Homes of Hope – Bringing Hope to an Impoverished Family

On the weekend of September 24th, the Porte team made our way to Tijuana with desire and anticipation to meet a very special family, the Garcia Coronadas. It was a year-long process of planning for this trip with the purpose of building a home for the family through Homes of Hope. Here is our journey over the 2-day build as we got to know the family, sharing awesome experiences with them and each other.

The Garcia Coronadas in front of the structure that will soon become their old home.

We’ve arrived! The team on site on our first day, doing a round of introductions and going over safety procedures as we geared up to get our hands dirty. The foundation for the new home has been laid – you can also see the old house in the background!

We started off the day with picking out tools and being assigned with duties.

Among the tasks was to build the frame, first by organizing sheets that will become the walls of the home. Some of us got help – as seen here; Scotty our Customer Care Representative with Marcos, the littlest of the Garcia Coronada family who is only 4 years old!

Tracy got to use a chop saw for the first time, cutting wood panels for the frame so that they are all the same length.

And of course, Mike, our Director of Construction, is a natural at operating power tools!

Things are starting to come together as we make progress on framing with the help of Marcos again.

In the meantime, our team of painters, Rosie and Ranjit, get working on the external walls – painting them a beautiful shade of grey.

Jessica, Steph and Helen were working on the gable roof, putting together the panels and painting them.

Up she goes! The whole team was needed for raising of the walls.

Next, we connected the shingles that will make up our roof frame to the walls. You can also see the partition for each room being added.

And that’s a wrap for our first day! These are the smiling faces, happy that we’ve made the progress we did within a day’s worth of building.

Day 2 was another beautiful bright one. Mike, Helen, Nicole, and their guide, Gallo, completed sheathing the roof with plywood. The next task was to install the water shield to protect the roof from water damage.

The team also added trim to the exteriors that were painted a beautiful pastel pink, selected by Yessenia, the mom of the family. Supervision was given by our Residential Property Manager, Mitchell!

Meanwhile, these ladies – Rosie, Jenny, and Liz, here with Jessica and Marcos – had the opportunity to take the family shopping.

 

 

 

 

 

Back on site, the roof team completed sheathing and water shielding!

Finishing touches were added, painting of drywall, securing nails, and of course some tom foolery too.

Alas, we did it! The Porte team shared such an incredible experience with the family and a real once in a lifetime opportunity with each other. We handed over a completed house, wishing the Garcia Coronadas the best and letting them know what an impact they’ve made on us.