"That wasn't there last week!"  That's what Dr. Bob from Minnesota said about what used to be a a flat deck up on piers at the site at Orangewood. This is one of the homes that (oops) the piles were driven two feet too low.   The fix for this one was relatively easy since there was no house built on the deck yet. Basically what we did was build a two story house, only thing is the first floor is only 16" high. That got the finished floor elevation to the height that FEMA and the United Way (our source of funding for the four homes we are building) said it had to be. We hired four Brazilian fellows to build the new deck and the shell of the home for us. Our voluntee,r count has been down a bit. This past week we had only two new folks with us from Binghamton, NY and about five long term volunteers. Oh yes, and John and Robin Overholt from Virginia, some serious boomerangers who have worked with us for 15 or 16 weeks over 6 years are back for a few more weeks to help finish up the three other homes that are hovering around 90 percent complete. So, last friday, the three brazilians show up and in one day install the new deck. We (Doug, Dr. Bob, my son Alex and I) installed the R-30 insulation in the framing before they glued and nailed the new deck down. That wouldn't have been any fun installing 10" thick insulation in a 16" high crawl space after the plywood was installed. the next day all of the exterior and interior wall were constructed and erected, lined and braced. Next day trusses for the hip roof and roof sheathing and wall sheathing. Next days shingles and new front deck and two sets of stairs leading up to the new raised floor lever. These guys were not playing. Wilmer, the lead guy, has built over 400 homes. He is just non-stop. I think he is only 5'6", but strong like bool. Aaron and Brittany from New york helped there all ek. To speed them along we helped feed the trusses up to them and stacked all the shingles on the ridge of the roof once the sheathing was completed. Once the shingles were installed and the stairs up to the house were built, we did a run with the trailer down to Jump Basin to collect the leftover 12 foot drywall and lugged that up the stairs. That was fun showing Alex the way I used to carry 12 by myself up the stairs. The old man's still got it. (I did only show him once though). So, Orangewood is rolling along and in sight of cathcing up with the other three. Not sure if we'll make end of June deadline, but we'll have a good run at it. This week we have ten yoot coming to work with us from St. Joe's Prep school in Philly as well as Ms. Rebecca Boon, who I met at Koinonina back in December.   Rebecca will be working with us for most of June. My son Alex is working so hard everyday, getting up at 6:00 am and working with us all day. His goal is to save up to buy a used car at the end of his stint (also end of June). We are lobbying Steve Marksoff to sell him his Subaru. Stay tuned. See ya next week.   Peter 
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