Summer, 2023.

Back to work at Habitat for Humanity

I missed quite a bit of the last two summers at Habitat for Humanity. I wanted to try to make up for some lost days.

My 3M Retirees Habitat Regular crew worked 4 days a week starting in April through early November and then switched to 2 days a week until next spring. We are building 6 homes, three twin homes, in Saint Paul Park. That is nice for me, just 20 minutes from home. By mid-May the first home was well under way.

Scaffolding follows the building up on each building. It helps with each level and provides a lot of safety for us old folks.

Two of our crew turned 90 this year.

Joe on the left, and Dick on the right, both celebrated their birthdays at the work site. Dick brought cake, I brought ice cream. And Jim Ramberg in the middle, came to join in. These three are all special friends and we are all glad to see Joe and Dick still working one day a week or more.

Many hands make the project forward quickly. The first building is ready for siding. The second building is getting framed up.

Garages too.

The second building had a hip roof. The ends were built on the ground and lifted using a crane.

My job was getting the trusses lined up.

The first building is sided and the interior work is underway.

By late September, the second building was ready for siding and the third building was going up.

Jim Ramberg has retired from construction work but passed on his many skills to everyone he worked with. I learned a lot from him especially about building stairs and framing porches and decks. He always said he learned as much from me as well. It was an honor to build with Jim and every day that I can pass along new skills or methods to another builder reflects back on all that I learned from Jim.

Building stairways is an exercise in careful measuring, paying attention to details, doing the math, marking the lines, and sawing as precisely as you can. After you have done twenty or thirty stairways the process gets easier and faster but the details stay the same. In this summer’s six homes, there are 24 sets of stairs. Lots of practice and opportunities to help others learn new skills.

I also worked at two other HFH homes this summer. One was a rehab of an old home in St Paul and the other was a new home in Minneapolis. They were with the Builder’s Circle Group of financial supporters of Habitat. I work on one or two of these homes each summer, usually one day each. I enjoy working with different people and getting a chance to meet other supporters of Habitat. They come from all walks of life and backgrounds. We all share the vision of safe and affordable homes for families.

I worked on the front porch stairs and handrails on the home in Minneapolis.

This work with Habitat is more than just building homes, it is building a community. We work together for a shared common goal, the fellowship we have with each other, and the friendships that form and grow over time. For a group of older folks, this gets us out of the house, moving, and doing. We call it Senior Day Care. In a way it is, we care for each other. All of us benefit in many ways from the work we do, especially the families that will live in the homes we help build.

More Later, Much Love.

Roger 🔨, Susan 📖, and Maggie 🐾