Dedication is approaching

Dear followers, The dedication date is just around the corner on April 20th, and the atmosphere is crackling with excitement. We hope you can come join us at noon, as we dedicate 1630 and 1632 N Gilmor along with several other houses. This Saturday was the second to last planned work day on the houses, and a lot of jobs were on the to do list. A team of experts were there to assist, and thankfully, we got a lot of work done, including lots of painting, as the dry wall crew touched up a lot of their work, causing lots of new bare spots that needed painting, cutting banisters, trimming the back doors, toe kicks for the kitchen cabinets, and so forth. But there are quite a lot of tasks to still be completed so hopefully we will get everything done by the 20th. Please come out and support the dedication and / or come volunteer on these houses one last time. Here are some snapshots of the new kitchen in 1632 and the dining room shelves too.

March 2nd, 2013

Work continues on the houses as the dedication approaches. We had some snow flakes greet us throughout the day, but also a decent amount of sunshine, so working outside wasn't too brutal as we prepped a lot of the window sills for 1632 for install. Gary and the Habitat team installed the kitchen cabinets in 1630 over the course of the week, and continue to push the houses along as well. And yet there is still much to do from caulking, and painting to staining and installing small things like shelves in the pantries, mirrors and towel racks in the bathrooms, and tending to the little details. The future homeowners from 1626 N Gilmor were in attendance and helped cut shelving for the closets in our houses. We learned that Brittany is expecting a baby as well, so the Sandtown community will be growing soon. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to snap any photos but will try to do so next week. Or you could come down and see for yourself. Just visit our signup link to join us.

Feb 16th, 2013

Saturday was an extremely productive day. Kurt wrangled up a group of about 25 from his plant in Sykesville, MD. The crew came ready to go, and quickly mastered many tasks. 1632 N Gilmor got a fresh coat of egg shell paint (Habitat's favorite color), while 1630 got touch ups where needed. All the window sills got measured and half of them cut out and ready to go. We got another round of staining in on various pieces such as stair and shelf caps, and installed several window sills that were previously stained and sealed with polyurethane. Trim to hide the sill seams was also installed on these sills. Everyone was in good spirits despite a little chill in the air, and both houses now are one step closer to being completed. The Sandtown staff told us that a home owner has been chosen for 1632 N Gilmor so we are very excited to meet them. We are now in the process of determining a new dedication date, where we can guarantee that both houses will be completely finished and ready to welcome their new homeowners and family. Thank you to all who have volunteered with us, and we hope to see you in the next few weeks as we strive to finish and, of course, at the dedication ceremony.

Dedication Approaches

It has been a while since we posted on the status of the Northrop Grumman sponsored houses with Sandtown Habitat for Humanity. for that I apologize, but work has continued steady since our last post in late October. some days have been quite nice, while others a bit cold like this past Saturday. But volunteer turnout has been steady and even growing, and for that we thank you. We recently migrated our volunteer tool to the web, namely SignUpGenius that has made managing things a little easier, and a recent ES ad campaign in the FYI has also helped to let people know we need help putting the finishing touches like spackle, caulk, and paint in the house to make the house into a finished product, a.k.a an actual home for a deserving family. Unlike many other years, this set of houses at 1630 and 1632 N Gilmor has seen turn over on who will be acquiring the houses once they are complete. Normally, the home owner is known well in advance and gets the chance to work along us. This shows them what is really behind the drywall, cabinets, sinks, etc. and also allows us volunteers to get to know the main homeowner and their family well before the dedication date. 1630 and 1632 have had a few home owners each that for one reason or another could not complete the Sandtown Habitat program and therefore be eligible to purchase the house, but as it stands right now, Danny is set to inherit 1630, but no one has been choosen to inherit 1632. As such we have been more focused in recent weeks to finish 1630 and only working on 1632 on the side. Jobs performed since late October include installing a few more doors, cutting and installing trim and baseboard, cutting custom window sills and stair caps, installing closet shelves, painting, caulking, cleaning out the basement, filling in a few holes in the basement with cement, and installing luan plywood over the subfloor in areas where linoleum will be installed. Work continues in these areas and more (bathroom vanity install, kitchen cabinet install, dining room custom shelves, etc.) in future. So please come down and help us out. Here are some photos from Jan 12th of the crew performing various tasks: Kurt posing by a door after installing it:

James posing as well:

Measuring and fixing custom window sills:

Mike and Rob take a quick breather outside.

Gary and Danny search for the right tools for us in the Habitat truck.

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: