Mid-Columbia Habitat for Humanity - Hood River, Oregon, White Salmon, Washington

White Salmon, Washington (New Build)
07-25 11 The White Salmon house dedication took place on Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 1pm. Click on left for images.

Lyle, Washington (New Build)
06-28-11 - The Lyle house is completed and dedication took place on June 25, 2011. Click on left for images.

6-27-06 - Completion of First Home (Submitted by Stan Horack, Construction Committee Chair) In early 2005, the Mid-Columbia Habitat for Humanity was ready to begin their first house project. Like all new Habitat organizations, we had developed a house design criteria for our houses. Although this was a start, getting this basic criteria incorporated into an application to the county building department was still a challenge. Taking into account the volunteer labor, free and discounted material to develop the most economical house we could build was different than what a normal contractor has to consider. Because of volunteer labor, we could consider tasks requiring labor that would be uneconomical for a regular contractor. Offers of free material and labor were still coming in after submitting our application for a permit, and at the same time some prior offers were uncertain. None of the people on the construction committee had any experience building houses with volunteer labor and material.

After the building permit was issued, the unusually dry winter started changing to rain. Because of the clay soils at the house site and uncertainty concerning volunteers working in mud, the excavation was delayed for a month. Although excavation was accomplished in April, rain delayed the construction of footers and stem walls until May. The excavation was donated by Darrold Ward and the stem wall forms were donated by Eco Block. The forms from Eco Block were integrated concrete forms (ICF’s). ICF’s are forms made of foam held together with plastic or steel clips which have provisions on them to hold the stem walls’ rebar in place during concrete pouring. The foam on the ICF’s is left as insulation for the wall. Another advantage of the ICF’s is that we didn’t need to rent, buy, or store concrete forms.

The county corrections department furnished labor to waterproof the foundation and install the foundation drainage system. They also helped haul donated lumber to the site. They were so productive that they completed all the day’s planned work early. After installing the house sub-floor, the floor was used as a platform to build roof trusses on. We built the garage roof trusses with donated rough-sawn lumber. This was accomplished by gluing and nailing the gussets and plates on the trusses while the trusses were held in place by a jig nailed on the subfloor. Although Habitat for Humanity normally doesn’t build garages or carports with their houses, a garage was build with this house because it was required by land covenants.

The trades worked on the house throughout the construction. The plumbing installation was donated by Pronto Plumbing, the wiring installation was donated by Merlin Electric and the heating installation was donated by Iron Mike Heating.

Our partners, Gilberto and Maria Evangelista and their friends helped throughout the project. Even the Evangelista children helped with such tasks as cleaning out the crawl space prior to covering it. Although it is a Habitat requirement to have the family buying the house provide at least 500 hours of labor building houses, the Evangelistas, were excellent at helping. I can’t even imagine having built the house without them. The house was framed with lumber purchased from Tum-a-Lum Lumber Company from Hood River, Oregon, except for the garage and interior panels in the house. These were framed with rough sawn lumber donated to Habitat by Paul Mansur, Hood River. The siding was planned to be plywood siding, but at the time of installation a cost comparison showed that lap siding was slightly lower cost. Since labor was free, lap siding was chosen even though it required considerably more labor to install. One of our board members, Dotty Gilbertson, had replaced the windows on her house and liked the windows so well she recommended them to other friends. She then called the window company and asked them to donate the windows for this house. The window company, Statewide Windows, agreed and not only furnished the windows, but also installed them. The quality of their windows is considerably better than would normally be installed on a Habitat house.

The outside painting, roofing, insulation and dry walling were all done with volunteers. The inside painting was accomplished by a group of employees of Nunamaker Realty organized by Nunamaker salesperson Tom Jenkins, who used to be a painting contractor. The flatwork (concrete) installation was donated by Schuebach Builders. Shock Welding donated the wrought iron railings on the house. The interior house trim and the utility room cupboards were constructed by volunteers from the donated rough sawn lumber.

For the first house built by the Mid-Columbia Habitat, this project went very well. God was with us throughout the project. We owe a lot to the many people who donated material and labor. I want to especially thank those organizations, businesses and people.

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to these companies and individuals for free services or material:
Bethel Congregational Church - donated paint
Brian Aaron - legal counsel and translation
Amerititle - professional services/house closing
Bob Anderson - free use of tractor for preparing for flat work
Darrold Ward - free excavation and donation of construction furnace
Dave McClure - free finish carpentry
ECO-Block, LLC-George Volker - free integrated concrete forms
Hunter Douglas - free window blinds in the bedrooms
Iron Mike - free mechanical installation
Merlin Electric - free electrical installation
Mike Udelius - free trenching
Northwest Natural Gas - free furnace and water heater
Nunamaker, Tom Jenkins - free painting
Paul Mansur - free rough sawn lumber
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church women - donated light fixtures
Deborah Phillips - legal counsel
Pronto Plumbing - free plumbing installation
Schock Welding - free wrought iron railings installed
Schuepbach Custom Buildings - free installation of concrete flatwork
Stateside Windows - free windows with installation
Square D - donated main electrical panel and circuit breakers
Tony Klein & Associates - free surveying
TPI - free lumber grading
Whirlpool - free refrigerator and range
Paul Worthen - free house design and drawing
Yale Locks - free door latch sets

Another GREAT BIG THANK YOU to these companies and individuals for discounted material or services:
Cabinet Factories Outlet
Gorge Sanitation - porta potty rental
Hanel lumber - storage space
Hometown Paint - donated brushes
Home Depot - miscellaneous material
Hood River Sand and Gravel - concrete
Meadows Outdoor Advertising - billboard thanking donators
Mike Schultz - concrete pumping
Mt. Adams Lumber Co. - prioritized sawing of lumber
Sprint - wired house for telephone
Swell City Carpets - carpet and vinyl
Tum-A-Lum Lumber - Majority of the house's material and provided on-site material expediting and ordering

Thanks to the many volunteers who helped construct the house:
Hank Adams, Bob Anderson, Walter Bauman, Brian Baynes, June Baynes, Jim Denton, Les Dewey, Dee Dewey, Rick Eggers, Rene Evangelista, Royal Ewing, Len Gilbert, Dotty Gilberston, Clel Harr, Larry Harr, Sam Horack, John Ihle, Tom Jenkins, Denaida Gutierrez, Rene Gutierrez, Bob Kramer, Madison Kyger, Andy Lang, Norm Luther, Dave McClure, Ian Meyer, Dick O’Bannion, Gary Obermire, Whitney Osborn, Tom Pencheon, Jonathan Perry, Lindsay Perry, Ted Perry, Dave Radley, Betty Shalhope, Don Shalhope, Kit Shypertt, Mike Solbach, Anne Sutton, Mike Udelius, Darrold Ward, the Stargazers Girl Scout Troop (Becky Morus, Inga Hansen, Whitney Fox, Molly McCulloch and parents,Victoria Kelsey, Sandi Hansen, Joe and Linda Fox)