Next stop...

Baton Rouge!

Beginning in early February, Silver 6 and I are headed down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to work for Habitat for Humanity! We're going to be learning construction skills and building houses. Accommodations are going to be at a local church (with hot showers and a kitchen!) that's located near the downtown area.

Before a sponsoring organization can have a NCCC team assigned to them, they need to fill out a rather lengthy application. Here's a snippet from our the Habitat for Humanity Baton Rouge application... sounds like we'll have a lot of great work to do.

3. How will the degree of success of the project be measured? Please list direct and demonstrable results of the project. This section should describe not only the system of measurement, but what approximate number must be achieved to describe the project as complete. For instance, miles of fence built, percent increase in reading comprehension tests, number of children immunized, square feet of walls painted, number of volunteers recruited.

To build a house with Habitat for Humanity in Baton Rouge requires the completion of 267 tasks. Of those, 147 tasks are designated to be completed by NCCC members and Habitat for Humanity volunteers.

To complete 30 houses in 2008, there are 4410 tasks to be completed by NCCC members. Among those tasks are:

• Meet 30 Habitat partner families and participate in 30 blessings of the build.
• Prebuild the headers for 672 windows and doors.
• Move 7,000 pounds of nails.
• Carry and use 5600 studs to frame walls.
• Raise over 1,400 walls.
• Raise over 1,120 trusses.
• Move and install 3360 pieces of roof and wall sheathing.
• Hammer 104 nails into each piece of sheathing for a total of over 340,000 nails into sheathing alone.
• Paint 46,800 square feet of exterior walls; and paint them twice!
• Paint 134,400 square feet of interior walls; and paint those three times!
• Install over 24,000 linear feet of interior trim and molding; and paint those too.
• Hang 392 doors.
• Move 30 sets, or 330 cabinets, into place and install.
• Lay 33,600 pieces of floor tile.
• Wreck the forms for 30 driveways.
• Pull, palletize, and deliver 30 electrical fixtures to each site; that’s 900 fixtures and the 1316 bulbs to go with them.
• Lay 70,000 square feet of sod on the front yards of each lot.
• Dedicate 30 homes and congratulate 30 new homeowners.