Habitat House

Family is frustrating, no doubt about it. But this isn't about that. This is about the foundation family lays and what can be built from it.

This past Saturday all members of my family volunteered with Habitat for Humanity to help construct a house for the Watson family. The money for the house was raised by Grace Episcopal Church in memory of my late Uncle Ned.

Please check out some of the pictures here: Habitat House Gallery

My cousin Harris instigated this project during Christmas '05 with a letter to all family members explaining that Grace Church and Habitat of Hall County would raise the money and get the house started, but at some point during the building process he wanted our entire family to come get our hands dirty.

Since Christmas, it took a few months to get the logistics worked out, but they broke ground the end of June, and this past Saturday morning at roughly 9am every family member & a couple close friends came straggling in for work detail: Puttin' up the roof.

The start was slow and unknowing. If anyone had asked me the day before who would be the first family member to climb on the roof, Harris would not have been the guy. But to my surprise, Harris not only got on the roof, he led the charge!



Before long, my cousins Stuart & Rob, my brother Darrell, and Harris were all up on the roof talkin' the talk and walkin' the walk. Between the four of them, they laid well over half of the ply wood sheets for the back part of the roof (in hundred degree heat no less).

Meanwhile, my father, who has always shied away from manual labor, was measuring plywood, cutting wood with a buzz saw, heaving wood up on the roof, and mixing up concrete with my cousin Meigan.

My Uncle Bill, Aunt Laura, and cousin Liz were busy nailing up the weather proof plastic sheet around the house and cutting out the windows.

My eighty-year-old grandparents even made a showing around lunchtime with homemade sandwiches and sweet tea.

All in all it was a momentous afternoon for our family. I'm sure my Uncle Ned was thoroughly entertained, laughing, and smiling the whole time.

To cap the day off, we drove into the foothills of the Appalachians and my Dad treated a group of us to dinner in Dahlonega at a place called the Oar House. We sat outside on big wooden deck next to the Chestatee River listening to a two-piece jazz band while eating prime rib and pork tenderloin.

As a family bonus, Sunday morning got started with a breakfast batch of grits and a drive to Atlanta. Darrell & I met my cousins Seth & Meigan, and they treated us to the Allman Brothers concert at Lakewood Amphitheater. Summer ain't summer until the Allmans play.

I walked out after the concert feeling physically exhausted with blisters on my fingers from playing too much air-guitar, but my conscience was clear and my heart was full.

It was a workin' man's weekend full of family.