Today was the first day of our SKP team’s HFH RV Care-A-Vanner build–our reason for being in Sheridan–and our first day of our first HFH build ever!  We were all eager to get started and convened at the project on Works street at 7:45AM, along with Brian (construction supervisor) and Matt (executive director) from the local HFH affiliate.  “Circle” started promptly at 8:00 AM.  This is a HFH tradition and protocol that includes announcements, safety reviews, project discussion, assignments, and a short devotional (participation optional).

Studying the blueprints.

We have a crew of 18 that includes a number of people with building and HFH experience, so teams were quickly assembled and working.  The “Works” house is a 14 foot wide by 76 foot long “shotgun” house; one story on a very thick slab that includes a radiant heating system.  The slab was already poured and cured with various pipes sticking out of it, and the lumber to frame and sheet the house was piled neatly at the back of the lot.  Linda and I volunteered to work on grinding and polishing the slab, which will be the finished floor of the house once it is sealed.

Before we started working Nancy and Angel showed up.  Nancy is the local HFH office/ReStore manager.  Angel is the mother of two children, one with special needs, and they are the “partner family” for whom this house is being built.  It was touching to hear her talk about how much this house will mean to her family.  The property for the Works house was obtained from the local Catholic Church where Angel is a parishioner (I think).  It is located on Works Street.

A group of eight young AmeriCorps volunteers has been doing HFH work in Sheridan the last couple of weeks, including work at this site.  Today was their last day working on the Sheridan projects and they showed up around 9:00 AM to help and wrapped up just before lunch.

The building begins.

Linda and I worked all day grinding and polishing the concrete slab, with additional help towards the end.  Armin, an AmeriCorps volunteer from St. Croix, U. S. Virgin Islands, worked with us in the morning.  The rest of our crew split up into smaller teams and spent the day cutting wood and assembling walls.

Safety is foremost on a HFH build, and Steve frequently reminded us to be careful, take breaks, and stay hydrated.  Lunch was provided and included lasagna, salad, bread, and cookies along with lemonade, iced tea, and vitamin water (donated by Coca-Cola).  We had salad, and it was good.

By 3:00 PM it was getting warm and we were all getting tired, but it was a good tired, having been a productive day.  We cleaned up the site and returned to our rigs, which are only a mile from where we are working.

After cleaning ourselves up, we gathered at 4:30 PM for our traditional SKP social hour.  Everyone bought their own beverage of choice, and many brought snacks to share.  By 6:00 PM the beverages and snacks were gone and we all returned to our RVs for dinner.  By the time we finished eating it had cooled off outside, so we went for a walk as we do most evenings, weather permitting.