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!

Saturday December 10th

This workday was an excellent day. We had a big crowd and could work on both houses at the same time. But more importantly, it was a big day for Sandtown Habitat for Humanity as they celebrated the 300th house dedication. What an accomplishment! Some of us have been around for quite a while and maybe have helped finish 10 houses but to realize the 300 home mark in an area of 4 blocks by 4 blocks has really pulled up the community and shared a lot of hoe with deserving families. It is definitely one of the reasons that many of volunteers love coming out and helping.

On this Saturday, we handled a variety of jobs including wall framing, laying joists for the third floor, and installing window boxes. The thought of having windows to keep out the cold in future workdays was very motivating, but without being able to access the third floor since the joists and subfloor have not yet been installed, we were unable to get window boxes up there. No windox boxes, means no windows so we will have to wait a little longer it have the houses sealed up from the cold.

Here, the crew works on installing window boxes on 1630:


The crew here installs joists for the third floor:


Framing goes up:


The crew we had Saturday:


Our next workday is January 7th, so we hope to see you there.

October 29th, 2011

It seems like the weather is always mentioned in our blog, so why not keep to that theme and say it was pretty cold this Saturday, and was in fact the first October snow in Maryland since my birth year in 1979 (you do the math if you want to know how old that makes me, lol). Although Baltimore did not get a lot of snow, the cold temperatures and lack of windows in our houses made getting work done a bit challenging. The Habitat staff was surprised we even showed up, as most groups canceled after learning the Saturday forecast. But us Northrop Grumman folk come from strong stock and committed to working the whole day in the cold. Hot coffee and hot pizza were big attractions during the day, and a hot shower left pretty sweet after the day was complete.
Our crew focused on 1630 for the whole day in part because it was slightly behind 1632 in receiving its subfloor for the second floor, and in part because we had just enough people for one house. Kurt made an appearance after missing several weeks, and although it was great to have him back, he had to work out a few kinks. Namely, he forgot that subfloor most all be laid in a straight line and be laid with the grove facing the next row to be laid. Subfloor plywood has a tongue on one side and a grove on the other along the length of the plywood, so that adjacent sheets can be tucked into one another to lock the floor in place as a single unit. If the sheets are out of alignment or if the tongue and grove doesn't line up, the floor isn't as stable and is prone to lots of squeaking. Kurt remembered to place a line down the length of the house to keep the first row of subfloor lines up, but on the second sheet flipped the grove with the tongue end. Result: we had to ply up the second sheet of plywood and flip it around, which is not an easy task, especially when the sheet was nailed in place along all the joists it rested on. After we managed to ply it up and flip it, it got nailed down again but was off the line. Result, we had to ply it up a second time and correct it. Needless to say it was a slow start, but we all make mistakes and found out Kurt was far better at prying up nailed down plywood than the rest of us. So we at least had some good laughs. Once we got into the flow of things, our crew managed to lay the entire subfloor over the course of the day for 1630 N Gilmor. Boo yah! I did not take any pictures though because of the snow and the eagerness of everyone to get home to warm up, watch football, and celebrate the Halloween weekend. So you will have to wait until the next blog to see our handy work, or better yet come on up and see it for yourself.

Saturday October 15th, 2011

Work continues smoothly on both our houses at 1630 and 1632 N Gilmor St, Baltimore, MD. We had yet another Team Build session come out Friday October 14th, where a specific group from Northrop Grumman ES volunteered together on their day off. We are continually grateful for the amount of groups interested in assisting our efforts in renovation these two houses. We also had a good sized group come out on Saturday to pick up right where the Friday team left off.

The Friday team worked hard and got half of the joists placed and stop-blocked for the second floor. We are using 2" by 10" solid wood instead of the I-beams we were using on the last two houses. This makes the joists much heavier but allows us to space the joists further apart and require less wood to build a solid structure. Stop blocks are then cut into 22" sections and placed along the framing to keep the joists spaced at exactly 2 feet intervals. The stop blocks also help keep the joists from twisting and moving when combined with bracket spacers in the middle of the joists. Once the joists are in place, subfloor sheets of plywood are glued and nailed over the joists to create a stable floor. The Friday team began laying subfloor for the second floor of 1632 N Gilmor St.

On Saturday the volunteer crew picked up right where the houses were left off at and finished laying joists for the the second floor of 1630, and finished most of the second floor subfloor in 1632. One problem that had to be tackled in both houses was framing the front wall of both houses, and getting a stable structure up against the front wall for the subfloor so that the framing of the rest of the front of the house would also be stable. Although it took some time and care due to the presence of windows and the front door, we came up with good solutions. And so progress can continue when we get back to work November 5th.

Here Dave Fine (who took these pictures) nails in a stop block.


Here the team works on laying subfloor in 1632 N Gilmor


Here the team works on the front wall framing in 1630.

Weekend of Oct 1rst, 2011

As Fall continues to settle into Maryland, work continues on our houses, and indeed on all the houses within Sandtown's focus block on N Gilmor St in Baltimore. We had Bill Marsh and his team come for a Team Build on Friday Sept. 30th and had a normal volunteer day on October 1rst. Our normal volunteer days are suffering a bit attendance-wise, perhaps folk are too busy preparing for winter, or perhaps our new volunteer tool that NGC has us using isn't as great as we had hoped for, but our team of Kurt, Andrew, and I are trying our best to refresh the volunteer pool, so if you are interested in the least, please come out. Northrop and Sandtown would love to have you. As always, no experience is necessary, as we teach as we go.

Anyways, back to the houses. 1632 received a coat of blue board on the inside of the first floor walls, which is dense insulation to help keep the house cooler in summer and warmer in the winter. Framing was then placed over the blue board.
Here the Friday team works on installing the blue board:

Here the Friday team works on finishing touches to the right wall framing before putting it in place:

The view of 1632 at the end of Friday:



For 1630 N Gilmor, that house did not yet have its subfloor installed, and the teams from Friday and Saturday worked to finish the subfloor. The same process applied to 1632 will now be applied to 1630 to insulate the house and to get ready to install joists for the second floor.

Here the team finishes the subfloor on the first floor by trimming back overhang over the stairway.


Many thanks to Bill Marsh and his team as well as our regular Saturday volunteers.