88 students from four different universities on their alternative spring breaks came to work with us in Tuscaloosa last week. 42 of them came from George Washington Univ. in DC, the rest were from UVA, USC and FSU. I got half of the GWU students and we continued working on the new home of DeQuisha Land. We are only in the second week of volunteer construction ( the week or two before the subcontractor had poured the footings, foundation and slab upon which the framing starts). We are at 12 Juanita Drive and Stephen Scott, one of our other house leaders, got the other half of the GWU students at 114 Juanita Drive. Both of the homes were started at the same time, but it's not a competition! (Sidebar- in the english language, two negatives make a positive, but you've never heard of two positives making a negative until. . . .) Yea, right! So, were keeping an eye on each other's progress. The exterior of both homes is nearly complete and the trades have all nearly completed roughing in the plumbing, electric and heat.
     Stephen Scott worked with his dad, Mark Scott at the Bay-Waveland affiliate of Habitat for nearly six years and helped to build 200 homes for people on the Gulf Coast . Unfortunately for us here, Stephen has put in for his resignation and his last day with us will be April 15th. He will be sorely missed. He is moving to be closer to his family in Colorado. I sure that all of you reading this who have had the pleasure of working with Stephen know how much we will miss him.
     We nearly finished installing the Hardi plank all around the house. We started the week off with hand nailing it and then later in the week we brought out the nail guns. Usually, if there are lots of people, hammering is a good activity to keep everyone busy, but sometimes, like when youre not competing witht he house up the street, its a good thing to bring out the nail guns. One of the favorite parts of my job is showing young ladies how to use nail guns. At first, they are all jittery and nervous and don't even want to touch the guns, but after a while, theyre like, bang, bang, bang, I need more nails! It's empowering!
     We made a little gable decoration piece on this house (see picture) . I don't klnow what it's called but it looks nice. One of our RV Care-A-Vanners was asking me how much it cost to make it. I answered truthfully that I didn't know, but not that much. And then the house has a little something that makes it special ffrom all of the others on the block. A little fru-fru- KnowmImsayin?
     Trying to finish this one substantially complete by April 1st, when I'm scheduled to head to Luuuuhville, Kintucky to work on the Millard Fulller Legacy Build, sponsored by the Fuller Center. The Fuller center was started by the same man that founded Habitat, Millard Fuller. He passed away suddenly after a respiratory illness in 2009. The MFLB has been an annual event since then. Last year it was held in Atlantic City New Jersey. This year I offered to go one week early to help with the pre-build/preparation. We will be doing 10 rehabs and 2 new construction. I will be house leader on one of the rehabs. I actually enjoy rehab more than new. Love that demo work. Bugs,dust,heavy hauling and then you put it back like new. Mmm Hmm!
      Got two groups here this week. One from a high school in Mass. and another from Montgomery College (not sure if its the MC outside of DC or not- I'll find out tommorrow mornign and let you know next week- stay tuned)   That's all for this week- See ya-   Peter