In just over one week, the duplex being built by volunteers with the Humboldt Habitat for Humanity project has progressed by leaps and bounds.
The roof is on, all the doors and windows are in, and the siding is going on, thanks in part to two local businesses that signed up for volunteer days for their employees. Big Sky Farms came in over two days during the week of August 20-24, and the Journal caught up with one of the Home Hardware teams on August 29.
"We committed to two days and split it up among our employees," said Dean Possberg, the general manager of the store. "Because we are a business that's open to the public, we couldn't all be here at the same time, so that's how it worked out."
Dressed in red "Home Hardware" T-shirts and white hardhats, the store's volunteers were putting up the siding on the outside of the duplex.
"The crew we had here yesterday left some pretty big shoes to fill," said Tim Prytula, the job-site manager for the Habitat project on August 29, the second day of the Home Hardware build. "Two of them had experience doing siding before, which makes things go faster."
Prytula has been overseeing the build and coaching the volunteers since it started at the beginning of the summer.
"The biggest thing is, you're dealing with volunteers, " he added. "So it is what it is, whether they've done it right or they've done it wrong. So you have to be very, very patient."
Of the four volunteers from Home Hardware that were working at the site on August 29, Mike Martinka and Dale Glessman had climbed three levels up on the scaffolding to work on the eaves and soffit.
Leanne Dierker and Karen Lukan were keeping their feet firmly planted on the ground during that time, measuring and cutting the pieces that their co-workers needed. One of the two women said she had done some siding before, while the other said it was a new experience for her.
The Habitat for Humanity project has a third local company, Richardson Pioneer, that will be lending its employees to the building site for a couple days during the first week of September.
