I’m not normally an early riser, but this morning I woke up around 4:30 AM just excited to begin the week. I tried to sleep a little more, but couldn’t really manage to make myself go back to sleep. I did stay in bed until about 6:00 AM, then got up and had breakfast. The facility is equipped with a commercial grade kitchen, a large pantry full of food, and a walk-in refrigerator. I had coffee and cereal.
I went with an early group to the DeJean house - the house requiring more extensive work. We left the facility before 7:00 AM and arrived at the house in about 10 minutes. This house is basically in a gutted condition. All sheetrock has been removed as has much of the flooring. We’ve been told that the owner of the home has been promised so many times that her home would be completed only to have her hopes dashed when the work did not get done successfully. Most recently, a group completed the sheetrock but it had to be removed because of electrical problems.
Our goal is to complete the rewiring, plumbing, flooring, and the sheetrock on the ceilings. We would really like to complete all of the sheetrock, siding repair, and painting as well, but we’ll see how things go.
We are very fortunate to have some very skilled people on the project this week, including a master carpenter, an electrician, and several people who have successfully completed diverse rebuilding projects similar to this one. We found out that the crew who removed the sheetrock did not remove the nails and screws, so to get the ceilings and walls ready to receive sheetrock, we will need to remove them.
As other groups began working on removing existing wiring, repairing siding, or assessing damage to flooring and joists, I and a few others began removing nails, staples, and screws from the ceilings and wall studs. By the end of the day, all existing electrical wiring had been removed, new wiring had been pulled, electrical outlet boxes had been installed, all damaged flooring had been removed (including some sections to the joists), most damaged siding sections had been removed and replaced, and all ceilings and wall studs were free of nails and screws and were ready to receive sheetrock. In addition to removing nails and screws, I had an opportunity to remove damaged flooring and reframe interior door headers.
Everyone agreed that it was a very successful start and that tremendous progress was made. We think we have an excellent chance of meeting the extra wish list goals we set.
Tags: Volunteer
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