South Carolina: Day Three

Hello, I am James Kearney Jr. I am a sophomore in Carpentry at Dauphin County Technical School. This is the first Building Construction Cares trip I am participating in. I remember late freshmen year finding out that I made the cut to attend and be a part of this trip. I worked hard on my application plus the essay to make it possible for me to participate in the trip. 

As the day begins Wednesday morning we were served sausage and scrambled eggs. After that we met out front of the church parking lot for our usual meetings and daily goals. When it comes to job sites, there were 3 today. One site is replacing windows and fixing door frames, another site is roofing, and at a third site was floor/vinyl installation. Part of the group started on their second roof after finishing up the first roof yesterday. 

Today some of us switched positions in the groups to get a different experience.  I went from doing the roofing to the window and door frames with Christy and Bobby as well as Ms. Johnson and Mr. Carroll. It was pretty hot as usual but it was tolerable. Today I had to repair the frame for the storage unit door because it was crooked and barely latched on. I also had to clamp the drilling jig 36” above from the ground and hook up an impact driver to drill a hole for the locks. After helping a gentleman from UMCOR get rid of broken doors and windows, we had to pull out the air conditioner to replace the window that it was installed in. After we replaced the window and got the air conditioner back in place, we had to tear out the three crank out (awning) windows. It took a lot of sweat and effort to get the old, rusty screws and nails out of the frame and I had to take my hammer and hit the sides and corners to get the windows out. After that was taken care of we cut some 2x4 and put them into the frame and installed the new sliding windows. Not long after the windows were installed, Ms. Johnson and I were bending sheets of metal to go over the outside framework. Even though it was my first time doing it and I got it a little mixed up, it was the easiest part of the day because I got to work in the shade so it made it more convenient for me to keep working. The best part of the day was getting the awning windows replaced and out of the way. Tomorrow all that is left is some trimming and indoor finishing on the windows. Today was different than the first few days because of the switching of the groups. Some of us had to work in different conditions and work on different parts of the house so our knowledge was really put on the test!

The last part of the day was a picnic dinner at a local park with a great pavilion and a lake. We had burgers and hot dogs, walked around the lake, played football and had a really nice time as a group enjoying the last hours of the day. Good night!