Yesterday we left planet San Francisco and volunteered at a Build Day in Oakland for Habitat for Humanity's latest project, the Edes Avenue development. Over the course of 3 years (the project is slated to be completed this December) the organization is building 2, 3, and 4-bed homes for 54 families.
The project is coming along smoothly (sans one arsonist who attempted to burn down one of the homes), and it was a very wonderful experience to help build homes for people. Each family has their photo displayed outside of the home and a quote about how happy they are or why they are doing this. To qualify for a home you had to have good credit and the willingness to invest 500 hours (per family) of labor as your down payment. It was quite the experience to work with these future home owners and watch how excited they would get when major tasks would be completed. Some of the homes are green rated with a LEED Gold rating. PG&E donated solar panels for each home (see photo of roof to positioning) and are helping teach home owners how to reduce energy use. There was a scrap pile in the middle of the site where we would salvage smaller pieces of building materials to reuse in other areas of the homes. Once completed, the houses will be outfitted with Energy Star appliances and low-VOC finishes. If this sounds like fun to you, you should give it a try. There is a San Francisco affiliate.
· Edes Avenue Development [HHEB]
· Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco [HHGSF]