we all just say, “don’t worry – it’s Leo!” Jed is the chief navigator again and the two of them make an excellent team. So far they have tried (and accomplished) nine u-turns in the crazy streets of New Orleans. All that we do here would be totally impossible without Leo’s presence. Thanks, Leo (and Loretta, his wife, who lets him join us, and Dan, the owner of the bus)!

Our night ended with two birthday cakes: one for Justin and one for Shane, whose birthday is Sunday. We’re planning a full day of work at Rosie’s house on Sunday, but we’ll still find a way to celebrate Shane at the end of the day. Our secret whammy is here now: Chris and Justin’s dad, Jack! He will take our productivity to new levels, along with our overall work hours. Today we worked an 8-hour day, meaning that we have already worked more than 1000 hours in total on this trip (1120 or so). Thus, in four days’ work, we have accomplished as much as an individual worker might do in months’ time. Wow.


Birthday wish come true for Justin as he was able to spend a whole day of floor work with Jed.


It was a really special moment when Anne, the Habitat homeowner, met her new neighbor. We kinda cried a bit.


Wild-Dawg. The Blokes' pack leader.


Tongue and groove frustration moment: 3,487,429; but Wild-Dawg and Obi use the power of two heads to work as a pack.


After working hard on the roof, the group takes a quick break to inspect their work.


Emily and Matt put up some trusses, so that the group can begin decking the house next week.


With the precision of professionals Kate, Bri, and Leo put up siding on the house.


A lot of work was done to complete the flooring of this house for the homeowner who gave a helping hand with the student workers.


After a long day of work everyone was exhausted, especially Mark and Scott who caught a few ZZZzzz on the way home.


Kate working to help create a support beam for the trusses in a Habitat house.


Nicole and Kate enjoying themselves on an “adult jungle gym.”


Some of our crew enjoying lunch on a beautiful day in NOLA.


We work with many other volunteers when working with Habitat. We are getting instructed on our daily tasks.


Some members of the crew raising trusses and putting them into the proper place.


Matt concentrates on getting the correct measurements.


Z and Nicole climb on the trusses to nail them into the framework.


Aaron uses a speed square to line up his cut on a custom piece of decking.


We couldn’t help but laugh and cheer on Em as she held her breath in the crawfish tubs.


Justin fills up the tub holding enormous amounts of live crawfish, read to be boiled and eaten.