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The East Central MN Habitat for Humanity House had workers crawling over, under and inside last week-- going from just-a-slab Monday (concrete work donated by Eric Bergum Concrete) to walled-in with a roof about two days later.  The volunteer electricians came Saturday.  

East Central Habitat for Humanity Director Wayne Eller said the project is tightly scheduled up to and including the interior drywalling, but there’s still volunteer hours available for painting, varnishing woodwork and landscape/sod installation later.  The project itself is only one-day behind the original timeline, he added.

The day the Press stopped by there were framing, plumbing and carpentry tasks like bracing an entry overhang,  getting done.  

This site is a first for these plumbers working with East Central Habitat, said Dean Gale, overseeing the work being done.  It is a good feeling, he noted, being able to provide your personal talent and expertise to a worthy cause, plus it’s great experience for the young plumbers to do installation inside of an actual active build situation.

There were also seven carpenters,  connected with the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters Apprenticeship program.  This group has a long history with Habitat, and volunteered for east central affiliate homes in Willow River and Pine City and this year here in North Branch and Cambridge, said Supervisor Dan Simacek, who is also a trades instructor.  He estimated he’s donated at least 80 hours to Habitat and his co-site supervisor “Charlie” also guessed about 80 hours for himself.

The house, Simacek explained,  was panelized in St Paul at the trade school shop so it went up quickly.  The garage walls were also ready to assemble.  

Lampert’s Lumber in North Branch  donated the truck and personnel to transport the large panels from the Cities to the Habitat homesite, just south of 400th Street.

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If you want to donate or volunteer somehow, maybe just make bars or cookies for the crews-- call the Habitat headquarters at 763-689-0288 or see the website and follow directions “To Volunteer” there. Or use the e mail at [email protected].

The east central Habitat for Humanity affiliate has built over 35 homes in this region.  It’s in search of residential lots for houses for 2016-2017.

 A family of five-- one parent disabled and the father a U.S. veteran-- is the recipient of this finished home in North Branch. The family is contributing over 200 hours labor to the project and is background-checked to ensure utilities, property taxes and everyday maintenance expenses are affordable.

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