Oct. 27th 2012

Hurricane Sandy is rolling into Baltimore and many many other cities across the eastern seaboard today and tomorrow. But Saturday was a gorgeous day full of sunshine and moderate weather. A great day to give a little back to the community. Both our houses have drywall installed now and so we have been focused on turning the shell of the houses into livable space that makes a house a home. Baseboard trim, coats of primer and paint, and doors and door frames have been our focus the last two working Saturdays. This week we tackled some of the larger double closet doors, which is at least a two man task. As a crew of engineers though, there were many ideas on how to best install the doors efficiently and effectively. Doors need to be level and plumb and also high enough above the floor so that carpet doesn't impede the door. This is complicated by potential issues such as the framing isn't wide enough, the walls are slanted, or the floor is slanted. So it takes a little effort, but once a door is installed correctly it should work perfectly over its lifetime. There is plenty more to be done so please come and join us in two Saturdays. Here is a photo of a double closet door on the second floor of 1632 N Gilmor.

Sept. 14th and 15th

So the summer is unofficially over, and the weather is great. As a result, lots of folk are very interested in coming out to our Northrop Grumman sponsored Habitat houses and volunteering. We had a group of 17 from our purchasing group volunteer on Friday, and had a large crew from SMT engineering come on Saturday to help out. 1630 N Gilmor had its drywall complete so the Friday crew was able to apply the first coat of paint while 1632 still needed some drywall touches, but the Friday crew was able to clean up the drywall scraps. On Saturday, the crew focused hard on laying baseboard and trim and installed a few doors on 1630. Some window sills were cut and some other small details were worked out. So now the houses are starting to feel like homes in that they don't look like bare studs. There is paint, and trim, and electrical boxes (soon to have switches and outlets). Many thanks to the crews for their hard word. Have are some photos from the end of the day Saturday: View from the family room of 1630 N Gilmor:

View of 2nd floor back bedroom:

View of some of the crew from the end of the day:

6/25 - 6/29 Summer Build Week

It was yet another hot Summer Build Week at Sandtown Habitat. This was the 21rst annual summer build week at the Sandtown chapter, which is one reason this small chapter has completed over 305 homes to date since starting in 1989. And, this was probably the 21rst year the temperatures hit 90's or above (100 on Friday). I think Mother Nature likes watching so many people sweat it out as they work hard as a team to help those in need. Both our houses were nearly ready for drywall prior to the beginning of Build Week. But a lot must happen before the professional drywall hangers and drywall finishers (taping, spackling, sanding) enter the house. All the plumbing, Heating Venting and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and electrical must first be installed. A home inspection must occur and the house must get a thumbs up, and our crew also gets the tasks of finishing / fixing all the little mistakes that would make the drywall task difficult. So Build Week was a hard working week for all the volunteers that showed up to work on 1630 and 1632 North Gilmor St. At the end of the week, there were a few noticeable changes in the houses, a kitchen pantry here, dinning room nooks there, a new bathroom frame there. But many of the changes were smaller but needed to make edges flush for drywall, to box in ductwork or conceal water pipes. The teams also pitched in to paint an other house to prepare the house for a home dedication ceremony and made a few saw horses for public safety. We also got great news Wednesday morning during the morning announcements, that Northrop Grumman has dedicated another $40,000 for the cause, which will sponsor a new house once we finish and dedicate these current houses. Melissa Sandlin made the announcement on behalf of the Electronic Systems Community Outreach committe and has been a long time volunteer for us and for several other efforts. Here is a photo of a sweaty Wednesday crew:

4/13/2012 and 4/14/2012

It was a beautiful day to be working outside or in the house shells with all the windows open. That's right we got windows on both 1630 and 1632 N Gilmor St. We can use them to keep up nesting pigeons and the summer heat when it arrives. All the stairs are also in place thanks to teams working on the houses Friday and Saturday. On Friday a team build of Steve McCoy group worked during their day off while we had a normal Saturday build the following day as well. Framing the walls for the stairs will be a small challenge, as the staff wants to have angled 1/2 walls near each of the staircase platforms to make it easier to move furniture up and down the stairs. Certainly this is an important feature when the home owners get to move in. A lot of other loose ends were tied up by the teams as we get ready to do the interior wall framing. It won't be too long now until we can think about drywall and the final fixings. Keep an eye out for more volunteer days in the future as NGC's employee resource groups also look to get involved.

View from across the street, showing the windows installed, (our houses have the plain white doors).


Here the team passes materials up the stairs for work on upper floors.


Strengthening the roof rafters by doubling up the roof joists.

3/17/2012 St. Patricks Day

This past saturday was my first time back to our houses since December. It was great to see the progress that had been made on both houses. Kurt and Andrew along with the volunteers and habitat staff did a great job making significant progress including finishing the third floor subfloor on each house and getting the stair cases installed. Here are some photos from 1630.

First floor stairs:


Second floor stairs:


Saw shop on the second floor:


Blue board along 2nd floor back wall:



We had a good crew today of regulars so that even though we only had 9 people, we split up in teams of three and worked on both houses framing the exterior walls between the 3rd floor and the roof. We certainly missed having more people though as we can always use help even if volunteers don't have experience. Typically in past houses we would build a rectangular walls with a triangular wall on top of it to meet the slanted roof. This time however we built trapezoidal walls where the top of the wall matches the slant of roof. In this way there isn't a weak point along the wall and so the wall can help support the weight of the roof.

We also got word that Sandtown Millworks will be using many of the old joists we removed and saved from 1630 and 1632 to build furniture for the Baltimore community. Not only is the furniture beautiful but it keeps this thick lumber out of the landfill. Acquiring lumber of more than 2 inches think and 16 feet long would be quite an impossibility today. Please check out their website or Facebook page to see how they convert 100 year old stressed lumber into unique furniture pieces.

Thank you to everyone who gave up part of their St Patricks Day to participate. We appreciate our crew of regulars but have plenty of room and people willing to mentor new volunteers so please consider joining us.

Here is a pic of the trapezoidal walls being added to the third floor.


Here is most of the crew plus a few Habitat staffers that supported our St. Patty's Day workday.

1/21/12 A Cold Day in January

Kurt will be updating soon!

1/7/12 First Volunteer Day of the New Year

Kurt will be updating soon!