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.