Hilliard Adopt-A-House
2026 Minnesota Avenue

Habitat for Humanity
of Mid-Ohio

On Wednesday, September 2, 2026 we replaced the short J-channels along the rear porch pad, sided both porch walls short of the final row, sided the back wall up to the gable area, installed OSB was on the back porch walls as a stop for loose fill insulation, installed OSB as a fire stop over the chase next to the first floor tub, removed and reworked J-channel along the front porch roof side gables, hung siding along the sides of the front porch roof and above the front porch roof, and re-installed front porch soffit up to where the porch light electric box will be installed.

Note: You may click on any photo below to get a larger image. If you would like a higher resolution image of any photograph, make a request to Howard Baulch.

Project history:

• April 1, 2026 - It's no April Fools joke! It's the Groundbreaking Ceremony!!
• April 8, 2026 - The hole has been dug and the form boards are in place for the footings.
• April 10, 2026 - The footings have been poured, and the form plates for the basement walls have been delivered.
• April 14, 2026 - The form plates for the basement walls have been erected.
• April 15, 2026 - The contractors are still working on the form plates for the basement walls.
• April 16, 2026 - The contractors have poured the basement walls.
• April 21, 2026 - The basement wall forms have been removed, and the exterior walls have been insulated.
• April 23, 2026 - The foundation is being backfilled.
• May 2, 2026 - Set the sill plates and began setting the floor trusses.
• May 6, 2026 - Built and installed the double LVL joist, began and finished covering the trim-able ends of the floor joists with 1/2" OSB (both sides), installed the parallel joist blocking on both the front and rear of the deck, installed the last three joists at the rear of the deck, began patching the badly split joist to be used in the stairwell area, discovered that we had forgotten to allow space for the basement window headers and had to remove and move several joists to allow for this installation.
• May 9, 2026 - Canceled due to rain and water in basement.
• May 12, 2026 - Repaired the split in the top board of one of the joists, added the joist hangers to the four joists terminating over the basement windows, removed the double LVL joist and added the required nails on one side of the joist, built and raised the basement walls that the stairwell joists rest on, and installed the final floor joists on the basement walls.
• May 13, 2026 - Installed the RIM board around the entire periphery of the first floor, installed most of the subfloor, and one piece of 2x6 for backer boards was moved from the front of the foundation to the rear.
• May 16, 2026 - Laid about half of the remaining deck subfloor, installed most of the remaining fire board addition to the parallel I-beams on the rear of the first floor, and installed the foam board insulation between the porches and the rim boards.
• May 20, 2026 - Canceled due to rain.
• May 21, 2026 - Finished the first floor deck, fireproofed the last three parallel floor supports, built a safety railing system around the stairwell, finished the foam board coverage of the rim boards on the front and rear porches, covered the wall panels with 1/2 inch OSB board, and erected the walls on the front and west side.
• May 23, 2026 - Canceled due to Memorial Day Weekend.
• May 27, 2026 - Canceled due to rain.
• May 30, 2026 - Nearly finished erecting the exterior first floor walls, built and installed a short wall section in the stairwell opening to carry the wall sections spanning the stairwell opening, installed the strong-backs in the floor joists and installed all but one of the king/jack supports between the foundation sill plate and the underside of the flooring directly beneath the king/jack wall studs.
• June 3, 2026 - Continued erecting walls on the first floor, installed cap plates on some of the first floor walls, checked the two long exterior walls for straightness and adjusted where necessary, and completed the one window needing king/jack supports.
• June 6, 2026 - Completed the first floor interior walls, installed all of the cap plates throughout the entire first floor, and installed all of the second floor trusses including the 6-foot LVL over the hallway.
• June 10, 2026 - Continued but did not complete the perpendicular I-beam truss pieces, started laying flooring on the second floor by putting down 6 sheets and dug out around the basement windows for the window well guards.
• June 13, 2026 - Completed the perpendicular I-beam truss pieces and RIM board on the second floor, almost completed the second deck, and installed the window well on the west side.
• June 17, 2026 - Hoisted the two back wall panels and the two west wall panels up to the second floor as well as a healthy number of OSB sheets, erected the back two walls and readied one west panel, installed additional strong backs along the west wall and half of the east wall, constructed and installed the east knee wall for the staircase area, installed the final pieces of second floor decking, sorted the remaining second floor walls, installed the second basement window well, placed dirt around the other window well, installed kitchen cabinet nailers, and determined the microwave vent location.
• June 20, 2026 - Erected the rear west wall section, sheathed and erected the final west wall section, lifted to second floor, sheathed and erected the rear east wall section which involved moving wall over stairwell opening, lifted to the second floor four internal wall sections, constructed the basement stairs landing, added washers to the east basement window well concrete screws, removed many first floor door thresholds, framed the microwave vent wall, and caulked first floor vertical wall joints.
• June 24, 2026 - Completed the last three exterior wall sections on the second floor, erected all but three interior wall sections on the second floor, added an OSB panel to the rear porch wall, trimmed OSB around windows, continued caulking OSB, constructed most of the second floor stair landing, installed ledger boards in the stairwell to aid in stair landing installation, and reworked safety rails on the first floor.
• June 27, 2026 - Finished and installed the main stair landing, installed both sets of stairs, string checked the alignment of the west wall, installed the balance of the interior walls on the second floor, installed the cap plates on all second floor walls, installed temporary handrails in both stairwells, worked on adding nailing blocks for trim throughout the house, worked on filling in the OSB siding on the exterior between floors, planned and installed two porch column brackets on the rear porch, continued seam caulking and did additional OSB trimming around window openings.
• July 1, 2026 - Temporarily set two rear porch posts in place and braced them to reduce future handling efforts, added screws to the upstairs landing to eliminate the squeaks, installed the front porch post brackets, located the front porch beam brackets, installed mounting blocks for the brackets, relocated the front entry door, rearranged the sump pump line, and installed the east second story rim OSB.
• July 8, 2026 - Continued assembling the front porch structure, worked on assembling the truss rakes on two of the three trusses, relocated the window over the front door that was mis-framed in the warehouse wall framing, filled in the area in the second floor landing that was uneven and put safety bars across the windows.
• July 11, 2026 - Raised the middle two front porch posts, built and raised the long front porch beam, completed OSB on the large rear gable truss, put the 2x4 nailer, horizontal stiffner and vertical stiffners on the front gable truss, completed OSB on the front gable truss, and began insulation board on both large gable trusses.
• July 15, 2026 - Continued work on the gable trusses and porch beams.
• July 18, 2026 - Finishing the soffit pieces on all three trusses and brought the rear porch structure to the the point required for truss installation.
• July 22, 2026 - Completed the vinyl siding on the front truss and installed about two-thirds of the vinyl siding on the rear second floor truss.
• July 25, 2026 - Completed preparing the gable trusses, installed blocking for the handrail brackets in the stair wells, began prep on the two end trusses for the front porch, continued building out the front porch beams, began installation of the foam board insulation on the exterior walls, and laid out the truss locations for the truss installation.
• July 29, 2026 - Raised all trusses on the house and the front porch, installed hurricane clips on the house trusses, installed one row of insulation board on the east side of the house, with the help of the crane lifted the bath tub into the second floor bathroom, manually carried the other bath tub into the first floor bathroom and began installing OSB on the truss heels.
• August 1, 2026 - Continued with installation of insulation board, added OSB to the truss heels on the west side and insulation board on top, added subfascia boards to the trusses on the front porch and the east side low roof, added OSB to the east side low roof truss heels, added hurricane clips to the front porch roof trusses, and did additional trim work on the rear porch structure.
• August 5, 2026 - Continued installation of the insulation board, installed two sets of pump jacks on the east and west sides of the house, installed the balance of the subfascia boards on the roof trusses, installed insulation board in the attic area of the rear bedroom and over the front porch, and built and began painting the electric meter mounting board.
• August 8, 2026 - Installed the remaining insulation board on the house, made jamb extensions for both exterior doors, installed the front and rear exterior doors, constructed the water heater/furnace table for the basement, mounted the electric meter board to the east wall, found issues on the alignment of studs for fastening the tubs in both bathrooms, discovered the upstairs bathroom window opening was not built to house plan, moved the upstairs bedroom window opening to its appropriate location, installed two rafters returns on the front porch outer rafters and two on the lower rafter attached to the second story wall, and installed two vinyl corners along the east wall.
• August 12, 2026 - Moved construction trash into the dumpster, hung all but three pieces of outside vinyl corner pieces, mounted almost all J-blocks, installed all windows, and insulated and house-wrapped behind the bathtubs and in the laundry room.
• August 15, 2026 - Completed starter strip for the vinyl siding, installed J-channel around the exterior doors, installed the special window trim on the first floor front windows, began installing the west upper roof soffit, completed J-blocks except for the second floor bathroom exhaust vent, added missing cripples beneath most windows throughout the house, added support blocking between the first and second floor walls, and installed curtain insulation in the basement.
• August 18, 2026 - Westlake Royal Building Products volunteers, under our leadership, hung significant areas of siding on the front and both sides of the house.
• August 19, 2026 - Installed almost all soffit material in eves, hung more basement insulation, installed F-channel on west wall to finish soffit install, installed F-channel on front porch, built and installed 2x6 wall in laundry room, started painting smart trim, finished blocking in ceiling of first floor, installed nailers for soffit in ceiling of front porch, and installed lexan on first floor windows and both doors.
• August 22, 2026 - Hung string lights in the first floor and basement, added a flat 2x4 wall to the first floor bath tub area, began adding drywall blocking, trimmed the basement insulation hanging over the basement stairs, added angle hangers to the second floor stairs landing, continued painting Smart trim, finished the siding beneath the front porch, repaired the soffit on the east lower roof and the bird box on the west rear upper roof, hung F-channel and began hanging soffit under the front porch, and added OSB to the rear porch beam to shim it out even with the insulation board.
• August 26, 2026 - Installed the final three siding corner posts, J- and P-channel and aluminum fascia on the east and west sides of the house, continued installation of siding on both sides of the house and added the J-block for the second floor bathroom ventilation fan.
• August 29, 2026 - Added nailers for the upstairs bathtub, moved the upstairs bathroom wall to fit the bathtub, continued hanging vinyl siding and taped insulation board below the front porch roof.
• September 2, 2026 - Replaced the short J-channels along the rear porch pad, sided both porch walls short of the final row, sided the back wall up to the gable area, installed OSB was on the back porch walls as a stop for loose fill insulation, installed OSB as a fire stop over the chase next to the first floor tub, removed and reworked J-channel along the front porch roof side gables, hung siding along the sides of the front porch roof and above the front porch roof, and re-installed front porch soffit up to where the porch light electric box will be installed.

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