Report #17 - Vinyl Siding
The Care A Vanners on the job in Ft. Meyers.
I've spent the last two weeks with Habitat for Humanity (HFH) of Lee
County, Florida, parked at their headquarters in North Fort Myers. I arrived Monday
5 April, got settled in, and met the other Care A Vanners. There are 11 of us - 5 couples
and me, and we are all members of the Escapees HFH group, and are here as part of the HFH
Care A Vanner program, that organizes groups of RVers to live in their RVs near an HFH
construction site while volunteering for HFH.
Monday afternoon we met with HFH staff who welcomed us and explained
some of the details of what we would be doing. We were told that HFH of Lee County Florida
built 50 to 70 houses last year and is aiming to build 100 this year. The next morning we
drove to Lehigh Acres, where HFH has acquired 300 building lots in an empty subdivision.
Roads had been paved, and canals dug to drain the swampy land probably 20 years or
more ago, but there has been no power, water or sewer in the area, and no homes built.
Now HFH has ten or more houses completed or under construction in the area and
power has been brought in to some parts of the subdivision.
I was assigned, with some of the others, to install vinyl siding and
that is what I did for the 2 weeks with the exception of one rainy day when we installed
drywall. We worked on homes in Lehigh Acres for 8 days, then in North Fort Myers for
the final 2 days.
Care A Vanner John Lawson installs vinyl siding.
The finished product - one of the houses we worked on with the vinyl siding almost completed.
The Care a Vanners - all cleaned up and ready to move on. From left to right Ken & Fran, Sam & Connie, John & Rose, Bob & Helen, Allen, Midge & Bub.
On Saturday morning all the other Care A Vanners left in their RVs
and scattered in different directions. I remained parked at HFH for the weekend and
visited with my Aunt Stella Walima, and some of her children, grand children, and great
grand children. Tomorrow (Monday) I will head north with a plan of spending Tuesday at
EPCOT center near Orlando, and Wednesday at Cape Kennedy.
Aunt Stella at her home in Lehigh Acres, FL.
The next report will probably be from Georgia.
How I spent my Easter morning - I took a walk and noticed a power pole on fire. I called the fire Dept., then stood around with them waiting for the power company. The picture shows the guy from the power company extinguishing the burning cross member.
Page last updated June 24, 2011