The above photo was the first picture I took.

The basement was in and the deck was framed.

Nobody was working at that time. I had simply wanted to be sure I could find my way there before Thursday,
when some more work would take place.

I took the roundabout way that first day - not the easiest one.

The next day, on May 6th, I had a number of tasks demanding my time, and I didn't get to the site until around 11:00 that morning.

A small group of students from Eastern High School, their teacher, and a Habitat leader were working on basement window wells.

As I understand it, a GM jobs bank crew had been there earlier to put the decking on.

I had stopped by the Habitat office to get a copy of the work schedule beyond what the church groups were going to do.

Michigan State University has a Habitat chapter, and some students were scheduled to help inventory and position the wall panels on Wednesday, May 12th from 6 to 9 p.m.

The panels are constructed in the Prison Build Program and were delivered to the site.

Wow, that was fast!

On Thursday, May 13, the church groups officially started participating. Once again, my schedule did not permit me to arrive at the build until around 11:00.  I found quite a crowd though, and they already had almost all the exterior, plus many interior, walls up.

Rain, in the afternoon, slowed things down,  but it was still a dramatic visual change.

I decided I needed to arrive when things were getting started at 9:00 a.m.

Originally, the goal for Friday, May 14th, was to have the trusses up and some roof.  But, by afternoon, the weather looked a little iffy (possible storms were predicted).  So a sundry of smaller details were taken care of.

Friday's crew was substantially smaller, but very productive none the less.

At 8:45 a.m. on Saturday, May 15, things were pretty close to being ready for lifting and positioning the trusses.

It was a very chilly day, and a major parade blocking the route in had the crew leaders concerned when only six people showed up.

But, by afternoon, the parade was done, over four times that many ultimately arrived, and the trusses finally got put in place. 

I took Sunday off.  Arriving shortly after 9:00 a.m. on Monday, May 17th, I found most of the sheeting on one side of the roof completed.  Since I had another commitment at noon, I could only remain a couple of hours.

To date, I have been "on site" over 20 hours and spent well over double that inventorying the photos and laying out the pages in my computer.  A couple of times, I showed someone how to do something easier, but you do not need to lift a hammer to help.  Whatever your skills, Habitat can use your help too.

On my way to a business meeting in Lansing yesterday (Wednesday, May 19th) I took this photo.  It is the last one I have taken, as I prepare to upload these pages to my site.

Obviously, a lot of things had to be placed on the back burners in order to spend so many hours on this.  Those items now demand attention.  Some additional selections, and future shots, can be viewed, by clicking on the various photo galleries below. 

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