Wednedsay (aka Tuesday in USA)

Today started out dreary and muddy. Our boots were caked with clay mud as we made our way to our jobs for the day. Fortunately the weather started to cooperate and we were successful at making quite a bit of progress today. Jim, Mary, and Terry continued to build the fence. The side fence is now finished, there were 245 boards, 6 inches wide and over 1200 nails were put into the building of the fence for Frida's home. Paula and Char started by clearing out the house so the flooring could be started today. Vinyl and carpeting will be completed by tomorrow. Then they moved on to painting the skirting on the house. Mike and Laurie painted today instead of mixing more concrete. That was a change for them. The back property line has a fence that had been decorated by graffitti, it is now a solid green and looks really nice. Bill and Tonya worked on the front fence, a picket style with a gate will be the entry to the propery. Tonya moved on to learning to build steps for the back deck. Bill framed in the sidewalk leading up to the house. Gino used his talent as an artist to decorate the bedroom for Frida's youngest daughter. Tony worked diligently all day to complete the 'boxing in" or skirting as we would call it, for the base of the house. We have a little repairing to do tomorrow, our excavator bumped the back porch with his equipment and we need to rebuild the back porch decking. We only have 2 days left until the dedication of the house. There seems to be a lot to complete yet.

Mike and Laurie mixing the cement.

Gino and Tony laying base boards on the side of the house.

Terry, Jim and Mary putting up the boards to their fence.

Tonya and Bill - that's one heck of a deck!

Char and Paula skirting the side of the house - looking good ladies!

Let's Build!

We arrived at the build site ready to go Monday morning. From the outside the house appeared to be finished but little did we know how much work there still needed to be done before Saturday's dedication ceremony to Frida and her family. Mary, Terry and Jim attacked a fence that needed to be built from the ground up. By the second day the fence is nearly complete and looking good. Tonya and Bill have built a deck in nearly a day and half. Gino, Tony, Paula, and Char have been skirting the outside of the house. Mike and Laurie have been doing all the cement work for the many holes that need to be filled for the fencing and the driveway. Tonight we are all recovering after two days of hard work. Day three awaits as we all try to get our sore but willing bodies to the site for more building tomorrow morning!

Digging fence holes with an ogger!!!

Mixing cement for the fence post and driveway!!

The Habitat Team on the first day!!!

Safely Arrived in New Zealand

The team met in Los Angeles, California before boarding the flight to New Zealand. After a 12 hour plane ride we arrived safely!!! At the airport we witnessed a Maori greeting reserved only for New Zealnds finest guest. We were taken on a brief tour of the Auckland, going to the top of a volcano to see all of Auckland. Later we met the rest of the build team at the Habitat building for a late brunch. We were greeted with gifts of t-shirts and native New Zealand goodies. After brunch we went to the Motel to get rid of our jet lag. We met around 6 for dinner and searched the area only to find the one restaraunt open within walking distance. It was a chinese bbq joint with pictures of everything imaginable on the menu. We went back to our rooms after dinner while a few of us stayed up to play "bananagrams". We all slept very heavily after!!!!

Only two months away!!

   Only two months until our departure!!! Can't wait for this amazing new experience!!! Are we wearing Halloween costumes on the airplane? :P