Friday, February 18, 2011

Building homes

By DeWayne Mahurin

I had always wanted to help build a habitat house, but because of my frequent and sometimes unexpected travel, I never was able to commit in advance to being on a crew. However, my wife informed me that the Greater Longview United Way Habitat House Blitz was to take place on January 22, and I was available that day. It was 21 degrees when I left my cozy home, but I would much prefer to work outdoors in that type weather than 100 degree weather. When I arrived, there was a nice roaring fire and bundled up volunteers were everywhere.







I was pleasantly surprised at how organized and easy to understand the layout was concerning the framing of the house. Volunteers caught on quickly and the framing went very fast. Whenever you had a question, an experienced “foreman” was available to keep the construction moving smoothly. The feeling of helping someone, while learning about home construction proved to be very satisfying. I look forward to volunteering on another Habitat House. The low stress of, just show up and work, was very attractive to me. Getting to see the fruits of your labor develop into a structure is cool. If you are looking for a volunteer project I highly recommend Habitat. There is something to do regardless of skill level.


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