Wheely Thready Daze Ahead: Building With Habitat for Humanity -- Waco

Dan & I doing what we love most.

Our "home" in Waco

We were in Waco, Texas from March 19th to April 2^nd working with ten other volunteers as part of a group called “Care-A-Vanners” – a subset of Habitat for Humanity. All of us camped near each other at a Corp of Engineers park on the shores of Lake Waco.

Jean taking her day 1 photo

We were strangers when we arrived and friends when we went our separate ways two weeks later. For Dan and I, this was our 9^th build and as usual the experience was unique. Our group had folks from Michigan, Indiana, Louisiana, Texas and us from Oregon. Some had participated in several builds and for some this was a first experience. We like to take a picture on the day we arrive so that when we take a picture two weeks later we can see our progress.

As you can see the house was framed and most of the outer sheeting was on. You will see below we made lots of progress in our two weeks.

Fred, Dan, Jean, Sharon, David, Nancy, Sandi, Linda, Mike, Janet, Mike, Randall, Randy & in front: Gretchen

This is the team at lunch time on day one...

Balconies Baby Blue YUMMM!

One of our first evenings the affiliate held a fundraiser at the Baylor University football stadium. It was partially sponsored by Balcones – a Waco, Texas distillery. I made a new discovery – I have always liked Canadian whiskey, which is what told the bartender, he said he knew just what I would like and gave me a glass of Baby Blue. Yummy!

Baylor Club at McLane Stadium

We visited the distillery a couple days later to buy me a special Waco souvenir.

We had a big thunderstorm with a lot of rain come through one night so that we were not able to work at the house sight the next day. Instead of taking a day off the affiliate had some tasks we could do at their office/shop. A few on the team prebuilt window and door frames. Another group pruned and weeded their rose bed. Dan and I built crates for them to sell at their “Restore”.

Jean and crate creation

Crates for Restore

Our days off were Sunday and Monday.

Sunday we attended St. Paul's Episcopal, Waco a beautiful old style sanctuary.

On Monday a group of us ladies went to Magnolia – It is the creation – store/bakery/food court play space etc. of Chip and Joanna Gaines on the TV show “The Fixer-uppers”. The show and their development has pretty much put Waco “on the map”. There is always a crowd there. If you go to Waco, you have got to go to Magnolia at least once ( I ended up there 3 times). After our time at Magnolia we met “the guys” for lunch at Fred’s favorite local burger joint - “Cupps”.

Ladies visit to Magnolia
Sandi, Jean, Nancy, Janet, Sharon

The rest of this post is filled with a few various job sight photos. We were a good team with good leadership. On most days we were joined by local volunteers including several college students.

Fred, David, & Mike working on window "surround"

Jean & Fred front porch post trim progress

Jean working on siding

Sandi & Mike showing off their gable work

Morning "circle"

Each day of work we begin with a brief devotional and a safety tip - after we finish we join hands and repeat our Care-a-vanner mantra: "Habitat is not a hand-out but a hand-up!"