Tiny House Nation and the "Tuesday Crew"

Hey everyone! Happy summer!

After another long year of studying I've officially finished my first year in graduate school, uffda! While that alone was enough for a celebration, the end of the academic year marked the beginning of summer, which also meant I could come back to Minnesota and visit! Still on track to reach my goal of five states by the end of August, I decided to hang out with the cheese heads and hit up Habitat in Wisconsin for my fourth state. Even though I root for the Twins and put up with the Vikings, they welcomed me with open arms and gave me some new and exciting projects to work on. By now you all know the drill, so let's get down to business and talk about my time in the land of endless types of cheese.

Day 1: Tiny House Nation

Interior of the tiny house

Unlike my time in other states, I actually worked with two separate Habitat chapters this week. My first stop was in St. Croix Falls, WI and I was told I would be helping the chapter build a tiny house for a tiny house expo in October. The unit will be auctioned off and the proceeds will be used to fund the chapter's various building activities. I've recently become enthralled with the show "Tiny House Nation" so I was super pumped up to work on this house!

I rolled up to the warehouse the tiny house was stored and met with Mark Miller (before you ask, there's no relation) who's been helping me coordinate my volunteer time with St. Croix Falls. Turns out, he's actually from my home town, what a small world! I was told that I'd be putting siding on the house that day, and after showing me around the house (it was a short tour haha) and the warehouse we got straight to work. One cool part of the house is that nearly everything is either donated or re-purposed material. Some of the trim is made up of old telephone poles, the wall paneling and floors were donated, and the siding I put up was partially donated pre-stained wood, while the rest was old re-purposed wood.

The siding was easy to put up: we placed a thin piece at the bottom of the wall first, then used a 3.5" block of wood as a marker to know where to place the next piece above it. We nailed the wood into the wall with a nail gun first to hold it in place, then I put three nails into the top of the wood. The bottom edges hang over the previously placed wood, creating the overhang typical of lap siding. Before noon we finished the front of the home, then moved on to the side. By the end of the day we had half of the second wall put up.

Did a decent job on siding if I say so myself

Working with Mark and the other few workers was really great; everyone was friendly and were excited to make the tiny house. Mark was also enthusiastic about his creative marketing ploy....having volunteers wear Hawaiian shirts while working. We got a great group photo which I hope to get later and share with you all. I left with the shirt as a souvenir and a smile on my face.



If you're interested in following the progress of the tiny house or checking out the Tiny House Expo they'll be showcasing the finished product at, follow Wild River HFH's Facebook page, as well as the Facebook page for the Tiny House Expo! 

https://www.facebook.com/Trash2TreasureWRHfH/
https://www.facebook.com/TinyHouseExpoAutumnFestStCroixFallsWisconsin/

Day 2: "The Tuesday Crew"

Some Eco Village homes

I spent my second day volunteering in River Falls working outdoors to help finish work at an Eco Village created by Habitat. This community of homes is quite unique; the homes are super-insulated, are equipped with solar panels, and have become "net zero" homes. Essentially, the houses have been designed so that the money paid for utilities in the winter is balanced by money saved in the summer, so homeowners either pay virtually no utilities overall and even make a few dollars in some cases. It really is a cool development!

Anyway, I met up with project manager Dean and was told we'd be building a retaining wall behind one of the sections of the development. Soon the "Tuesday Crew" showed up to help; the group is made up of gentleman who come (you guessed it) every Tuesday to volunteer, and have been doing so for quite some time.

 

Left: Retaining wall being leveled.

Right: Caulking cement blocks together to build a five layer wall.

First we laid gravel down to make a semi-flat surface and then placed the cement blocks along the ground how we wanted them laid out. Then the real work started. We had to ensure every block was level by either moving more gravel under it or taking some out, and pounding the block with a rubber mallet. Then we used levels to ensure it was level with surrounding blocks, as well as level from the front to the back of the block. The idea of the work was easy, but actually getting everything level was tedious and difficult. We persevered though and finally finished shortly after lunch time.


After lunch the wall went up fast. We were able to start placing additional layers of the blocks quickly, with me and one other crew member placing caulk on the back of the blocks and the others moving in an assembly line to lay the rest of the blocks we had on hand. Unfortunately we ran out of materials and had to leave early, but at the end of the day I felt accomplished. I got a tan working all day in the sun and got to learn something new.

Glad I got to check state four off my list, and am gunning to finish the year strong with my fifth state in the next two months!

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Me with future HFH homeowner
 Brandi (center) and Lowe's
volunteer Julia (right)

Hey everyone, welcome back!

I am so excited to share that I've officially crossed state 3 off my checklist, and served with HFH-Susquehanna County in Maryland this week! The home will be handed over to a vibrant, lovely woman named Brandi and her three year old son. I had the chance to work directly with her on day 2 of my visit, and it meant so much to work alongside her and the rest of our team to build her dream home. 

So let's get to the run down of what working in Charlestown, Maryland was like! 



Day 1

When I arrived I met with our site supervisor Gabe and a Americorp worker named Joe who volunteers weekly at the Charlestown build site. I was really excited for this week's build because it is National Women Build Week-I was ready for the ladies to take over the site! You can imagine how surprised I was when all of a sudden two vans full of military men rolled up. I was very excited to see there was one woman in the group, Lakisha, and two other women named Linda and Chris were also volunteering with us for the day. 

The crew for day 1! Military members from Ft. Meade and the other women volunteering for Women Build Week!

We began the day with a group pow-wow, and were told that safety is key over the next few days, and if it rained we would need to leave the site. Gabe and past volunteers had been working on prepping the home so we could put the roof up, and rain would cause the scaffolding and the wood to be slippery and dangerous. Additionally we needed power tools, and I'm sure we can all agree that rain and power tools don't mix. 

Sweeping out standing water 
from the structure

With fingers crossed we got to work. First we teamed up to straighten the walls of the home. There were a series of metal rods attached to the walls, which when twisted either pushes that portion of the wall outwards or inwards. We quickly aligned everything so we could begin planning how we would put the roof trusses up (essentially the framework of the roof). 
Afterwards the ladies and I helped sweep out all of the standing water inside the structure while some of the guys worked to prep the top of the structure's walls for the roofing. 

Moving roof trusses

For the rest of the day us ladies teamed up to do some small projects, then we partnered with some of the military guys to organize a large pile of roof trusses. In order to make the roofing process efficient, we needed to separate the three different types of trusses. A truss either made up the front/rear of the home's roof, was a general brace, or was made larger to accommodate an attic area for light storage. Each truss required three or four people to move due to their size and weight. The backyard was extremely muddy due to the rain that fell previously but we had fun with it and made it work. 

Thankfully we never got more than a light mist of rain and by the end of the day we were almost ready to begin raising the roof trusses onto the roof. Everyone had a great time and it was sad to say goodbye to them all! 

Day 2

Group from day 2!

The ladies came to work on day 2! Linda had come back for a second day, and we had a great group of women from Hollywood Casino in Maryland and from Lowe's come to help us out. Additionally we had a few guys who provided some much needed muscle and construction experience to the build site. Gabe gave us a pow-wow to start the day and told us today was the day we'd start putting up the roof trusses. We got right to work to finish preparing the top of the structure for these framing pieces. Linda and I worked on correcting some previous work over the door frames in the home. We had to cut out small wood blocks which were used to support them and re-drill them back in in different sections in order to make room for HVAC units to be placed through the newly created openings above the frame. 

Unfortunately I had to stand around for a good part of the day with other volunteers, which got a bit frustrating. However it taught us a great lesson for working on a construction site: sometimes the progress is slow and there's not much to do, but it's all part of the process. The tedious nature of some projects slows up overall progress of the group, but without pausing and letting people do these jobs the construction wouldn't be so sound and the big picture could never come to fruition. So we got to know each other and patiently awaited our next project. 

After lunch we had a second pow-wow, because IT WAS TIME. We were going to work together to start putting the roof on the home! But this task isn't easy, and the team had to be briefed seriously to ensure everyone was on the same page and understood what we were about to undertake. In order to place the trusses on the home, a group of us had to lift the truss from the backyard and lift it high over our heads to other volunteers standing on wooden scaffolding just inside the walls. Once we lifted it over the wall, volunteers would pass the truss over their heads and slide it along the framing of the walls already created inside the home. Once it got to the front of the house, the really dangerous part would begin. Two or three of us had to use 2x4's with notches cut in the side to hook onto the top of the truss, and together with other team members we would push the truss up into the upright position, where two of the guys would work to secure it to the home. 

Pushing the first truss into position
(I'm on the ground on the right side
holding a notched 2x4 just in
 front of the ladder)

Before we started Gabe made sure we all understood these instructions, and was frank in telling us if something went wrong, it would go very wrong. It was a little nerve-wracking to hear him give us the safety spiel. He was very blunt about the fact that, if done incorrectly, someone could be seriously injured. I really liked this about Gabe-he was usually sarcastic and made light of things on the site, but when it came to safety he took the job very seriously. He told us that if a truss looked like it was going to fall we either had to a) run and/or b) let go and c) just get.out.of.the.way. For those of us who were later up on scaffolding passing the frames over the top of the structure, failing to let go of a falling truss could pull them over the side of the house or could pull someone's arm out of its socket. For me and the other members of the team who later passed the trusses up over the walls and then pushed them up into place from the ground, failing to get out of the way could cause us to break our arms, our necks, or to generally crush us. Gabe was adamant that a hard hat will not save us-great pep talk right?!

Raising the roof-ha, get it?

The danger didn't deter us though, and we got right to it. I was part of the ground team. We passed the first truss up with Gabe's help over the wall and it began getting shifted to the front of the home. We ran around to the front to help, and it was a good thing. Just as we were about to place the truss in a position to get pushed up into position, an unsupported part of the frame began to dip. The weight from this part of the truss caused the truss to start falling. I ran underneath the truss and grabbed the dipping end and pushed it up as far as I could reach. Thankfully this was enough to keep it from falling, and the women with the notched poles were able to steady it enough so we could push it all the way into position. 

For the second truss, it became more difficult because it was freestanding. The first truss we had supported against a makeshift wooden rail barrier-the next truss was only supported by the two ends once they were screwed into the exterior walls of the home. In order to get this truss up the process was adjusted so four people with notched 2x4's had to stand on either side and support it just so, so the truss would be straight. Afterwards Gabe walked along a small ledge and drilled 2x4 slabs of wood in-between both trusses to secure the second one to the first. 

Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to get any more up before the work day had ended; however it was exhilarating to have accomplished what we had. It's definitely something that was out of our comfort zones, and it felt even better having accomplished it with mostly women volunteers. I loved that we all worked great together as a cohesive team, and utilized each other's strengths to do a job that is difficult and is incredibly important to do with precision. Without the team communicating and taking up whatever job needed to be done at a moment's notice, we wouldn't have been as successful as we were. 

I'm thankful for the opportunity to have built with the volunteers and staff at HFH-Susquehanna County. I also couldn't have gotten where I am without the support of two really great friends of mine, Brad and Rachel. I had to give them a little shout-out on the job site! A big thank you to them for sticking by me, supporting me, and helping me with my campaign to get me to my 1 year goal of reaching 5 states by August! 

End product after day 2

Upcoming States

Big news-I'm coming home folks! During the month of June I will be back in Minnesota, and plan to volunteer and cross off my fourth state! If anyone wants to join me and give Habitat a shot, contact me and let's get a group together! Habitat for Humanity is a great experience and is such a great way to help people in the community. Let me know if you'd like to join! You can message me on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.miller.3110567. Otherwise if you have my email or phone number you can hit me up there as well. 

I'll also be finishing up my first year goal of 5 states by making my way to Delaware by the end of the summer. 

Have a lovely day friends, until next time!

Lisa