Day Three - Sealing the Roof

We had better weather for day 3 of the build - good cloudcover and finally somewhat of a breeze - all which portended a suspensful race to seal the roof and the house from the elements. 18 people came to build with us - mostly new faces.

All of the synthetic underlay went up on the roof in one day - by the end of which 8 people were perched atop the roof finishing the work. The same was true for the siding underlay - sheathing the entire house in black by the end of day. A separate team worked on the doors and windows, completing the process of sealing the house from the elements.

And what good timing! After the build shut down around 3:30 PM, as many longhorn fans soon knew, the skies opened and poured down upon the house. This was the first rain in many weeks here in Austin, and what perfect timing to elucidate the efficacy and strength of our Pride Build team. Nice work, everyone!

DELL PRIDE Day

Almost 20 volunteers showed up early Saturday morning from the ranks of DELL - representing the DELL Pride group and their colleagues and friends, much gratitude is due these folks for not only pushing through one HOT day, but also making a generous $10,000 donation to the Pride Build effort! Thank you DELL for your leadership, and for giving back! Special thanks to Jacque Young for pulling together the volunteers (and for leading us in some a capella James Brown and Janet Jackson along the way...)

We also had some regulars show up - this Pride Build can be addictive (it is for this blogger), and we thank everyone for giving up a Saturday to sweat it out in the sun. By the end of today's build, the majority of the OSB made it up on the roof, as did the majority of the house wrap (along with a good number of windows!). We're marching along nicely. See the pictures below.

We have 8 more Saturdays to build, and many more volunteer slots to fill, so please email me at austinpridebuild@gmail.com if you are interested in helping out! The Habitat staff informed me that we still have $12,000 to raise to finish the house. If each of us put in a donation that is significant to us, we could easily achieve our goal. Click here to make a secure online donation. Onward!

The walls are raised!

We had a glorious day for the first day of the 2007 Austin Pride Build. A special thanks to all of the 18 volunteers who came, despite the wonderful distraction of the ACL festival, to put up the walls and raise the roof trusses on Marta's future home! This was a huge first day, and an exciting reality for those who have worked to make the Pride Build a possibility from the start. From that very seed Bettie Naylor planted over 8 months ago ~ 'hey guys, what if we...' ~ to almost $45,000 raised of our $60,000 goal, it is a joy to see our community unite to give back to the city that has welcomed so many of us with open arms. We hope you'll help us make our goal - Click Here to make a secure online donation.

More to come shortly...if you'd like to see more pictures of the day's work, click here to view the photo page on the Austin Habitat for Humanity site.