Cannon Design Blog

This past Saturday, Cannon Design’s Buffalo office participated in its second monthly Habitat for Humanity event. Currently, the office is assisting with Canisius High School’s Re-Hab at 288 Laurel St. In the City of Buffalo. This two story, one family home is in a neighbourhood where it’s very clear that help is needed. Neighbouring houses have roofs in need of repair, missing windows, fallen porches and many are vacant. The houses that are still occupied are filled with families who take great pride in their homes. This pride is evident by the multiple teams of people working on houses along the street.

From L-R (Robin Coffey, Kim Williams and Brian Sitzman)

In August, we were installing insulation on a very warm 85+ degree day. Pink insulation and blue foam both have their own negative attributes on a hot and humid day, but the team continued to work hard and completed the first floor insulation and the insulation at the eaves. This past weekend, the team broke into three groups. Two groups handled installation of drywall (one team for walls and one team for ceilings) while the third enjoyed the fresh air and sunny day installing  the porch flooring and conducting miscellaneous clean-up tasks around the site.

From L-R (Angela Defazio, Kathleen Cartus and Samantha Maroney)

288 Laurel Street is sponsored by Canisius High School. Students raised $15,000 to fund the rehabilitation of this house. Rehabilitation typically costs Habitat for Humanity about $35,000-$45,000 and utilizes 8,000 labor hours. Conducting a rehabilitation is a savings of roughly 35,000 and 4,000 labor hours when compared to a new build. Work began in May and will likely be completed in another four months.

From L-R (Drew Hermann and Steve Petrie)

While working on this site, we have the pleasure of working next to high school students who are eagerly learning about building technologies, the importance of giving back to their community and now learning a little bit more about what we do! They have heard from people in the fields of accounting, human resources, marketing, mechanical engineering and architecture.  And, we have heard the many teen volunteers talk excitedly about their schooling, their sports teams and their amazing contributions to the community. We are all looking forward to our date in October where we hope to be installing trim around the doors and windows.

The September Team – Standing from L-R Kathleen Cartus, Angela Defazio, Kim Williams, Brian Sitzman, Steve Petrie, Samantha Maroney and Robin Coffey. Seated/Kneeling L-R Kathy Callesto and Drew Hermann.