PROVIDING A FAMILY with four walls and a roof is just the first step in helping them get established. Here at the Twin Cities’ affiliate, we also aim to equip families with knowledge, so that they become successful homeowners. Because Habitat families are first-time home buyers, most are unfamiliar with the basic maintenance, repair, and budgeting responsibilities that come with homeowner — ship. To bridge this information gap, we provide more than a dozen different classes.
Many classes emphasize that “an ounce of prevention” helps protect a family’s investment and reduces
long-term costs. Basic maintenance classes describe how a house works from top to bottom and explain how (and why) to turn off outdoor faucets, clean out window wells, drain sediment from the water heater, test fire alarms, and check for excessive moisture in the attic.
Habitat home-buyer classes cover more than just caring for the physical house, however. Three money-management classes cover everything from basic budgeting to the pitfalls of credit cards to teaching children how to use money wisely. Other classes cover topics such as poisonous household products, city ordi
nances that affect property, block clubs, safety, and crime prevention.
Because Habitat has a commitment to environmental stewardship, our classes also cover recycling; ecologically friendly (and economical) practices, such as making cleaning products from natural ingredients; and energy and resource conservation. These practices often seem like common sense to homebuyers who have come from countries without the wealth of natural resources we enjoy here. And while they learn new ways of doing things in class, Habitat families often share old traditions as well.
-Cheryl Winget
The walls look strange covered with foam boards and wood panels. . .
Vinyl siding will be a big improvement…
All the windows must be installed before the siding goes on.. .
It takes teamwork to get the window frame into its opening and centered properly. . .
Vinyl starter strips and different kinds of trim must be nailed in place before we install the siding panels. ..
Aluminum-clad exterior trim goes well with vinyl siding because, like vinyl, it’s also a no-maintenance finish treatment. Aluminum sheets have a factory-applied finish and come on large rolls in various widths. Often referred to as coil aluminum, this sheet material is bent at the job site to fit around exterior trim boards.
To prep for this treatment, rough fascia boards (also called gutter boards) are nailed to the ends of the roof trusses and to the rafter tails on the roof extension above the side door (seethe photo at right). Some of these trim details are covered in chapter 5 and should be completed before the roof is sheathed and shingled. Other trim details, such as the boxed gable-end return shown on p. 171, can be done as the aluminum cladding goes on.
