This past Saturday Mr. Rojo and I were childless. We left the monkeys with the grandparents while we were out building the Habitat for Humanity house. This is our 2nd year volunteering with the Habitat through our company. It was such a great experience. Last year we helped built a home for a single mom with 2 children. This year we helped built one of the first townhouse in Atlanta. Typically, Habitat built mainly single family home in the Atlanta area. But as we all know the rising cost of land, it has become more expensive to find more afforadable land. So this year the Habitat starts a new project to build townhouse. I am so glad to be a part of this great project.
The day started early at 8am. The site was in the downtown area so for us we had to leave at around 6:30am. There was a paving project on I-75/I-85 that closed 4 left lane.. so we avoided the traffic by going on the local street thanks to our faithful Magellen. We got there right at 8am. Our company and a few other companies worked together on these townhomes. They also provided breakfast, snacks and lunch. After a quick breakfast, we met up with the home leaders who were there to facilitate and assign tasks to all the volunteers.
Before we started, they gave us the safety drill and the background on each of the homeowner. One of the main thing that a lot of people might have the misconception about the Habitat is that the house is free. But it's NOT. Homeowner, not only has to go through strict background check and financial check, they also have to put in sweat equity of 250 hours with the Habitat. The homeowner is paying for the mortgage themselves. The house is NOT free. However, the price is more affordable due to the help from volunteers to help lower the cost of labor which typically accounts for more than 60% of the home price.
This week was week 6 in the building phase. Each home typically takes about 7 weeks from start to finish. So most of our tasks this day were painting inside and outside, putting up the shingles on the roof and touch up on the porch. Mr. Rojo who afraids of height actually volunteered for the roofing task. And I was so proud of him since he did it! I was working on various painting tasks mostly outside touch up. It was hot. I was in pain after the long hot summer day outside. But there is this sense of accomplishment knowing that what I did today makes a difference in a family life. We will sign up again next year. We are addicted. It's very addictive doing the work with the Habitat. It was a great Saturday!
So how was your weekend?
4 comments:
What a wonderful, and fulfilling project to be part of. I've been wanting to do something like this as well....just have to get my lazy self together and do it!!
That is great! Job well done!
Wow--what a great cause. I didn't know the new homeowner had to put in so much work, plus pay a mortgage on top of that. Makes sense.
I'm so thankful there are volunteers like you. Even though I didn't volunteer my own time, I donated money to our local habitat and ran in their annual 5K. When my daughter is older and I can leave her, I'll definitely participate in the building process. You're right that it's so fulfilling to be a part in helping the family.
Post a Comment