Merry Christmas & a happy New Year.

We want to say to all those who have helped Habitat for Humanity Dunedin in its journey through 2008, "Thank you for being part of our journey!" We have built another house; got to enjoy and know another family; employed an office manager and have been tidying up a lot of paper work. If you had a part in that, thank you. We hope that you have a great Christmas and a good start to the new year.

Plans for next year are unfolding. In the next week or so we expect to know what family we will be partnering with next year. We will be meeting regularly with the Mitre Ten Mega Store people as we work toward starting to build the house in their car park. We are planning a start in mid-march. We will have a public meeting to outline plans and hopefully recruit volunteers to make it all happen. This will be late February or early March. Be ready!

Thanks for 2008! Look forward to another significant year in 2009!

If you are interested in becoming a involved let's know. I have been volunteering in Habitat since 1995 and still find it an enjoyable and enriching experience.

Dave B.

Working Bee

We are to have a working bee this Saturday up at 28 Turnbull Street to finish off some jobs so that we can acheive the final sign off. All welcome. Saturday 22nd November at 9 a.m. It will be nice to catch up. :-) We have our Annual General Meeting tonight. That's why I added the cartoon.

Exciting project for 2009

Habitat for Humanity Dunedin is looking forward to 2009. Plans are under way to build a house in the car park of the Mitre Ten Mega store on Andersons Bay Road. The Mega store has been a great friend to Habitat in Dunedin over the years having given us a really good discount on materials. They have also assisted us with a variety of projects, providing advertising and even tee shirts for the building teams for a couple of builds. We are working toward having a special build starting in February, building a house in their car park, involving some of their personnel and using the opportunity to lift our profile in the city. "Watch this space" as plans unfold and decisions are made.

A day without rain!

We seemed to have had rain at some time during every working bee over the last month or so. Shona said it had rained every day since she moved into the house... but Saturday was fine! A small working bee loaded Dave's van to the hilt (rubbish on the front passenger seat!) with our site rubbish from the walkway. The van with flat looking tires and springs took it to the tip. The letter box that had developed the droops, was strengthened with a bracket, and the previous house's letterbox was reinforced and also supplied with a bracket. Then all Habitat equipment from the basement was cleared to the container, the van again groaning up the hill with equipment in it and on it's roof. We finished at around 1p.m., deciding that starting to mix concrete was not on. Next Saturday we will continue the clean up and final jobs.

WELL DONE...Thanks from Dave

Thank you to all who have worked so hard to make the dedication date. People have gone the extra mile to help make it happen. These efforts are apprectiated. We hope you enjoyed the sense of accomplishment and the company.

We made it!

Saturday 19th of July was our 'D' day. We had until 3pm to have the house finished for dedication. A team of dedicated volunteers began the day at 8:30am and worked to the deadline. We had a list of over 20 jobs posted up on the window which we worked through and crossed off. By 2:45 we were still unloading tools at the container. Dave had to be back at the house to run the dedication ceremony at 3:00pm and was still in clothes covered in mud!

We made it! The house looked great. Paul, our electrician kept working all the way through the dedication and by 5pm the electricity was working and the house was ready to be lived in.


We had a good turn out to the dedication. The boys from Malcam Trust came to see the finished product and show off their hard work to their proud parents. Volunteers from throughout the build were on hand and friends of the family came to celebrate.

Shona even had a car load full of gear to move into the house that night! The following day a few volunteers helped Shona move into her new home. It was a real privilege to watch the children unpack their bedrooms and make the rooms their own.

Well done Dunedin, that's another Habitat House finished (well almost :) ).

Time for the dedication

We have been working very hard to make sure the house is as finished as possible before our dedication day, Saturday 19th July 2008. Volunteers, plumbers, carpet layers and electricians have been working away and it looks like we will have a finished house very soon.

As you can see we have been working on the landscaping for the house, putting in white stones on the path, top soil, and creative concreting for the pathway. There are even some veges in the vege garden!

You are invited to our dedication to be held on site at 3pm on Saturday 19th July. Please RSVP to Alan on hfhdunedin@xtra.co.nz.

See you there!

Rain nor hail nor sleet nor snow ....

As the saying goes...

Nothing can stop the habitat die hards from working on a habitat house...
Even though the build was cancelled on Saturday, Dave and Richard braved the snow and cold (abandoning one car on the way) to work on the house. They did a good days work finishing all the wardrobes inside and getting the floor ready for carpet and vinyl. Hopefully they have left some work for us volunteers who didn't manage to make it through the snow and will be there to lend a hand this Saturday (Shona's birthday!!!).

We got wet!

The last Saturday in June 2008 will be remembered by a band of H4H volunteers who got wet pouring concrete, shifting soil and finishing fences while working at our Habitat house. We all got wet, then cold. We did get a lot done though, our thanks to all. A suggested list for this Saturday, July 5th includes the following; Finish door handles, fit out wardrobes, fit out shelves in linen cupboard, box pad under deck, waterproof under deck, fit clothes line, clean windows, finish side gate and maybe we can do some planting.
We have enjoyed having a bunch of enthusiastic helpers. Our opening date is 19th July. We can do it!

concrete is down

We had a very productive day on Saturday. We laid the concrete for the driveway, staked out the garden beds and finished all the fencing. The inside of the house was being painted and we even began installing the kitchen.

Thank you to all the enthusiastic volunteers who turned up. If you have lost a pair of grey gloves, we have them for you.

This Saturday we will be able to do the finishing off things inside the house, like put on door knobs and complete the wardrobes and so on. Come along and join in the fun.

Great turn out! More help needed this week

Last Saturday we enjoyed meeting new and old friends who came to enjoy a day on site. It was encouraging to see so many on site. The basement exterior cladding was completed and painted. Enthusiastic people in masks finished sanding walls and ceilings and some ceilings were given a first coat of paint. It was a good day. Thank you to all who shared in it.

This Saturday we will be concreting the car park pad, setting up boxing for the paths and doing some internal work. We have booked the concrete truck to come at 9 a.m.

We need as many helpers as we can to help with these tasks. You are invited to come and enjoy a day on site as we rocket toward the opening day. The time the Malcam boys are with us is drawing to a close so it will be up to our trusty volunteers to finish the job.

On the home straight!

We are getting near the finish line. Just a few more weeks left to finish this house. We have put together a schedule of work to be done to help us meet our deadline. We would love as much help as we can get, check out the work to be done and feel free to join us for days of laughter, learning, and some good old fashioned hard work (well, not too hard :) ). If you need to know the address (in Dunedin) leave a comment and we'll send you an email.

7th June
Complete exterior basement cladding and sealer to interior walls and ceilings.
Remove container and cut concrete drive at top.

7th - 14th June
Complete skirtings, retaining wall and door hardware fitted.

14th – 21st June
Fit out wardrobes and sand floors.
Finish exterior work including boxing for paths.
Sand walls and ceilings, doors and windows and clean ready for painters.

21st – 28th June
Paths and concrete completed.
Painting done by painters

28th – 5th July
Heat pump fitted
Carpet and vinyl
Kitchen fitted
Garden plots and clothes line constructed
Electrical and plumbing fitoff.

5th – 12th July
Hang curtains
Finish landscaping
cleaning
Electrical and plumbing finish.

12th – 19th July
Electrical and plumbing finish and clean up.

Help from Mitre 10 Mega Store, Dunedin

Mitre 10 Mega Store in Dunedin hosted a DIY night this week. The Dulux paint educator spoke about colours and how to choose different colours. There was a $5 admission fee for the evening and this was given directly to the Dunedin Habitat for Humanity. The total came to $1290. We appreciate the very generous support Mitre 10 Mega store already gives Habitat for Humanity and this extra donation.

Help from Studholme College

On Saturday we were lucky to have around 21 students from Studholme College come out in two shifts and join in the building fun. These energetic lads and ladies set about putting up the frame work around the base of the house ready for the weatherboard to be attached to. One very conscientious volunteer stayed for the entire day and was a dab hand at the nail gun.

Building this Saturday

A lot of progress has been made on the house. As you can see the roof is now on and the weather boarding has been started around the base.

On Saturday there will be two jobs to be done. Firstly (depending on good weather) we are going to enclose the bottom of the house, It is relatively simple - measuring, sawing and nailing. We have hammers, nail bags and all the gear. We could use around a dozen - 16 people on that . (4 on each side of the house).

The second job is installing the roofing gib board. We have a 'gib holder upper thingy' (I'm sure there is a technical building term but you can see the tool I mean in the photo below).


If there is bad weather then we will be cancelling the working bee. So fingers crossed for good weather and I'll see you all there!

Closing up the house

This is the view of the house at 9am this morning. Volunteers have been busy during the week putting up the roof and framing. Our task today was to enclose the house in building paper and then we could start working on putting up the weather board. It was a very muggy and hot day and eight volunteers (5 women and 3 men) on site definitely worked up a sweat!This is the view of the house after our hard day's work. We managed to finish covering the house in the building wrap, and even managed to get the first round of weather board on (you can see it at the base on this photo).


There will be no working bee next Saturday as it is Easter weekend, however we will need all hands back on deck the following Saturday and we look forward to seeing all our friendly volunteers.

Roof Framing done!

A group of Habitat volunteers working with the Malcam Trust people completed the roof framing today. The trusses arrived just after morning tea. By afternoon tea they were all in place with the purlins attached. Working in the sunshine of Dunedin, it was a good effort to complete these so quickly. There was a lot of good homour and much hammering. Many hands make light work. Thanks guys, well done. As someone said, "It looks like a house now!"

Saturday build

The floor is down, frames are up and the scaffolding is in place. Things are ticking along nicely.
Today nine volunteers, including three new faces, Finlay, Jeff and Brian, spent the day putting up the fence. Despite rain setting in just as we were putting in the last fence posts we had a good day. As a team everyone worked really hard and did not seem to want to stop until the job was finished even when it rained. Wet though we were at the end, there was a good feeling of satisfaction among a great team. Thanks.

Day one of Building

We have begun building our next house in Dunedin. We have put up a kitset toilet (important things first) and getting things ready for the floor to be put down. There is a working bee this Saturday. Look forward to seeing you all there.

Ready to start our build - February 11th

The building of our twelfth house in Dunedin is due to start. The floor is being laid by professionals and this work is starting on February 11th, 2008. Martin Webber is our Building Foreman and can be contacted through the Habitat phone number (03) 477 3507.

First Working Bee
Volunteers will be required on Saturday February 16th at 28 Turnbull Street, Brockville. We will be working on site getting everything ready for the build ahead. Volunteers will be welcome to work on site during the week from Monday 18th February. Malcam Trust group begin their work on the building site on February 19th and will be working three days every week until the completion of the job. Malcam Trust works with young people in a variety of ways offering different life experiences. We partner with the Malcam Trust in running the Bargain Barn and they are assisting with financing this build. This is a valuable training opportunity for these young people and any volunteers who can work alongside them would be welcome.

We also look forward to working with the Zonta Women’s Group who will join us on the build in April.

If you are involved with a church or any other group and would like to organise a team building day working along side our volunteers on this build please leave a comment below.

Our Family
We look forward to building with our new family and helping make a house a home from the ground up.