Our Strong Tower: 1st Work Weekend

Sunday, July 15, 2012

1st Work Weekend

We started are the morning off with elections. John was elected President. Deena was elected secretary. Debbie was elected safety officer. Brandon was elected Treasure. After we finished our meeting, we started to string our property lines.

Fences was added behind Debbie's house.

Stringing the property.

Pulling the string tight.

Cutting rebar for the corners of the property and the houses.

Checking the property line.

Adding the stake at the front of the property.

Marking out the 1st house.

Marking out the second home.

House 1 chalked out and ready for the footings to be dug.

Measuring.

Deena's property chalked out.

We began our 2nd day with a safety meeting. Then we started marking out two more houses. We were really excited to mark out our house. The excitement was gone after working on it for 4 hours. So excited when finally got it right. Only to have to move it 5 inches.

Finishing up digging the footings near a tree.

Brandon and Patricia's house.

Deena measuring my house for the 100th time.

Debbie and Deena working together to correct the 2" that we were off.

John measuring our house. We lost track of how many times we measured our house.

Chalking our house. Deena is on our front porch.

Our house finished from the front door side.

Our house from the drive way.

Deena holding her chalk bucket.

Deena modeling her tool belt with pink hammer.

More measuring.

Jacob hammering in a stake.

And more measuring.

By the end of the weekend, we had chalked out 9 houses, 2 house almost finished, and one shed moved. We worked hard.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Home Ownership Program

We are doing a program through a organization that has been building homes in our area for 40 years. The program is designed to help lower income families buy homes. There will be a total of 24 homes built. The homes are divided into two groups. We are in the first group of twelve families. We work together to build all twelve families' homes. By the end of the process we will know our new neighbors very well. We are required to work 40 hours a week, split between two people. We do most of our work on the weekends. There is a contractor working with us to teach us how to build a home. We can not move in until all twelve homes are complete. It usually take one year to build twelve homes. We don't do plumbing, electrical, drywall, or stucco. We are the labor. The labor is our down payment down, sweat equity.

Deena and the Boys

Hi, I am Deena. I have four awesome young men (21, 19, 17, and 12). We have always wanted a home of our own. The place we are in was supposed to be temporary housing sixteen years ago. Now God is giving us a new adventure. We are going to build our own home and eleven others with our new neighbors. And God blesses us with neighbors who we already know! Jacob is my co-builder and my two teenagers will be helping as much as they can. God is always providing
for me when I least expect it. He is so amazing.

Where did this journey start?

For me, Tricia, this journey began with me wanting to own a home and God using this desire to grow my faith and dependence on Him. I have been trying to buy a home for 6 years with my husband, John. We tried many times to buy a home, but God always said no. A year ago, we finally decided to stop our search and learn to be content where God has us. God had different plans for us. In August, we applied for a self-help housing project. In October, we were accepted. I then told our neighbor (for 7 years) and friend Debbie. She applied and was accepted. In January, I told Deena a friend from church. She applied and was accepted. These homes are such a blessing. We sit in awe of what God has given us. We are excited to get started on the homes. God is our strong tower. He will give us the strength to build these homes.