Roof building in Ukraine

My second trip to South West Ukraine to help a family finish a children’s home for the orphans of Ukraine.

The last time I was down in Chernivtsi helping Slavic work on their house, LifeBoat, I asked Slavic what his plans were for the roof.  He sheepishly told me he didn’t have any, he was just going to build the walls to a certain height and hope that every thing came together.  That night I called Janna and asked if it was ok for me to plan another trip so that I could build the roof for Slavic. 

I recruited Petro to come with me again. He, like most kids who graduate from the orphanage system, has had a really hard time finding a job, even though he’s a hard worker.  I also got Vova and Dima to come with me.  They are both college students but don’t have any summer work.  They live in a transition home for kids from the orphanage here in Kiev, and their house “mom” told me that it would be a big help to her if I could take any of her boys to help me.   They could earn some money, learn new skills and if they just sat around the house they would drive her crazy.  Win, win, win.

I was really excited to be taking three guys who came out of the orphanages to help build a home so that some kids don’t have to live in the orphanages. 

We started out the week with simple goal.  We needed to stack the roof over the new part of LifeBoat House, and then rip the roof off the old part of the house and cover it again.  It was a pretty ambitious goal.  I knew that I would be working long days and it would take everything I had. 

Building in Russian

I was a little worried about having a crew of 4-5 guys who haven’t built with wood before and don’t speak any English.  Yep, once again I was the only English speaker. 

This past Sunday, I met a guy who was amazed at how good my Russian is after only being in Ukraine for two years.  But I still have so many huge gaps in my vocabulary, and if you know anything about building, you know that builders have a totally different vocabulary.  So all week I was trying to tell 4 people what to do in my totally inadequate language.  I did learn the words for level, nails, and joists, but I also spent the week telling everyone that I needed the next board cut with a 27 degree angel (nope, that wasn’t a typo). 

Speaking in Russian alone is exhausting.  Building a roof is exhausting too.  Thinking through a roof, laying out the rake walls and laying in the valleys, all exhausting things.  But the entire week, I had Slavic following me around, wanting to help when I needed time to think and work.  Wanting to just chat when I was 100% focused on what I was doing.  

When I was building the walls so that I could do lookouts and give Slavic a nice strong over hang, he kept asking me what I was doing.  The first three times I quickly explained it to him.  But he never got it.  After that, I was like, “Slavic, I’ve already explained this and shown you pictures, if you don’t understand, just wait and see.  Trust me.”  

Thirty minutes later, Slavic would ask me, “What are you doing?” 

I love Slavic, but there were a few times last week that I had to remind myself, “I’m not allowed to shoot him.”  I finally started answering all of his questions with, “I’m building your roof.”  and then I would just keep on going. 

I eventually convinced Slavic to work on finishing the brick walls, which got him off my back for about an hour. 

Building American Style

In Ukraine people often run their joists over the house and then put strips of 1X4 sticking out past the house.   It kinda works but its not very strong and its hard to be accurate, so it usually looks like an amateur built the house, which in most cases is true.  Lookouts are a common way to finish your roof in the States. They are designed to give you a nice strong roof a couple feet past the house.  It also makes the side of your roof look clean and professional.  I gave LifeBoat lookouts and all week, Slavic kept telling me that I was building him an American house. 

I think it just had a few American elements.  But all week long I got to hear and see the difference in styles of building.  (To put this in perspective, Slavic was building a house without a tape measure, speed square, or even a level more than 2 feet long.   He had two of the smallest hammers in the world.   To cut wood he would put a blade on his grinder that had no guard on it.  So when I showed up with my skillsaw, chopsaw, tool bags, chalkbox, compressor, nail gun and more, we entered a new level construction.)

The first day, I brought out my tool bags and started building trusses for the end of the house.  Vadeem, Slavic’s 10 year old foster son, immediately started grabbing any extra tools he could find and hanging them in his pockets, off his belt loops, and just shoved into his pants.  When he couldn’t find any more tools lying around, he started stealing tools from my bags, while I was working.  I would reach for my tape measure and it wasn’t there.

“Vadeem!”  That ended up being the most repeated word of the week.  But it was cool.  The second day, when I was building the walls for the second floor, Vadeem told me that he wanted to be a wood builder too.  (I’m really sorry that I didn’t get a picture of Vadeem wearing my tools, it would have make a great addition here)

When I whipped out my nail gun started nailing the first wall together, everyone drifted up just to watch.  They were fascinated with how fast it worked.   Later, Slavic asked me how long it would take to build a house in the States and I told him that I could frame his house in a month, he looked at me in disbelief. 

But maybe I convinced him.  On day 3 we stacked all of the joists on the entire house.  It had rained the entire night after we ripped off the old roof so I stayed awake thinking through every step and figuring out the very fastest way to cover the whole house and keep the water from ruining all of their things.  We had the membrane tacked onto the joists before lunch.  Day 4 I finished all the lookouts and day 5 we did the two pop-out windows on the new part of the house.  The roof was totally framed. Throughout the week, I heard Dima, Petro, Tanya, Slavic and Tanya’s brother and mother all say, “I can’t believe it,” when they looked at the work we had done. 

The only thing I couldn’t convince everyone of is that building exterior walls out of wood and OSB is a good thing.  Every Ukrainian I have met is convinced that US houses won’t last for more than 20 years and that tornadoes will destroy them.  The fact that Ukraine doesn’t have tornadoes doesn’t matter to them.  No amount of convincing or arguing will change this opinion.  Except for Petro, who wants me to build him an American style home … well at least part American style. He’s still a little afraid too. 

Heights

Building roofs isn’t for everyone.  You have to be willing to stand on a piece of wood hanging out over nothing.  Everyone got over their fear when ever I need a hand putting up a piece of facia (the very edge peice of  wood).   But no one liked it.  And Slavic was very disturbed when I stood on the bottom piece of facia to put the facia on the lookouts.  I assured him that it was strong, after all I built it knowing that I would have to stand on it.  But he was still worried and wanted to hold on to me.

Even Petro who handled the heights the best would only sit just past the wall on the peak of the roof.  Even when we took a picture so he could impress his girlfriend.

I told Petro he needed to hang his feet off the peak but he stayed back near the wall.

On Sunday, we took the day off and enjoyed the city of Chernivtsi.  We found a 40 meter tower drop, and I decided that I could pay for all of us to go on it.  Petro didn’t want to go, but I bought him a ticket anyways.  I think this picture pretty accurately shows how he felt about this.

Building relationships and homes

Children’s Hope’s main focuses are providing homes so that we can build relationships that point children to Christ.  The two times I’ve been able to go and help Slavic and Tanya on their house, I’ve been more and more pleased with how they have the same focus.  Petro, Vova and Dima all love that family, and their love of Christ shows.   The work that Slavic and Tanya do is having ripple effects in their church too.  Many people are helping them both with the construction and with their ministry in the orphanage. Some are even considering fostering or adopting themselves.  Soon, they will be able to provide a Christ-centered home to more and more kids that have been cast out by the world. 

My week building the roof for LifeBoat was one of the most exhausting, but also one of the most rewarding weeks of my life.  I was able to use my specific skill sets to give this family a very big jump on the construction of their house.  My role in Ukraine is to do just that.  I will never be able to have the ministry that Slavic and Tanya have, but I can use my gifts to help expand their ministry.  And in the process all of our relationships have grown closer.  This week when I’ve seen Vova and Dima they both gave me huge hugs, and then we sat down and talked, where before we would shake hands and then awkwardly stand around each other.  I can’t wait for more of that.

The next big step for LifeBoat house is to put the metal on the roof.  This will take about $1200 to do.  Children’s Hope Ukraine is raising funds to help complete this children’s home.  If you would like to help us in this project, you can to to our parent organization www.firstloveinternational.com and donate.  Be sure to designate to Children’s Hope UA.

You can read more about LifeBoat and their ministry at www.childrenshopeukraine.org

The house at the end of our last trip.

The house at the end of this trip.

God Bless.