Day 9: Habitat for Humanity

Today I worked at the DevExpress/GeekGive house for the third time. And it was work. When I arrived at the site it was amazing to see how much work Habitat for Humanity had done in the past three or so weeks.

The house has come a long way since GeekGive. Exciting!	Habitat said it could be done within a month or so depending on volunteer levels.

While not quite as hot as the two previous days, it was still very hot, maybe 87F. There was a great breeze though for most of the day. Our job today was roofing, and we laid shingles, the exhaust baffle, and cap pieces. And we got it all done! On a personal note, I love roofs.

Upon arrival in the morning we were greeted with shingles to lay.	Lots of hammering, and lots and lots of roofing nails.
Almost done with the easy rows of shingles.	Laying the exhaust baffle over an opening in the top of the roof. The cap shingles got laid over this.

The build day was great, but I was again deeply saddened by how much devastation still exists in New Orleans five years later, since Hurricane Katrina. I know some may think that it has been a long time, and only a couple parishes were affected, and surely they’ve rebuilt by now. Sure, some things have been rebuilt including the whole I-10 bridge across Lake Pontchartrain, but there is still so, so much more work to do. The neighborhood we worked in was New Orleans East, and was maybe 40% occupied. Abandoned houses are everywhere. The pictures below were taken today, not five years ago.

Search and rescue markings still on homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. There are four parts: the date searched, the search company, the number of survivors, and the number of victims. Fortunately, neither were found in this home.	No Trespassing signs are a common sight, as are spray painted notices indicating the gas has been turned off. Boarded windows and doors are also too common.
Another abandoned house with a collapsing roof.

I also got to say hello to Ben, one of the foreman for Habitat. Ben was in charge of the site for both the GeekGive and DevExpress build days. He was working at another house which has the same floor plan as our house, but reversed. It was really cool to see what it will look like with carpet and trim and appliances.

The build crew at the house today, minus a couple people.	Me and Ben.
The other, more finished house.	Very cool to see these signs around the neighborhoods.

Up next, I’m speaking in Mobile, AL on Tuesday on Testing ASP.NET Applications with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.

Travel Log:

Miles were not tracked today.