Today was another extremely productive day at the DeJean house. All of the electrical wiring is complete and all of the outlet and switch boxes have been installed. All of the damaged siding and outdoor trim pieces have been replaced and the exterior has been caulked and is now ready for priming and paint. The front porch has been repaired and the hand rail installed.
I spent another day hanging sheetrock. We have completed hanging the sheetrock on all of the walls and ceilings on the right half of the house, and all of the ceilings except for the closets and one room are complete. We did find out late today that before the power is turned on, an inspection will have to be done since the power has been off for a couple of years. The (hopefully) good news is that we don’t think the inspection is like a city inspection for a permit for occupancy in a new construction. Probably more of a safety inspection. The electrical is certainly much better than it was before and is now up to code. We feel confident that the work will pass inspection. The only downside is that the sheetrock crew will definitely not be closing off walls until the inspector approves the work, and we may be removing some panels if the inspector needs to see the work behind the walls that are finished. Well, I guess there is another downside too – we don’t know when the inspector will be over to the house. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that the local Rebuilding Together Director can pull some strings and get an inspector to the house early. We only have 2 more days to work and really want to finish up, although we have completed the 3 primary items the homeowner really wanted done this week.
Tags: Volunteer
Sheetrock that is. The progress continued today at the DeJean house with the arrival of additional materials, including wall studs, floor joist lumber, windows, and sheetrock. The size of the early group seemed to double this morning as more of the volunteers wanted to get an earlier start.
Once at the house, work began promptly as everyone just knew what needed to be done and picked up where they left off yesterday. Within a couple of hours, several people were running out of work and really needed the material delivery to arrive. The delivery arrived in the late morning and by lunch, the sheetrock on the ceilings was complete for half of the house. The ceilings on the other half of the house are not available yet to install the sheetrock, so after lunch the sheetrock team began installing sheetrock on the walls in the back bedroom area. Most of the floor joist repairs were also completed today – I believe only one joist remains to be repaired before flooring replacement can begin.
Based on today’s progress, we remain optimistic that we will complete most if not all of the wish list goals we set. Check back for tomorrow’s update.
Tags: Volunteer
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
After I landed in Houston, I found out that I was worrying for no reason. My co-workers were very understanding and had all left in one of the vans and left the other one for me. I made the two and a half hour drive from Houston to Lake Charles, LA alone and arrived at the SWLA Volunteer Housing Center at around 9:00 PM local time.
The housing center is a former school, approximately 40 years old. There are separate dorms for boys and girls with bunk beds spaced about 3 feet apart. We had a brief orientation and each had the opportunity to introduce ourselves and say a little about why we decided to come for the rebuilding. There is a very diverse group. Some have volunteered with Rebuilding Together, Christmas in October, Habitat for Humanity, or other similar causes for as many as 20 years. While there many like myself who have never participated in an event like this before. The person in charge of this week’s effort is John Bruhn, a former employee of the company I work for. He has been retired for several years and has been involved with Christmas in October for 20 years. John arrived earlier last week to scope out the projects we will be working on this week. John has a tremendous enthusiasm for this project, and I’m certain we are lucky to have someone with his experience, enthusiasm, and compassion to lead the effort this week.
After the orientation and introductions, everyone turned in feeling anxious and excited to begin the week. There are two homes on the schedule this week. One will involve primarily a demolition of a very large shed or storage building. The other one will involve a much more comprehensive rebuilding effort with everything from a complete electrical rewiring, plumbing repair, flooring, and sheetrock, to siding repair and painting.
Tags: Volunteer
The day started off great. I got packed early and got to spend some time with my wife Kristin and my son Tyson. Rather than drive to the airport, we decided that Kristin and Tyson would drop me off at the Doraville MARTA Station. That way we could avoid airport parking fees and Kristin would have access to both vehicles during the week.
We left home just before noon which should have given me plenty of time to get to the airport to catch my 2:30 flight to Houston-Hobby Airport. Unfortunately, there were a couple of MARTA delays along the way where the train had to stop for a couple of minutes. If I had caught the train that was leaving as I came up the escalator, I would have made it comfortably. As it turns out, I was exactly 4 minutes too late to self check my bags at the Delta Kiosk and was instructed to go to the Kiosk Assistant counter. My scheduled flight was on-time, so I missed that one. Luckily, the Delta agent was able to get me on the 4:35 flight. I’m supposed to be meeting 7 of my co-workers from other regional offices and leaving Houston in 2 rental vans. Now I’ll be arriving 2 hours later than originally planned, so I feel like I’m getting off to a really bad start and letting the group down by being late. I’ve called several of the others to notify them of my changed flight and left messages that if they need to leave before I arrive, I’ll pick up a separate rental car and meet them at the Volunteer Center in Lake Charles later this evening.
Tags: Volunteer
