Raisin' the Roof, kinda!

Last Saturday (Aug 7), Mike and I spent our day volunteering with Lexington Habitat for Humanity building on one of their many of house projects.

Originally we were going to volunteer with our friend, Dennis Pike, who helps sponsor a house every other year, but building was canceled for the weekend due to drywall delays.  So we headed over to another house being partially sponsored by the Pat Smith HFH Endowment Fund.  This fund was created in memory of our very dear friend, Pat Smith, who passed away in a plane crash in 2006.  So we try to help out with as many projects as we can that involves the Endowment Fund.

This house on Polk Lane was in my favorite stage of construction, FRAMING!  I love the framing phase because you can really see your progress and plus, you get to hammer a lot of nails.  You literally are helping to construct walls and helping to put them in place.   When you finish one section, you can look at your work and know that a family will be using that space and living within those walls in a few short months.  That's a good feeling.

On this build, I met some great people, all around my age, from the group LYPA (Lexington Young Professionals Association).  It was fun to spend time with some young community leaders that were in a similar stage of life as me.  Being fairly isolated in my job, I don't get out much to meet people my own age.  So it's nice to know that they're out there!

Most of the morning, I worked on building some interior walls and getting them installed in the house.  After lunch, I hopped onto the top of the first floor..the "roof."  It wasn't really the roof but it was the top of the project, so it felt like the roof.  I am always really nervous going up on open beams, but once I was up there, it was glorious!  We worked on laying, gluing and nailing the sheeting down which will be the floor of the second level.  I got to chat with a former co-worker, Nate, the house leader, a new construction employee, Jon and one of the committee chairs from LYPA, Allyson. Fun times on the 'roof'!

The day turned out to be so amazing.  Even in the middle of this sweltering summer, we picked the perfect day to build. It was 86 degs., the sky was bright blue, there was a slight breeze, and the company was unmatched.

 ME, Nate, and Jon on the "roof" -- Notice that I am safely sitting

If you ever have a free Saturday, volunteering with Habitat is a great way to get your hands dirty, build alongside the future homeowner of the house and really see what a difference you can do in your corner of the world.  I could go on and on about how much I love Habitat, but that will be left for another entry.