Our first work day of 2011

One of the interesting tidbits about such a long term restoration project is the change in the operating conditions as work progresses. A few of the volunteers used their memories of the hot hot hot conditions back in the summer as warming thoughts to get through the fact that the outside temperature was in the teens and the house was in the 40s at best. We had a propane tank heater to keep us all from freezing but it was a struggle to keep warm.

At least our task of installing insulation around the house required us to wear long sleeves and pants, as well as face masks and gloves to keep the fiber glass fibers from irritating our skin. Something that is easier said than done since the fibers seem to get everywhere. Still the dedicated crew made great progress. We installed R-13 insulation in all walls shared with the next door row homes. R-19, which is just a thicker roll compared to the R-13 roll, was installed in exterior walls in the front and back of the house, and R-38 was installed in the ceiling of the third floor to insulate the living space from the attick crawl space and roof.

Here Tonya the future homeowner gets ready to install another roll of insulation between the studs on the first floor.


Here Suzanne works on installing the thick ceiling insulation.


Finally here is a picture of the crew after the days work.

December 11th, 2010

Last year at this time we were in a mad dash to finish our house by the end of the year. Our house was to be dedicated on the 17th of December only to be postponed due to a two foot snowstorm that brought Baltimore to a stand still. So in respect to the weather and hustle of last year, this work day was mellow. The weather although a little cold was sunny and allowed for lots of progress on the deck that now has all its floor planks and most of its railings completed. The framing of house is nearly complete as well, where only one basement wall is missing. The HVAC work has already begun and spray insulation is just around the corner. That means that our house is nearing the finishing stage when the drywall goes up and house takes on a drastic new look. That is also the point where doors and trim get installed, painting occurs, and each room nears completion. However, that process will probably have to wait to 2011 due to the holidays and having to wait for the electricians, plumpers, and spray insulation folk to finish their work first.

Here Tonya shows off the new brick work done on the front of the house:


Here Jean and Urban finish off the deck planks:


Here is a picture of the whole team standing on the deck:

Updates since August

As you may have well realized, it has been a while since we published a post about the progress on our house. It turns out that Andrew and Kurt are great at making progress on the house but not so great at documenting it here. Since I've been away working on my own projects and travelling for work, that meant that no blog entries have occurred since late August.

No biggie though because the house continues to progress thanks the helping hands of many Northrop Grumman employees and their friends and families. We've had five regular work days at the house and 2 team build opportunities, where specific groups from NGC work on the house on an off Friday. As a result the house is looking good. The roof was finished including securing the original hand-crarved lattice vent to the new roof. All the internal framing has been completed, and work has begun on a deck to overlook the beautiful sod that was recently put in. Two tubs have been put in each of the upstairs bathrooms, and a storage area was added under a turn in the stairs to use all the available space in the house. All the fireproofing has also taken place. Soon the professionals in electrical, plumbing and HVAC will come in to the house to do their jobs. We also got the great news that spray insulation will be used. Not only does it do a great job of insulating a house, it also keeps us volunteers from having to install fiberglass sheets of insulation, which is one of our least favorite jobs. So thanks to everyone that can out and supported us so far, now we are reaching that sprint before the dedication where the framing starts to look like a house, and then at the dedication, the house turns into a home for Tonya and her family.

Check out some of the latest pics:
Check out the tub waiting for some plumbing.


Here is a great picture from the 3rd floor of the deck being constructed:


Here is a great view of the new lawn and the team from the last team build of the year:


Here is a nice view of the deck and stucco along the back wall:

8/20/2010 and 8/21/2010

On Friday August 20th and Saturday the 21rst we were able to work on our house and make a lot of progress. On Friday, a team build activity involving the Space Systems Mechanical Group at Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems gave up a day off to work on the house. Organized by Paul Lisiewski, the group of eight volunteers helped install the stairs in the house, which is not an easy task but one that probably valued as much as having a roof over your head since stairs mean no more climbing up steep ladders with tools, or lumber or 50lb bags of mortar. As you can see, the stairs look great. The exposed brick along all the stairs will also be a lovely feature for this house.




The crew also worked on building the wedges for the roof which are nailed to the top of the third floor framing and give the roof a slight pitch so rain water runs off the roof. New homes today have much steeper roofs, but the row homes in Baltimore, built in the early 1900's or earlier have this slight pitch, and it works well. Roof rafters are nailed to the wedges much like the floor joists are nailed to the exterior wall framing, and then plywood is nailed across it, much like subflooring. Felt roofing paper and then tar is added on top to complete the roof. The Friday crew got a few rafters in place, and on Saturday we picked up right where they left off, with the goal of getting roof plywood over the brand new stairs to protect from the elements.

Here a crew works from the neighboring roofs to get the rafters in place. We were planning on using 2x10 wood from rafters, but decided to use the I-beam boards instead since they are just as strong and weigh a lot less. The next picture shows a second crew completing the wedges further down roofline, while the last picture shows some of the plywood in place.







All in all it was a good day and much progress was made, unfortunately though, we had our first major accident. John, a brand new volunteer was the victim of an angry nail. While we were nailing stop blocks in between the rafters, a nail from the nail gun went into the wood it was supposed to, but got deflected by a large knot in the wood. The nail traveled out of the wood and flew four feet through the air until it found John's arm. The 2 and 1/2 inch nail completely lodged itself in John's arm. It was a total freak accident, but ruins our streak of nearly six years without any incidents. John went to the hospital and x-rays showed the nail did not hit any bone, tendions, or ligaments. So we feel very lucky for that. He is in good spirits and has just a little soreness after a few days. We wish him a speedy recovery.

7/24/2010

Well I may have stated in the past how hot our workdays were this year, but as the ol' saying goes, we hadn't seen nothing yet. Temperatures this workday topped 107 degrees! Despite the heat, a dedicated crew including the home owner wanted to work.
Since the last time we were in the house, which was back during Summer Build Week, the habitat staff added the landing for the stairs in the house. This made it slightly easier to get up to the third floor were most of the work needed to be done at this point. The rain two weeks before had not done too much damage thanks to our new system of shellacking the subfloor once it is nailed down to the floor joists.

So work kicked off on the third floor by our small crew. Despite the heat and the smaller number of people, we managed to build several exterior walls, including the front wall which is probably one of the most important. That is because it supports the 100 year old ornamental roof work that is irreplacable. Once this wall was in place we could finish removing the last old roof rafters to get ready to build a new roof. We also got a large portion of the back wall up, complete with plywood exterior. Not a bad work day for packing up early to avoid heat exhaustion. Thankfully no one got sick or even sun burnt thanks to sunscreen and lots of cold water.

The first picture is of our working day sans Kurt, Rob, and Randy (who served as our photographer as well as a volunteer)


This picture is looking down from the third floor at the landings for the stairs:


Here is the crew placing the front wall to hold the ornamental wood work which is not pictured:


Finally a view of the back of the house with exterior plywood on the third floor.

Our 7/10/2010 workday

For those of you in Maryland and the general area, you know that things have been a little hot lately. Our summer build week was during a major heat wave and following week included another heat wave with temperatures breaking 100 degrees for three days. Despite the heat and near 100% humidity in the air, we had no rain in the Baltimore area. We were actually approaching drought conditions, so it was with mixed feelings when we awoke to a rain storm on Saturday. On one hand, we really needed the rain, and it would keep the nasty temperatures down during our workday. But, with no roof on our house yet, we knew it was going to be a soggy day - wet floors, wet lumber, wet workers. After arriving at the warehouse, though, the Habitat staff informed us that they had a magical plan to keep us dry . . . move us into a house with a roof! So we left our roof-less house and headed over to 1412 Mount Street - another house in the Sandtown area sponsored by T Rowe Price. They were short on volunteers for the day, so our crew of 15 headed over there and found an interesting house. Here are a pictures of the house, with Dan and Jess posing in the front "window".



The house is so interesting because it is a row home, like so many others in Baltimore, but its neighboring row homes are missing. It's large window areas also are unique to the area - signifying that this house had a make-over since it was first built in the late 1800's. Unfortunately for us, it is also unique because some mistakes were made in the floor plan of this rehab. So a large portion of our crew spent the day ripping out a portion of the first floor and entrance landing to fix the entrance into the house, which was too steep. We had to make the entrance area larger in area, so more steps could be added to cover the vertical distance without each step being too steep. This meant cutting floor joists, removing the landing, and creating a potentially not-so-safe environment. So we whipped up a temporary wall for support for the joists, and were very careful and cautious in working on that part of the house. The rest of crew tackled laying new joists and subfloor on the second floor. The rain kept the temperature in the house in the mid 70's which made working much more pleasant, but we look forward to working on our own house again soon.

Here are some more pictures of us in action:

Summer Build Week - Part Two

Despite the increasing heat as the week continued on so did progress. Wednesday we had a small crew come out but were joined by our homeowner and her family, and a few other independent volunteers. The day started of with a bit of re-work but we were able to make significant progress in laying down the sub floor on the third level. After a short post lunch hiatus due to a lack of generator fuel, we were able to get most of the framing re-work completed.

Wednesday's Crew




Thursday we had a huge crew including a dozen Northrop folks plus a group from Erickson's IT department joined in. We were able to complete the second floor exterior walls and finish laying all of the sub floor on the third floor. A team started constructing the third floor walls.



We were also able to get the stairwell on the second floor framed in, helping to eliminate the un-obstructed three story drop.



Thursday's Team



Friday we had another good turnout of Northrop folks. Picture taking was kept at a minimum, but framing progressed well. We started to frame and sheath the back walls on the third floor including working the logistics of moving the required plywood and gypsum sheathing to the third floor. A landing was built between the second and third floors which will ultimately accept a set of switchback stairs. A brave crew was able to cut back the roofs on the adjacent houses allowing our house to have a higher roof line to meet an 8 foot ceiling height throughout the third floor.

Friday's Group