February 1st was a joyful day in the lives of Eddie and Nicole. That was the day last week that their new Habitat home on 7th street in Alberta City was completed and celebrated with a dedication ceremony.   The mayor of Tuscaloosa, Walt Maddox, was in attendance as well as the local councilman and a host of sponsors of the home. One of the sponsors was Bruno's, which is a local food store, and as part of their gift to Nicole and Eddie's family was a fully stocked kitchen cabinets and refrigerator with all the foodstuffs that they carry in their stores. Nice touch, to open the beautifully crafted-by-Dewayne kitchen cabs and see them full with food already. They also brought quite a spread of deli plate sandwhiches for everyone to enjoy afterwards. The house looked perfect (good job, Cat). The city inspector stopped by earlier in the day to pass our final building inspection and commented to Brandon that it was the nicest Habitat home he had ever seen.    
     Also last week we continued work at Y's Acres to get the camp ready to house out of town volunteers. We got one of the two sleeping trailers ready, made bunk beds. In the dining hall/kitchen building we formed a new kitchen out of Re-store materials (thank you Jeanie) and used restaurant equipment. Also he had to bite the bullet and go ahead and install a new septic system that our plumber Aaron gave us quite a god deal on.
     This week we have two groups working with us. One is from Lancaster, Pa. and the other is from a church near New Orleans with a group called RHINO. Restoring Hope in New Orleans. Theyve been working with N.O. Habitat but have also come out on mission trips out of state recently. Were glad theyre here.
      This past Saturday, I returned to work at Keith and Amy's on 4th street in Alberta City. It had been languishing for the past 2 weeks while we were out playing at Y's Acres, but were back kickin some house butt since then. Exterior is almost complete, all the scaffolding is down and packed up on the trailer ready for its next job, the tile in the kitchen was laid today and the whole inside is painted two coats and all the cement backer board and black felt is installed on the floors, ready for the tile (kitchens done already, grouting tommorrow) and Keith and Amy stopped by late in the afternoon and helped me install the first starter straight run down the hall of tongue and groove bamboo flooring, ready for a fresh start in the morning.
     The new foundation next door is in and part of the crew has been prepping the safe room to pour concrete tommorrow. We will also fill all the cells of the cinder blocks wherever the threaded rods come up.
      Sorry no pictures this week. I left my car unlocked at the site and evidently someone needed my notebook computer and GPS more than I did. Oh well. Life, and this blog, go on courtesy of the library's computer. See ya next week- P.S. Happy Birthday to Miss Nancy!