End of Week

Well, we "finished"....! Andy and all the "girls" finished the original house. We pulled down all walls and ceilings; took out all the debris from the walls and ceilings; pulled out all lower nails (around 6 ft high); pulled upper nails and ceiling nails in some of the rooms; pulled up linoleum in one dining room and part of one kitchen; pulled out all electrical and plumbing; and sweep as best as we could. The next team should be able to just finish pulling the nails, and finish what little linoleum is left, and then should be able to start the sanitizing (bleaching) process. We did an amazing job -- especially considering it was two houses in one! It's quite amazing to look at the pictures of where we started and where we left off when we were done!

David, Jim & Woody (and Dinah one day) worked on dry-walling another house on Thursday and Friday. It was a big job, with only 3-4 people working on it. They were able to put up two celings and finish the walls of one of those rooms. It was probably a nice contrast to see one house in the beginning stages of fix-up and one house in the later stages of fix-up.

Jim & Dave at Duplessis house, measuring twice before cutting once!

All in all, a very productive week!

At this point we have cleaned up after ourselves at the church; and some of us are going to a Dedication & Blessing of the first house that the UCC has had a hand in completing from start to finish. That seems amazing, however, the UCC teams here have worked on hundreds of houses over the last 20 months. And we need to remember and be aware that this clean-up process will be a MARATHON -- not a sprint!

The Marengo House Crew - the job is done, the door is locked, we've loaded up the equipment and we're ready for the showers...but first a photo opp.

- Lara -