Day Eleven: January 2008

Day Eleven: Friday, January 18

We have visitors today! Shawny’s sister Sherry is here from Indiana, and Dave Blanchard and Erik Robert are here from SMC. They are all taking advantage of the Martin Luther King Holiday to spend time working with us in New Orleans. Lucky us!

Because we had a late night in the French Quarter last night (everyone was in by 11, but not necessarily asleep), we decided to eat granola for breakfast (no prep time!) and take Ramen noodles for lunch, using our electric tea kettles to cook them. Thus, we slept in for an extra half hour and hustled madly to get to work at Habitat.

First, though, we had to face the fact that we were out of propane both in our showers and in our kitchen. It’s a good thing that we had already decided to have an easy breakfast, as we were completely unable to cook until someone made a propane run. That person turned out to be Shane, who ran into a whole series of difficulties that took practically all day to solve. He was nice enough, though, to run the tanks back to camp and hook them up so that we had lovely hot showers as soon as we arrived home at the end of the day.

Back to the subject of our Habitat day: most of us had jobs that we had already started, so we got back to those tasks. Something just clicked in and everyone had a pretty satisfying day. One big group went crazy on the roof, installing shingles and other edge pieces that meant they were dangling twenty feet off the ground fearlessly. Scott in particular picked jobs that had him hanging with only about 25% of his body on the roof and the rest just hanging over the sandy ground. He wasn’t at all worried and even believed that if he happened to fall, he would be able to roll out of trouble in the sand. Insane. Sam managed to conquer her fear of the roof from the other day and just shingled away all day; she says she actually loved every second of it. Amanda and Lindsay S. also remained unshaken by their time up there, as did a whole series of other people who made quick work of that assignment.

Several people joined forces to take on the next phases of the double hip roof, which continues to be one of the most complicated jobs we’ve ever done. Though it is confusing and frustrating, none of us seemed to mind today; that crew felt like it got a lot done, even though they realized at the end of the day that some of their work would have to be taken apart. Oh well.

Nine of us skipped Habitat altogether today, instead focusing on more progress at Rosie’s house. Jack was the king of the world as usual, outworking our entire group put together. By the end of the day, the first house (#4009) was fully drywalled, taped, mudded, feathered, sanded, and textured. Justin, too, was covered with every substance involved in this whole process, and when the big group arrived he looked like he had been through some tribal mud ritual that none of us quite understood. Even though he looked kind of crazy with splatters of drywall compound speckled all over him, it’s probably true that most of us wished we were just as dirty.

In the second house (#4011) the crew got pretty far on mudding and taping, so that we should be able to finish those jobs on Saturday and prep for texturing on Sunday. We measured for kitchen cabinets in 4009 and brought home floor samples so that Rosie can decide what kind of floor she wants us to install. She has a very low budget for these improvements, so we have to be very judicious in picking out materials that won’t cost much, but that will last. It’s great at these moments to have Jack with us to help us understand the options. He leaves Sunday and we will be greatly diminished when he goes.

We left Rosie’s house exhausted by our day, but as usual we got a second wind as the BLOKEs cooked dinner. These times just hanging around in our tent, listening to music, talking, playing cards, and waiting until it’s time to go to sleep are really precious to us. It’s like we have a very happy low-key party every night. Wow. Who knew that a fenced vacant lot could make us so happy?

Today's total hours were 324, which, when added to our previous total of 2537, gets us to 2861.




Kate, Nicole, and Lindsay Swoboda start to nail shingles


Katers conquered her fear of heights and spent the day on the roof at Habitat


Scott and Lindsay risk their lives to nail on the drip lines on the edge of the roof.


Nap time for Alec after a long days work mudding


A shot from the habitat house roof made possible the combined efforts of the efforts of the Nola ‘08 group.


alec has spent a lot of quality time and effort into the drywall in Rosie’s house.


Bryan helping Scott get a 65 pound bag of shingles, up a ladder and on s too the roof.


We used a special heater to help the mud dry faster so we could get as much work done as possible.


Erik, Julie, Scott, and Bryan nailing in shingles on the roof


Evidence of a day of hard work.

Day Ten: January 2008

Day Ten: Thursday, January 17

Another chilly morning started with banana pancakes and powdered eggs. Skies were grey but no rain fell, so that counted as a solid return to our Habitat worksite. A few of us split off and continued work at Rosie’s as well.

At Habitat, one group (Brad, Lindsay, Obi, Amanda, and sometimes Jed) started making boardwalks for the worksite, to help all of us navigate the mud puddles that pervade the space without sinking in. The muddy pathways are particularly annoying when someone is carrying lumber or heavy loads of nails. In fact, we have learned very quickly that much of the work at a construction site involves moving things around and organizing them. We spent one morning this week digging piles of lumber out after they had sunk in the mud. In a wet and humid climate like New Orleans, this shifting happens all the time, so every once in awhile, everything just needs to be moved.

Another group installed hurricane brackets that pin down roof trusses from the inside. As a member of this group, Nicole suffered a painful (but not catastrophic) injury when she hit her finger with a hammer badly enough to make it gush blood. She was obviously in a lot of pain at that first moment, but she managed to shake it off and continue working pretty quickly after Aaron helped to clean and wrap it. We are sorry that Nicole got hurt today, but it helped us to appreciate how few injuries we have experienced on this trip.

Another group continued to struggle with the trusses on the double hip roof. Frankly, that group is about to lose its collective mind. Each truss needs to be raised in a way that meets four criteria: 1) the pieces should line up properly and be flush with the parts of the house on which they rest, 2) the truss should have a ten and a half inch overhang at the point, 3) the angles should be square, and 4) the truss should be level vertically. Because of issues that preceded our arrival, almost no truss that we raised could meet all of those criteria. We overlapped with one college group (that shall remain unnamed) who might have contributed to some of the goofiness of the structure. Thus, whenever the truss rests on the beams looking crooked, we can all grumble in unison and blame it on _______ College. That helps.

Another group got the triumphant job of laying tarpaper on the roof that was completed last week. Matt W., Sam, Lindsay S., Matt P., Mark, and Aaron all contributed to the completion of that job. Many of those people have spent their entire Habitat worktime on some roof somewhere and at least one of them admits that he is getting a bit sick of heights. They might not be thrilled to know that we will be installing decking on that maddening double hip roof tomorrow.

Oh, yes, and we saw the puppies again today! Lots of notes are asking about them and we are happy to report that they are getting stronger and stronger. Their eyes are still not open, but it seems that things are progressing just fine. Someone will probably post a photo of the pups below. (Teams pick their photos and write captions as we are coming home each day, so their tastes at that moment determine which photos get posted. Elijah gathers them all up then posts them late at night, assuming that all of our systems work as they should.)

One person from each team went to Rosie’s today to help back up Jack as we prepped the first house for texturing tomorrow. The whole group joined that early team after the Habitat day ended, and we actually finished hanging the sheetrock for the second house by the time we left. The incentive for getting it done was a trip to the French Quarter tonight. Even though we were tired and had to come in early, it was fun to take the ferry for the first time this trip and then wander the streets that most tourists associate with New Orleans.

We ate at Bubba Gump’s then had about an hour to check out the Quarter. Some hit the souvenir shops, some went to Café du Monde for fresh beignets, some hit Bourbon Street, and some went straight back to camp after dinner to get some sleep. No matter what anyone chose, we all knew that we had to hit the worksite again at 7:30 a.m. We should be ready after a night of blowing off steam. We hear it might rain again tomorrow, so we’re not sure how that will affect our plans. We’ll be ready, no matter what. . .

Oh yeah! By adding Josh and Jack in to the mix, we now have 330 hours to add to our grand total, which is now 2537!

Matt Wheeler had a great day today – he followed through with all of his jobs, setting a great example for all! A+ Matt!!!!


For the second half of the day we all met at Rosie’s to continue work on dry walling and taping. By the end of the day we had completed all of the dry walls and nearly all of the taping!


Nicole Sweeney began her morning nailing in the hurricane braces to the trusses. These braces are so strong that they can stand up to 150 mph winds!


Mark, Matt Wheeler, Aaron, and Sam laid out tar paper on the roof this morning. This is one of the first steps for roofing. By the end of the day they



Brad, Matt Wheeler, and Jed helped move the trusses that were delivered today for one of the houses. The trusses for Habitat homes are built elsewhere and delivered to the worksite by truck.


Alec is taking a break from the severe sheet rocking of 4009 and 4011 to moisturize his dry eyes.


Eric saws to precision as he cuts a 2 x 4 for one of the houses.


Jed is working hard by tucking in the creases of the mudding in the corners of the walls as we work to finish the walls in Rosie’s house.


Lindsay and Shawny work diligently on trying to finish to trusses on this house.


Tommy, Z, and Jared lift one of the many trusses as the roofing of the next house comes into focus.

Day Nine: January 2008

Day Nine: Wednesday, January 16

Hallelujah! We woke up and it was raining! Though we usually wish for clear skies, we knew that rain this morning would mean we could sleep in for the first time. The banging of the raindrops on the roof was a lovely little lullaby for us at 5:45 today. Shane, Chris, Justin, and Shawny decided to surprise us with a special breakfast. As it turns out, their late night grocery run was all about real eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, potatoes, milk, orange juice, and pancakes.

They got up early and laid out the tent like it was a dining room with table settings and candles, and they started cooking an hour before any of the rest of us got up. For the most part, we all got to sleep as long as we wanted. (As it turns out, our early morning schedule means that none of us managed to sleep all that late anyway.) Jack and Josh showed up with huge bags of beignets from Café du Monde to add to our feast. Everyone was awake by 10:30 and we ate huge amounts of food, listened to music, and just had our own little morning party in the still-dry tent (our gutters are holding!). We praised our own ingenuity in installing the temporary kitchen floor, as the water did its usual trick of rising up from underground and flooding our tent from beneath. Because we raised our floor, though, we had no trouble functioning.

We finally got things moving and headed off to Rosie’s. We all managed to fit inside the house, with the exception of Alec, Lindsay S., Mark, and Kate, who started up the job of scraping and sanding the porch so that we can repaint it before we leave. Otherwise, people were spread out over both houses working on all of the parts of drywalling. Most of us worked to tape and “mud” the sheets we had hung yesterday. Once we got the mud ready, we made a little ritual out of marking almost everyone’s face with two stripes of drywall compound and declared ourselves the Mud Club.

Some of us got very professional at mudding very quickly, especially Briana, Julie, and Katie. Tommy, Jed, and Josh took on the job of taping the inside corners of all of the rooms, while virtually everyone else taped seams. Late in the afternoon, our new supply of sheetrock arrived, so we got to move toward finishing the other side of the house. Justin, Sam, Bryan, Mark and Scott got moving pretty quickly and covered another room in record time. Aaron and Matt W. tackled the laundry room and its maddening angles while Obi, Chris, and Briana took on the bathroom on that side. None of these jobs got completed today, but they got far enough along to make it much easier to complete them tomorrow.

We spent a long time making dinner tonight (Chicas and the Men made some fabulous soupy chicken stew) and people spent quality time with their buddies. Every day we rotate partners to check in on each other’s days and on our general states of mind. It really helps us to process what we’re doing. We also write individual journals and we do quite a bit of processing and talking in our group meetings.

We’re glad we had a slowed-down day; we needed it. We’ll be ready to hit things hard again tomorrow when we return to Habitat to continue jobs we started on Tuesday. A few of us will go to Rosie’s all day long, as we have some big jobs to finish while Jack is still here.

Because we had a shorter day than usual, our total hours for today are 189; that brings our running total to 2219. Let’s see if we can make it past 5000. . .


Amanda and Katie try to mud a wall while in a crowded hall way.


Nicole and Linzy laughing at Dane Cook jokes while mudding a wall.


Linzy and Nicole tilling Rosie’s backyard and building a path.


Matt gets over his fear of heights while mudding his side of the wall.


We work till dark as Matt keeps mudding in the dark.


Everyone entering Rosie’s to finish mudding.



Mark and Matt working on taping and mudding.



Kyle delivering the final pieces of dry wall.



Julie and Briana working on the mildew resistant dry wall in the bathroom.



Mark removing the window bars so we are able to give it a fresh coat of paint.


Kate and Lindsay sand the posts on the front porch so that they can be painted in the coming days.


Katie cleans up the messy mud that splattered all over the window. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. Thanks, Katie!


Matt muddes the window in the front from to prep for painting.


Julie uses the roto-zip to cut out a hole in the drywall where an electrical outlet will go. Go, Julie, go!


Alec and Serg take a break while Nicole sweeps the floor before installing the next piece of drywall.

Day Eight: January 2008

Day Eight: Tuesday, January 15

5:45 came very early this morning, but slightly warmer weather meant that we managed to drag ourselves out anyway. We got to have an excellent breakfast that included some leftover taco fixings from last night, including taco-flavored TVP and canned chicken and even a big bucket of actual sour cream. The Elevaters (Emily, Alec, Lindsay, Erik, and Mark) were responsible for the great tacos; they are often our most creative cooks. Chicas and the Men (Julie, Kate, Briana, Jed, and Tommy) capitalized on their leftovers by making them into some scrambled eggs. We were about to make it to work on time, but we had to jump the bus with the rental truck, so we got there at 7:45.

Most of us went to Habitat and continued jobs that we had started last week. That meant that lots of us were up on ladders putting up roof parts. Sergio, Shane, and Erik worked on fasciae (facing under the roof eaves). Lindsay S. joined with some volunteers from Boston to do trim work. Bryan, Matt W., Aaron, and others were finishing the decking of one roof, and Nicole, Linzy, Kate, and Sam worked on the undersupports for that same roof. Emily, Tommy, Elijah and Shawny kept plugging away at that crazy double hip roof (one that has all four sides sloping up to a pointed top). Jed, Brad, Katie, Obi, Amanda, Lindsay R., and Justin put the finishing touches on the floor system at Anne’s house, which was a major triumph for our group.

We’re all dragging a bit today, so a pick-me-up seemed necessary. When Justin and Shane went to pick up our 310 pounds of laundry, they also picked up a rare commodity: Cokes! We needed some caffeine and just something special to keep us going when we went to Rosie’s house. One crew had already started the day there: Matt P., Briana, Alec,
Julie, Scott, and Mark. Jack and Josh were there too, as well as Chris. They kept the drywall process rolling as fast as they could, though they pretty quickly ran out of full sheets and had to work with lots of scraps. They still did incredible work and got a couple of full rooms finished before the rest of the team arrived. Once we all were there, some of us continued the yard and garden work while others threw themselves into sheetrocking.

A fun diversion for the day was Rosie’s acquisition of a metal detector, which she hoped would help us find some jars of coins she and her mother had buried long ago. The metal detector had a depth of only six inches and it kept going off practically everywhere we used it in the yard. Still, Shane, Elijah, Bryan, Amanda, and different random other folks dug diligently when the signal seemed particularly strong. We haven’t found any real treasures yet, but it seems likely that we will.

We expect big rain tomorrow. Honestly, we are praying for big rain tomorrow, as Habitat will not work in downpours and that would give us time to catch up on some morning sleep. We just can’t seem to stop talking, hanging out, looking at pictures, and planning projects at night, so we never get to bed early enough to get substantial rest. Maybe tomorrow morning will be our time. If it’s not pouring, we believe that we must meet our obligation to Habitat and get there as close to 7:30 as we can. Come on, rain!

We put in another ten hour day today, meaning we have added another 295 hours or so to our running total, which has now reached 2030 hours! That would be a full year’s work for one person, but we managed it in just seven work days. For those who are interested, we are also keeping a tally of the number of u-turns we take in the bus. Some of them are necessary parts of our path, while some of them are corrective measures. In any case, turning our huge bus around on the road is a pretty impressive feat. So far, we have taken 13 u-turns. Way to go, Leo!


The “Next Top Model” has nothing on the crew from SMC as the NOLA volunteers pose for the camera.


Aaron explains how to make a difficult angle to Z at the Habitat Site


Bryan concentrates as he accurately slices the board like butter.


Matt W. Working hard putting in Support on the trusses at Habitat.


On a nice day in New Orleans Leo works hard putting up siding even after he drives us around.


Matt P. and Scott prepare a sheet of dry wall to be put into Rosie’s rebuilt house.


Aaron instructs Bryan and Linzy on how to use the speed square inside the habitat house.


Perfecto! Time to start taping.


Matt Wheeler hangs from the roof as he nails in the wood braces for the trusses.


Matt Wheeler hangs from the roof as he nails in the wood braces for the trusses.

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 :) .