Habitat Portugal

From Monday Oct. 29th - Friday Nov. 2nd, was a work week! Sunday we had a team dinner at Domus - Habitat's 'compound' for hosting teams in Braga (just north of Porto).

Rear of Domus house. Built early 1800's.

Gloria's house - looking like a house!

Living room.

In Portugal, Habitat focuses on remodels, assitting families in need (often single mothers with children). Projects often take 6-8 months to complete, and the before/after comparisons are incredible. Gloria's house is their first two story renovation.

I won 'best dressed'.

Monday was bucket brigade day - we moved a large amount of soil (nearly 2-feet had been dug out of the lower level to make it habitable) up the hill to a trailer.

Fortunately it rained, so moving soil paused and we settled in for 3-1/2 days of plastering and parging stone walls! What a time consuming process. All the while conduits were also being installed (under slab and in walls), the front entry concrete stairs were placed, a gutter was put up, and after 1-1/2 days of jack hammering, plumbing in the upstairs bathroom was mostly completed.

Mix mix mix. I know we mixed over 50 bags of plaster, but I did not count. Towards the end of the week we had crews working in three bedrooms, so mixing tubs of plaster was constant, other than break and lunch.

Playing 'heads up' before some cards.

By weeks end, some of us were able to stay awake for after dinner games - it was a great group all around.

The Habitat team in Portugal are all fantastic (Filipa, Sophia, Bernie, Fabio).