House Build and Number 9

On Saturday I was back at the house build after 2 weeks off with my shoulder. I'm still not healed completely but I guessed if I took it easy I'd be OK, and I was reluctant to be away for another week.

When I arrived I was greeted with hugs and smiles, a lovely welcome, and I threw myself back into work, happy to be there. The boys had got as far as they could in their duplex and came across to help us as we had to have all the walls in place so the roof could go on during the week. We're not allowed to do that, I'm assuming for safety and insurance reasons. The staircase had been installed and a couple of the outer walls upstairs were in place but I didn't feel like I'd missed a lot; I'd been really concerned about not having any more framing to do. I'd planned on being a little less active with my hammer but I couldn't contain myself and I was soon whacking nails in left, right and center, although I was careful to let my right arm do some of the work. I've become quite ambidextrous with my hammer.

I did take time out to rest my shoulder and snap a couple of shots of the others. We're preparing another outer wall above.

I was in fits of laughter watching John here. Letting the ladies do all the lifting he looks as though he's saying, 'C'mon girls, put yer backs into it!"

Even when they've got it up to shoulder height he's still there with his arms at his sides. It was hilarious. He really did help out in everything else though.

And finally it's up under Bill's watchful eye!

The last outer wall goes up with the wood glue spread along the base first and then the wall lifted up. No sign of John!

Pam, the other coordinator leaving for the day.

John working out what needs to be done next.

Most days we have wonderful lunches provided for us by local residents, well wishers, local charities, businesses or even home owners of previously built Habitat homes. It was a pasta lunch today.

Getting the internal walls built and set in place. Krysta, on the right, is the tidy one in our group and is always happy to sweep up.

Evelyn, Susan and John smiling at the end of the day. We got a lot done, completing the outer walls and finishing the inter framing also. Evelyn deserves an award, she drives from Richmond every Saturday, a 2 hour journey.

Ruth ensuring that the fire wall is protected with plastic until the roof is installed.

The duplex is starting to look like a proper house now. Despite my original intentions of taking it easy and not working too hard, I actually ended up hammering a lot of nails in but was sensible in not lifting anything heavy. I was worried about being sore the next day but I think the exercise actually helped and my shoulder didn't feel too bad the following morning.
In the evening I met up with Dale, Emily and Jason to celebrate our friend Joe's birthday at the Number 9, a gay club in DC. Joe has the great idea of having a few birthday parties each year so he can get to see a high percentage of friends and I definitely wanted to be one of them as I haven't seen him for a while.

His choice of venue was interesting and I wondered how the boys would deal with it but both Jason and Dale took it in their stride, not once looking uncomfortable. Emily and I were loving it, enjoying all the men on the numerous screens, especially Matthew McConaughey in a role I'd not seen before.

The music was great too, lots of 70's and 80's disco music and a few 90's too. I also loved these hanging lights which we thought would be pretty easy to replicate.

Joe looking very cool as usual. It was wonderful to see him and chat with a few of his friends that I recognized. He's in with an uber cool crowd.

For quite a large part of the evening Jason and Dale were engaged in a conversation that I couldn't even start to understand, some crazy guy stuff, but I caught them both quiet at one point and engrossed in something on one of the screens. Not sure if they were intrigued or horrified! Contrary to my initial intent we stayed there all evening enjoying the company. We left at nearly 1:00am and then we dropped into another bar after spotting another friend Molly through the window. I didn't get home until after 2:30am, collapsing into a warm soft bed and barely conscious of two fluffy feline friends snuggling up as I fell heavily into sleep.