On Top of the World...

...or so it seems, because the best view in Danbury, these days, is from the roof of the home we're completing on Town Hill! That's Jon DeFelice and Bob Brown making the cupola leak-proof (and to think, at one point, we were going to take it down!).

No, no stained glass -- this is decent, affordable housing -- but maybe Pamela and Enroy, the about-to-be home-owners, will put in glass one day, and get the full effect!

In Go the Columns.....

Hey, Town Hill is beginning to look like a "real house," isn't it? John DeFelice has led the crew putting up the milled columns on the front of the house...and by golly, they look terrific! The drywall is already almost complete in the interior, so October is going to see a lot of painting!

We Have Homeowners!

Just days after board approval, two of HHfH's newly selected homeowners came to Town Hill to start fulfilling their "sweat equity" requirements -- so yes, they're rarin' to go! That's Milagros (Angie) Pena, who will be moving into Concord Street, in the photo at left, installing drywall with Saturday regular Ernie Lehman; in the photo at right, Enroy Anderson helps drywall the ceiling in the next room of what will be, later this year, his own family's house. Angie works at Cendant Mobility; Enroy works for Morgan Clark Conracting in Redding, so he could practically finish the Town Hill project himself! The drywalling is almost done, and the first-coat taping is already well along....

Cabinets are in...

...on Town Hill Avenue, thanks to Richard Marti and the Southern New England Chapter of the National Kitchen and Bath Association! That's Richard at day's end, having led a crew of volunteers this Saturday. The SNEC NKBA had a pretty good time, apparently, as it wants to work with HHfH on another house. Thanks, guys...and we hope to see you again!!!

Siding, wallboard, kitchen -- it's all good!

We have siding (that's Mike, installing, left)! Yeah, and wallboard, too (featuring the Bills, below -- one working, one watching)! Things are really moving along now at Town Hill, thanks to the Thursday and Saturday crews and, more recently, a whole bunch of Friday "corporate" crews -- from Starbucks and Pepperidge Farm to the local chapter of the National Kitchen and Bath Association, which is scheduled to put in kitchen cabinets -- which they donated!!! -- this weekend! More on that later (as well as on Pepperidge Farm -- the volunteers brought a large check): right now we're just basking in all the in-kind donations the Town Hill reconstruction has generated, and the fact that these corporate crews are really moving us along -- we're actually on schedule, for once! Kudos to our no-longer-so-new Construction Super, Kieran, for lining up all the construction ducks -- materials, donations, and people, too -- and also making Town Hill a fun place to work. See you on site!

Termites? What Termites?

That's Gordon, admiring his handiwork after pulling the siding and paneling off one exterior wall today -- termites, years before, thought this was their home. No longer, though: the wall's been patched, and the structural beam at the corner replaced. Much of the interior's already been insulated, and the interior paneling has been delivered, so Town Hill is beginning to feel like a Real House!!! The Restoration continues....

Bonus photo: HHfH president Rebecca Tate also stopped by on a morale-building visit...and also to get some help with assembling a radial-arm saw! That's Bud making sure the blade doesn't fly off come bookshelf-making time....

How many carpenters does it take...

...to restore a Habitat home? Plenty! Three to work, and 10 to stand around and watch! Okay, not really, because there was plenty of work to go around this week -- padding out 2 x 4 s to match the original, actual 2-inch by 4-inch 2 x 4s, re-strapping the corners of 75 Town Hill so the building won't "rack," replacing headers and rotten studs, getting the kitchen area ready for cabinetry, ceiling joists for drywall -- the list goes on. Thanks, Thursday Crew -- we'll have more to do next week! Oh, yeah -- that's Maggie the dog on the right, an essential part of the Crew....

Happy Fiftieth!

Lisa Miles found a good way to celebrate her 50th birthday -- she called up some close friends and invited them to help build a home for a deserving family. So that's what Lisa (in orange shirt) and her crew did on May 20, along with the a group from Soudview School in Mount Kisco, NY -- they cleaned up the Town Hill restoration site, previously a dangerous mess. The two crews -- some 30 strong -- worked so well and quickly they had completed all available work by lunchtime...but went home happy, knowing they'd contributed substantially to an important community project

Saturday was a day of surprises...

...starting off with more than 30 volunteers showing up ready to work. Some of us prepped an upstairs room in the (relatively) modern addition to this 1880's house...and as we stripped the dated linoleum tile, we found a layer of newspaper that must have been acting as insulation. The date? September 19, 1954. You never know what you'll find working on this house...

Cookin' with gas!!!!

It's true: Housatonic Habitat isn't the fastest builder in the world...but Town Hill is really coming along! One reason: we have a Friday crew now, as well as a Thursday and a Saturday, and Kieran, our Construction Supervisor, is really cracking the whip! The best news: we're no longer full-time trogolodytes, because the basement area is nearly done....

Actually, I take that back -- the best news of all is that we're about to start selecting a family to live in Town Hill. The house is at least four bedrooms, and it's going to be a showpiece! For more details about volunteering, and to apply for this home or one of two other Habitat homes in Danbury about to go "on the market," call the HHfH office at 203-744-1340.

Allie from Newtown sez...

So I didn't make it to site this week -- too busy tieing up loose ends before a trip to the Dominican Republic -- but Kieran, Housatonic Habitat's "construcción jefe," passed along a comment from Allie, a Newtown High student who volunteered with us recently. And this is what she said: "I love helping people and Habitat has given me an opportunity to feel like I'm doing just that....I have had a great time...and definitely plan to keep coming back." 'Nuff said, eh?

Town Hill Restoration -- Looking Good

"There aren't more than one in 2,000 people who can under-pin a house like this, and you guys are doing it!" Yeah, we love it when Kieran O'Brien, our construction superintendent, tells us how great we are! (That's Pat and Pablito, BTW, under the house in Danbury, Conn.) Housatonic Habitat's Thursday Crew rules, like, totally! Though we hear Kieran's trying to start up a Friday Crew, too, so we may get some competition.....