Start to Finish

So my last post recapped the beginning of Women Build - here's the whole story.

Our Homeowner, Lesley Scott was AMAZING! At the end of the week we always do mini-home dedication with a cake to celebrate the work that was accomplished. Lesley, in her shy & quiet demeanor, publically thanked God for this opportunity and hugged each staff person and many of the volunteers that were out working on her house.

At our monthly staff meeting, we went around the circle and said our "Highs & Lows" of the past month - and of the 15 people present, 3 mentioned Lesley as their "High" from June. :)

Work continues on Lesley's home, but we're hoping that she'll be able to move in by the end of August. The picutre above is how far the house got in one week! (and yes, I helped build it - I roofed on one of the days!) We got the house wrapped, windows in, tar paper & 1/2 the shingles on the front side of the roof. War wounds? Well for me, just a bruise from my arm being pinched in the gable sub fascia...aren't you impressed that I know what that is?!

The raising of the first Women Build House wall on a wet Saturday, June 2, 2007

We just wrapped up our 7th Annual Women Build project! This is a build done completely by women for a single mother. Usually, it's done the week leading up to Mother's Day, this year we had to bump it back due to the land not being read when initially planned. Building in June + being in Charleston = HOT! Seriously, it was consistently above 100 degrees and one of the days it was pushing 110 plus 100% humidity!

Our volunteers were such troopers, but let me tell you about the dedication of our homeowner, Lesley Scott. She was out there every day - she took her "vacation" from work to build on her future house in the gruelling heat. Plus, the Wednesday of our build, one of her sons graduated from 8th grade & her daughter turned 18 plus graduated from St. John's High School. Her daughter is old enough to work on the site, so she build every day, too! Lesley was such an awesome model homeowner - it was so appropriate that her house is the first to get started in this new neighborhood!