Summer Build Week underway.

Monday June 21rst and Tuesday June 22nd was the kickoff of Summer Build Week, an annual event at Sandtown where hundreds of volunteers show up during the week to work on 20+ houses, landscaping, and to see and feel the work being done in the community. This year marked the 19th year that Sandtown held the event, but the first year where Northrop Grumman had a significant presence. This year also was poignant due to the recent passing of Allen Tibels who founded the Sandtown Habitat Affiliate.
May we remember Allen, his vision, and his ability to get all people to believe in building Sandtown as a community, not just a bunch of restored houses.


After starting the morning with announcements, many thanks to all the sponsors, churches, homeowners, schools, and groups that volunteered for the day and singing a few songs, we headed to the house. On Monday, we had group of about 12 Northrop folk that showed up and Tuesday we had a mix of three Northrop people and a few friends from Stanley Black and Decker and the US Coast Guard. In that time we made a lot of progress on getting the second and third floor ready. We framed the exterior walls on the second floor and the homeowner and her family exposed the brick wall in the front foyer. We also got all of the joists laid for the third floor and began laying subfloor down on the third floor. All this occurred in the 90+ degree heat. Thankfully the Build Week support group did very well to make sure we had lots of cool liquids available, as well as slices of fruit. Our lunch break was also nice to cool down in the shade and to sit and meet other volunteers from various locations around Maryland and even New York City.

Here are just a few pics I took at the end of the day Tuesday. In the first one you can see us packing up the tools and power cords for the day, and well as the rear of the house where the new second floor windows and framing and the third floor joists are visible. In the second is the view from the second floor.



Many thanks to everyone that came out Monday and Tuesday, and I hope that the 19th Annual Summer Build Week continues to be safe and productive.

-Rob

May 15, 2010

Another wonderful Saturday work day. This week we had a fairly small group, however were able to enjoy the company of several people who had not been out before as well as several we had not seen in a while. We were also joined once again by Tonya, our homeowner.



We started the day by moving a fresh load of material into the house that was dumped in the alley earlier in the morning. 100+ 2x4s and 25+ sheets of plywood. Figured it was best to take care of this while everyone was still fully charged rather than after everyone was beat and the crew started to 'dissipate'.

In picking up where the Manufacturing group left off, we had several additional I-joists to install on the second floor. In addition there were more squash blocks and rim joists to install before we were ready to lay the subfloor.



The task of framing out the fist floor bathroom was also completed including the stairwell framing for the stairs up to the second floor.



Despite several of us being covered in glue by the end of the day, we were able to lay all of the subfloor on the second level and get a protective coat of shellac to protect our work from the weather. We also started to sheath the back framed section of the house to start being able to close up and secure the house at the end of the day.



We are taking the next 2 week cycle Saturday (the 29th) off for Habitat's observation of Memorial Day, but are looking forward the 12 of June as well as Summer Build Week June 21 through 25.

May 14, 2010

We would like to extend a special thanks to the Manufacturing / Operations group who held a team building event on May 14. This group really found their rhythm and made amazing progress.

When the group arrived they were greeted with a clear first floor deck, and when they left the house was almost ready for the second floor deck installation. Walls were constructed down both sides of the house and most of the second floor I-joists we placed.



Additionally the basement stair well was framed in allowing for the 1st floor half bath floor to be installed.



The Manufacturing / Operations Team

May 1, 2010

Our workday was a gorgeous sunny day which is fairly normal for May. But, what was not so normal was the 90 degree thermometer making our workday feel more like July than May. Despite the heat and sun, though, we had a great turnout and accomplished a lot. Our big focus was to continue working on the first floor's subfloor. Most of the joists had been laid during the last workday, so all we had to do was glue and nail sheets of 3/4" subfloor plywood onto the joists. Seems easy enough but execution can be difficult since the plywood locks up with its neighbor sheets and since you have to be a careful balance beam walker if on the joists themselves. Walking on "doubles", where two joists are connected to each other is easy though since a 6" beam is a lot easier to walk on than a 3" beam.
Another major task of the day was getting the fencing installed. Poles installed immediately after the foundation was poured were trimmed to the right height and capped. Fence pole was strung through the caps for support and then the fence is clamped to the poles. Although not quite finished, the fence is looking great already.
To prevent our lovely new first floor from warping in this rainy time of year, and coat of shallack was applied to the floor. This causes the water to run off without being absorbed into the wood. Our last house had to have two floors reinforced with more plywood because too much warping occurred during rains. So tarps we used were not full proof and water that got under the tarp would be trapped and cause more damage.

Here are some photos of our efforts:

April 17th

Since we were late in kicking off the new house, we decided to have back to back volunteer days in April.
Another great showing from Northrop volunteers helped us put together another successful day.
Work continued removing old concrete from the back yard and leveling it out with extra dirt from the basement. There was still a good deal of old contrete to haul to the dumpster. Also, contractors poured the basement floor and put in the fountation wall in the back of the house where there previously was nothing, so we had to clean out the the house as the contractors left lots of rubble in the basement.



Once the basement was cleaned out, we started framing the basement walls.



We put together a very efficient assembly line and even before lunch we were putting in the 1st floor beams.

After lunch we continued working in the back yard and with framing the basement and putting in beams. By the end of the day we had made some great progress. We were able to finish up most of the first floor, build the opening for the first flood-basement stairs, and get the back yard completely cleaned out and ready for contractors to pour a small patio.

The weather was terrific and everyone had a fun time. Great job everyone on a very successful day!

Kick off of our New House

For those of you who followed the progress of our original house at 1606 North Gilmor St, thank you. But, that house is complete and the Smith family are enjoying residing in their new home. Our focus has now shifted to another big project - namely refurbishing 1118 North Fulton Ave. - another three story row home in the Sandtown area of Baltimore.

A lot has happened behind the scenes to get this new house, first Jim Pitts and Ted Imes informed us that Northrop would sponser another house at the dedication. We then sat down with Habitat to decide which house would be a good candidate for us. The city sold the house to Sandtown Habitat, and an architect drew up the refurbish plans for the house. Permits were acquired for the plans, and the Habitat staff gutted the house which was in aweful shape due to lead paint in the house, and just lots of rotting wood.

By the time Kurt, myself and our newest team leader Andrew got there on 4/08/2010 the house looked like this:


There is no roof, no back wall, and nothing but dirt in the basement, not so good. But, with a little love, a lot of hard work, some paint, and before you know it, it will be a home.

We got started on adding the love and the hard work on Saturday April 10th with a large turn out. That was essential because the goal for the day was to dig a pit around the basement to add a drainage ditch. Here we are digging away.



After the 12 inch deep and 12 inch wide ditch was dug, we laid in pipe all around the ditch and filled it with gravel. The pipe has holes in it where water can seep into and if the ground is fully saturated, like after a large rain, the water will run into a sump-pump collection hole and be pumped out. It was a grueling amount of work, but we managed to find time to dig out the concrete pad in the backyard, fill in the big holes in the backyard and mortar up a bunch of joist holes along the walls. Great job everybody!

Here is what the finished product looked like. Habitat and professionals are now in the process of cementing the basement over this gravel and drainage system.


Here is the happy crew, walking back to the warehouse to drop off all the tools we used. (Happy to go home and take a nap after all that shoveling.)

House Dedication

This past Saturday was our Dedication Ceremony for our Northrop / Sandtown Habitat house at 1606 North Gilmor Street. The dedication was originally scheduled for December 19th, and so we had been working every weekend since October 17th (except for Thanksgiving weekend) to prepare the house for its ceremony. For the dedication isn't just about declaring the house finished, it's all about celebrating the workers who worked on it, Sandtown Habitat for getting one more house refurbished, the local community to see the work accomplished, . . . but most importantly it is about handing the house keys over to its new owners.



Despite all our hard work to get everything ready for the 19th, Mother Nature had other plans, big plans in fact. At first the weathermen were calling for an inch or two of snow, no big deal. Then that turned into four to eight inches, okay well over a day that's not too bad. By Thursday morning they were calling for around a foot of snow, and by Thursday afternoon even that had grown to a forecast of around two feet. Now that's a problem. Maryland comes to a stand still sometimes even with just a little snow, but two feet would definitely be impossible to overcome, so we had to quickly cancel the dedication for the 19th. This was the first time a dedication ceremony was ever cancelled by Sandtown, so we weren't sure what the plan would be. Normally Leticia Smith and her family (the family chosen by Habitat to be the home owners) would begin to move in right after the ceremony. Thankfully, Sandtown decided to allow Leticia and her family to move in late Friday and early Saturday and the dedication would be postponed. January 23rd turned out to be that day. It was a good decision, since the last forecasts turned out to be correct. We got over two feet of snow. Here is a picture out of my house looking at a few cars totally covered.




The weather was quite nice, especially compared to December 19th, it was sunny but still a little crisp. Still we had the ceremony outside as is the custom, until the ribbon cutting ceremony after which folks are allowed inside for an open house. Leticia was graceous enough to let folks in her home, even with all her stuff already moved inside.

The ceremony itself was wonderful. Folks were present from the Sandtown Habitat board of directors, New Song Urban Ministries and New Song Community Church (backers of Sandtown Habitat and located in Sandtown), Northrop Grumman, and friends and family of the Smiths, to make a rather large gathering outside Leticia's new home. Jim Pitts, the President of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems, and Ted Imes, the Director of Community and Educational Outreach were present and helped Kurt and I and everyone involved give the house over Leticia.

Leticia and her family were very greatful for all the hard work we had put into the house and for showing her, Paula, Jerome, and Stephanie how to work with us on the house. It truly was a magical moment especially for Kurt and myself. Not only did we get to help cut the ribbon, but we got to see Northrop get the credit it deserved for sponsering the house and labor that went into refurbishing it. We had to jump through a few hoops to coordinate between Northrop and Habitat, which required a bunch of volunteer time outside of constructing the house, but it paid off with a big dividend.

We also found out by Jim Pitts and Ted Imes, that another 50,000 dollars has been allocated for a new house for 2010! So come back soon to follow our progress on that house.

Here are two photos from the ceremony. The first is of Leticia giving her remarks about receiving the house, with her family off to the right. The second is of the actual ribbon cutting ceremony, note the giant yellow scissors.




Here are some photos of the house including a bathroom with nice tile, a bedroom and the back yard. The kitchen looks great too, as do all the other rooms, but the house was soooo full of people we couldn't get any good photographs.






A special thanks to all of the folks who volunteered on 1606 North Gilmor, but I want to give a big shout out to the following folk:

Danny Waid and Bo - our Habitat construction managers
Mike Barb - our Habitat point of contact for press releases and public relations

and to:
Holly Bennett
Tim Bernadzikowski
Craig Cambias
Andrew Clark
Eric Fenelon
Randy Kuning
Michael Lean
Liz Reigel
Robert Reyes
Dana Rittermann
Eric Rittermann

All of which had over 30 hours of manual labor volunteer time. Thanks again.

-Rob and Kurt