Tuesday

We began at 7:45 Tuesday morning, arriving at Ferry Place, this is a block that did not flood, but was vacated many decades earlier. At one time a lively neighborhood, it had become vacant except for one house on each end of the one way street. SCAPC (www.scapc.org) working in cooperation with NOAHH (New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity, http://www.habitat-nola.org/index.php)

When we arrived we met Seth (Habitat Site Manager) and Hank, an Americorps member. We were given the safety rundown and the lay of the premises. 2 houses are complete, except for sewer and water hookups ( the city cannot locate the sewer lines and thus the process has halted until they do), however, they were out there 2 days working on it. There were 3 other houses very close to completion as well, some interior finishing needed to be completed. Then there were the 2 we worked on in the framing stage.

Seth told us that homeowners must put in 350 hours of sweat equity, not necessarily on their own homes, but on those of others as well. Materials for the homes cost roughly $75,000 in '07 but are at $85,000 in '08 due to rising materials costs. NOAHH has roughly 150 homes under construction in the greater New Orleans area right now.

Once we got started, we began installing a balloon wall, it is the 2 story wall that runs along the stairs, it is the only framing that runs both stories. It took all of us to lift and fasten the wall in place. Then we worked on cutting and nailing up plywood and building a balloon wall for the 2nd house, which we messed up twice and had to redo.

Amidst all the work we consumed 10 gallons of water and enjoyed fabulous PoBoys that Jim made for us the day before! YUMMY! This was followed by a SCAPC church member who dropped off a cooler full of Popsicles, I cannot tell you how good those were in that heat! I think I had 3 of them and we all laughed at the jokes on the Popsicle sticks! We prayed for a rain shower to relieve a little but of the hear, heard thunder, but the rain never came. If you look at the pictures, the one of me in the white and black striped tank, is after this first day of work, Jon said I looked like ROADKILL! Thanks bro!

Again we headed over to the church and Jim made us another great dinner, including boiled Crawfish and gelatinous head cheese, which Perry was excited to try! He actually liked it! Then back to the Land house to relax and prepare for the next day.