Habitat for Humanity East Bay

Week 15

It was great to be back working at the house after such a long time off for most of us.  To see the new concrete driveway with French Drain, front path, porch repair and rain gutters was terrific, but to see the knee-high weeds in the backyard (from all the recent rains) was sad to see.  And to have heat in the house, warm, comfortable heat, was much appreciated since it was such a cold weekend.

Friday had Miriam and Armando, future home owners, out front with father Rafael and friend Alex removing the concrete forms from the driveway and walkway. Chuck and Terry were back in the kitchen working on cabinet trim and toe kicks. Lian and new comer Chris Rasmussen laid rosin paper to protect the newly installed kitchen floor. They then moved on to painting the kitchen wall between the upper and lower cabinets. Lian got a lesson from Mike on using the compound Miter saw and cut the trim pieces for the kitchen door leading to the garage. Bobbie and Flor assembled and installed ceiling fans in the bedrooms. Non and Rae laid rosin paper in the bathroom and installed the baseboard. Non moved on to paint the garage door leading to the back yard. Rae and Miriam got the first coat of paint on the inside of the new front door. Rafael, Alex, and Armando worked on caulking and painting large garage door trim. Rafael also started patching the many holes inside in prep for paint. Monica gave Armando a tour of his future home, including the attic since it was his first time out. He was very excited and very appreciative. It really is quite a treat to finally be working along side the future homeowners.

Saturday had most of us working both inside and out, to get to the many small remaining tasks that still needed to be completed.  Amy worked on capping the irrigation in the front yard and installing GFI boxes inside where needed.  Bobbie and Donna wired and installed 2 ceiling fixtures - in the kitchen and the living room.  These 2 fixtures as well as antique-tone ceiling fans for the 2 bedrooms were from the ReStore and were perfect for the areas they were installed in.  A nice selection by Mike (or Hans?).  Donna and Lisa B worked on installing GFI boxes too and Bobbie then completed installing receptacles and fixtures in the attic.

Everyone knows Diane loves to paint, but even she agrees that the amount of painting the women have done in this house has been enough to paint the Taj Mahal!  Mike asked Diane to repaint the inside of the front door and Lisa B, Lisa G, Debbie J and KO repainted interior trim and baseboards where needed.  Once this was completed, we worked on patching 7 holes in the drywall throughout the house that had been cut but were ultimately deemed not needed.  Lisa B and KO enjoyed learning this new task; Lisa G. taught us some shortcuts to doing this.  But we all knew that once the taping and mudding had been done, the walls would have to be painted AGAIN to cover up these 7 areas.  When will it end??

Rafael and Alex joined us early on and were asked to repaint exterior trim where needed.  Once we were all done painting, Rafael and Alex joined Diane, Donna, Lisa G, KO and Debbie J outside, moving the piles of dirt around in the front yard, so that all planting areas were tilled and leveled.  Lisa G further showed us her experience, tackling the SawZ-All and cutting out large roots that still remained from the tree that was removed from the front of the house.  Mike briefly turned on the front sprinklers that Amy had installed and showed us how well they worked.  Debbie J made Mike happy when she retrenched the front of the side yard and exposed the underground water pipe that had been covered up with dirt.  We all agree that the front of the house now has "Curb Appeal".

The day was filled with all of us doing many small tasks that added up to a very productive day.  The only sad part was when Mike and Bobbie announced that we were no longer going to be landscaping the front and back yards, as had originally been planned.  The women's crew is needed at the other rehabs just approved for Baypoint, so once the interior of Bonifacio is complete and the family moves in, we will be leaving this project. 

Photos from this past weekend are already posted in the online scrapbook (newest photos are always at the end, so scroll down. Check back here next week for another chapter in the Bonifacio Project Blog!

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