Subfloors - CHECK

was scheduled to work on Sunday at the build site, I was very excited to get going on the build as I haven’t yet done anything with the house. Sure enough, I get a call on Saturday night, saying “no need to come on Sunday, they got everything done” 

  WONDERFUL

 I was definitely looking forward to going to the build site, but at the same time, how could you not be excited that there is progress on your new home?!

 It’s only 3 weeks away from the Blitz Build, which will be absolutely INTENSE! I’ve booked off two weeks from work so I can work every day and build my sweat equity hours.  Helina has been baking snacks for the work site, which also counts towards our sweat equity. I think that will be the hardest thing during this build, is managing to get all our hours in. between Helina and I, we need to do 300 hours of sweat equity.  

Here’s what is going to happen during the blitz build… it takes place from June 13^th to June 27^th.

•          Raising Exterior Walls
  
•          Building Floors
  
•          Raising the Roof (whoop whoop)
  
•          Plumbing
  
•          Electrical
  
•          Dry Walling
  
•          Painting
  
•          Flooring
  
•          Trim Work
  
•          Kitchen Cabinets
  
•          Siding
  
•          Bricking
  

 Basically what this tells me,  is that we’re going to build an entire house in 14 days.

 More to come… 

We Have A Basement!

Foundation... IN!

So we're uber excited to see the foundation has been poured, the barriers are on, and we're... so far... ahead of schedule.  We're not sure yet which house will be ours, it is a semi, and its attached at the garage.  We've met our neighbours already, and I think we'll get along great with them. they're about the same age as us, and they have 4 young kids.

I just can't wait to actually get on the site and start helping with the build!  There's not much for us to do as the foundation was being poured.  They are currently building all the walls in Windsor, and will be trucking them up for about the middle of June. Thats when all the fun's gonna happen! :)

Helina and I have been finding ourselves perusing through The Home Depot, to look at lighting, showers and toilet seats, and checking out all the housewares at the local Walmart and Zellers. Funny thing is, we don't get that much choice on the items in our house, we just get what has been donated and what is available. But we're fine with that, we just look around to dream. :) 

Thats all for now folks, until next time :)

Scene Setting

So, I’ve never blogged before, not sure how diligent I can be with it, but I got inspired when I read another Habitat Partner family’s blog.  It was very cool reading about the things they were going through  at various points throughout the build.

Our build is going to be fast and furious.  From what I’ve seen online about other builds they could last up to a year to be completely built.  The timeframe for our house, is 12 weeks from ground break to move in.

How ridiculous is that?!?

I’m one of those people that doesn’t get excited about something until it happens.  For the last month or so, we’ve been going to our meetings and sessions about finances, and being good neighbours and house maintenance etc.. but it still didn’t feel real.  After our last session, we decided to take a trip to the build site, and saw that they had the hole dug… it STARTED to hit me… I got a little excited and actually started to believe this is happening.  We found out that they’re pouring foundation as of yesterday and today, which is a week ahead of schedule.  Getting a little more excited now. J

 My work has been very supportive of this adventure we’re starting on.  They are letting me work from home every Wednesday so my wife (Helina) can put some hours in for our sweat equity, everyone at work wants to help with the build, and we might be able to get a big truck to help during move in day – free of charge.

 One very cool thing, is that Habitat isn’t just building a home, they’re building an entire neighbourhood. We have a cul-de-sac that already has two habitat homes built there, (they are just finishing those now with the brick on the front, but one family has already moved in) during our build, they are building two homes, (they were going to do 4, but didn’t have the funding for it).  I believe their goal is to have 12 houses built on our street when it’s all said and done.  At the end of next year, there will be 9 kids under the age of 9 living on that street.  Crazy.

Well it’s my first blog, and I think it’s too long, but I’m setting the stage right?  I’ll try give updates every few days – and once the blitz build starts on June 20^th, I’ll probably update every night.

 Thanks for reading! J