according to the survey, people apparently dont like reading my posts that have massive amounts of text...so because of this, as with children i will be posting as many pictures as possible while minimizing the amount of text...hope this solves that problem...
well i m still here in the new orleans area until the 20th...it s been a pretty awesome experience building here in Musicians Village...
a brief little history on musicians village...it is the brainchild of harry connick jr and branford marsalis...the main lot where the pictures come from has about 25 Habitat houses there presently but the final plan is to have 60 to 70 on the core site...the houses arent just for musicians, about 50 percent of the homeowners on the site so far are musicians...there are eventual plans for a community center to be built on the main site where musicians can go and give free lessons to community members...everything is awesome therethis is my lovely team...taken the first week we started on the sites...
what do i do exactly on a Habitat for Humanity site you might ask?!?...well...lets see...this is what your standard HfH house looks like on the site with minor details different on each house...cosmetics, floor plans and interiors are personalized by the homeowners...
so you see how the house is raised off the ground?...all HfH houses are built that way to protect it is as much as possible from any moderate flooding...so look at these pictures and see if you can tell what that is...
if you dont know...those beams that you see us on top of and going through are what we call the floor joists which is basically the floor framing...so after the foundation is laid and the cinder blocks set, the floor joists can go up...at which point some basic floor systems can be put in so that the framing of the house can begin, at which point the house will start to look like this...
after the framing goes up...some sheathing can be done where the outside walls are sort of put on the frames...
after that...Tyvek homewrap is applied to the walls to weather proof it and the roof trusses can be placed on the framing of the house...
after that some siding, sub fascia, soffit, porchwork, stairs and roofing can start...i know that you guys probably dont know what half of those are but oh well...here are some pics from when we worked on "decking" the roof...its where we place the flat pieces of OSB lumber onto the roof to actually create the roof...
if you cant tell we actually have to use a ladder to get into the roof trusses where we then have to balance on the 2 by 4 s that we use while we are about 10 feet above the floor of the house...we climb through the trusses like little monkeys and hammer the deckboards into place...
after that happens then tar paper and shingles can be used to make it look like an actual roof...
after all that is done then there are a ton of more things that need to happen all of which i dont know exactly of but i know some...interior drywalling needs to happen, insulation, painting, cabinets, rugs, plumbing, electrical, mudding, doors, windows, and much more...so much goes into a house and its pretty cool to learn alot...they use us Americorps members as assistants to the crew leaders of the house where we help supervise the volunteers that are there...all in all...there are hundreds of volunteers each day that need to be divided among the different houses that are being worked on each day...i do a little bit of everything...including driving a box truck for deliveries...i m a pro at driving big vehicles now...
besides working tho i ve had my opportunities to get to know the new orleans area which is pretty cool to know where i m going in a city where i m not from...
this is where i stay...its called Camp Hope and its an old elementary school thats been converted into a volunteer base camp where there are usually an average of 300 volunteers here...its funny cuz i m so used to sharing a room now with like 15 other people and having community showers and bathrooms...people sometimes say its a little dirty but i dont seem to notice anymore...this is what our room looks like...
and this is my bunk...the top one with the pirate flag...its a little different in actuality now...we have made our room into the pirate room...we have pillaged a lot of things from around the area to make our room super cool...our room tends to be known as the loud music, pirate talking, yelling random things, messy, crazy room...its actually quite fun...my bunk now has a bunch of milk crates nailed all over to serve as makeshift shelves...i ve also got some random artwork that ive collected...its definitely the coolest/cleanest bunk in the room...
the south loves crawfish...they have what they call "crawfish boils" where they take huge amounts of crawfish and boil them in huge pots with a ton of spices and other things including corn, potatoes, mushrooms, etc and just eat them...
i personally dont see why crawfish is that great...i mean...its pretty good but not awesome to me...it is however very fun to just eat...its fun to tear them apart and so forth...
i got a chance to goto the famous New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Music Festival which was pretty amazing...its a huge deal here and they have all sorts of stages with musicians from all different genres such as modern rock, classic rock, jazz, reggae, blues, gospel, brass bands, hip hop, etc... a lot of stuff just unique to new orleans...
before we came here to New orleans we stayed in texas for a week at a YMCA camp which was pretty cool...i just wanted to show you what happens when you put 20 guys who have a lot of huge bags into one cabin meant for little kids...
it was amazing hahaha...it looks worse than it was...
one thing that i really like about being a federally funded program is that we have government vehicles which consists of 12-15 passenger vans and covered pickup trucks for our luggage...we have government plate and its so cool to always get together and see "govvies" as we love to call them...if we see a van with government plates we just know they re americorps and its like a bond...it pretty cool ...we just wave or go crazy in our cars even if we dont know who it is...and i also think it makes us a little more invisible to cops with the government plates...we have a lot of rules tho since they ARE goverment cars...we cant drive over 65 mph...EVER...if we dont wear our seatbelts...its a $100 fine...if we reverse...we always have to have a "ground guide" where someone stands in the back and uses our fancy hand signals to make sure we dont hit anything...we can never drive the car alone...there has to be at least 2 people in the car at all times...we have to record the mileage...EVERYDAY...those are just some of the great perks of driving these things of beauty...haha...here s what a parking lot full of govvies looks like...and mind you this is nowhere near how many we have on our whole campus...
i do manage to have my fair share of fun here though as well...which is definitely something you need not to get burned out...so of course i ve been to bourbon...seen a ton of live music,,,jazz on the streets...etc etc
americorps just feels like a completely different world...everyone always talks about that here...its like we re in our own little bubble and "real" life just kinda pauses...when i stayed at a hotel a little while ago and took a shower in a real bathroom it was wierd...hhaha...it felt like normal but it felt wierd...we add ameri in front of everything....ameri-world...ameri-car...ameri-life...my ameri-home...my ameri-friends...ameri-water...ameri-bed...anything and everything...haha...its crazy...
here s some pics of my ameri-friends who i ve grown to love and i keep meeting more everyday...i can now safely do a roadtrip across the country and have many places where i can stay...all over...i never thought i would know people from ohio,,,or alaska...or maine...but i do...its amazing
well i guess the last thing i ll write before i call it a night is more of soemthing i d like to ask of anyone...if you find you ve got some time...come down here and help...i d love to work along side all of you especially my close friends...you have no idea how great of an experience you would have here...people have the misconception that you need a lot of time and money to do something like come volunteer for a week but its really not...you can always just come on a weekend and stay at a volunteer base camp where you might not have to pay for anything...you work the days doing something great and you still have plenty of free time to sight see or do whatever you want at night...it is soooooo much more rewarding than you could possibly be imagine...you dont have to work here everyday if you want to come...its called volunteering and we would love to have anyone even if its only for a day...and come on...another plus side...you get to see and work with ME...how long has it been since you ve done that...so all i m asking is that if you were thinking on plannin your annual vacation soon...dont overlook a vacation where you can help do something great while doin the normal things you do on vacation...there still is a tonnnn of help needed down here and i would really LOVE to see some of the people i care deeply for get involved in something with so much value...i really think it would change lives...come guys...i miss you...if you have any questions or anything...get in touch with me...myspace...facebook...email...dulldavid@gmail.com...AIM:dulldavid...cell:415-517-2667...whatever...just come...there will ALWAYS be some reason not to go...its up to you whether or not you re gonna let it stop you...DONT...you guys are all better than that...come...sometimes you just cant think about it...
keep in touch all...i would really love to hear from some of you that i dont hear from...i m never too busy...miss you all...
i will side with you forever...cootie
