Tuesday, 8 April 2008
A report from Don Skillman:
Four of us big burley men got up at 05:30 today and left early to get a head start on the overhead drywall installation. We started at the work site at 6:55, and left for supper at our church home in Metairie about 11 hours later. In between, a lot of sheetrock was hung and a lot of mud was slung. Gotta tell you, the “Montana Mud Women, Plus Frank” are doing a spectacular job filling in holes, sealing gaps, smoothing dents, and making this house look smooth and tight. This is fortunate, because the house is pretty old and a lot of the underlying wood is warped, twisted, and bent. (Sounds like that joke we heard today). The walls aren’t really flat, corners aren’t really square, and I think gravity might even be putting a spin on things in this nice old house. That adds up to some impressive gaps and holes between the sheetrock pieces – holes that the “Montana Mud Women, Plus Frank” have filled with drywall mud, smoothed over, sanded flat, and basically made into perfect junctions of walls, ceilings, fireplace edges, and floor. Well, “perfect” might be a little generous, but it truly does look spectacular, and they’re still working on it.
The high points of our day include the passage of an ice-cream truck, enabling us to get a cold
treat in the middle of the muggy afternoon. A little later, a big noisy truck called the “Pothole Killer” drove by. It stopped several times and we watched as a big hose coming over the cab blew the dirt out of potholes, washed them, and filled them with fresh asphalt spray. It looked like a giant insect to me, with a big proboscis doing all the work up front.
We discovered that our work sites are only a few blocks away from each other, within reasonable walking distance. That really helps with bathroom requirements, since only one of the two sites has an indoor bathroom. The other only has some discreet bushes out back. At site number two, the work also went on all day long, but I have to rely on witnesses for a report, since I haven’t seen it myself. They say that they’re working very hard over there. Evidently today was a big painting day, and at the end of the day they discovered that the wrong color of paint had been provided for the bedroom. Unfortunately, that news came after the bedroom was fully painted. “Cookie Crumb” was the desired color, but they painted it “Toasty Something-or-Other”. Tomorrow, they plan to fix the mistake. I got news that Art “had kicked the bucket” today, but he says that’s an exaggeration. He just accidentally stepped into the bucket of paint. He says his shoe and sock are “multi-colored”.
The home’s owner and her son, Mary and Rondell, have been invited to have dinner with us tomorrow night. Rondell is a professional painter. He said he’d bring some of his work and also some artifacts from the Katrina disaster.
Supper tonight was prepared by our team members – rice and chili, with salad and fruit for the healthy eaters, too.
Extra notes:
The tomato plant in front of our work site is about two feet tall, and the nearby rose bush is just about to get a blossom.
It’s still very strange to see so many homes and businesses that have simply been abandoned. They may be boarded up, maybe not. Vines and weeds have grown all over them. The abandoned homes are often in the middle of a block with several others, but restored homes are mixed in with them.
A report from Don Skillman:
Four of us big burley men got up at 05:30 today and left early to get a head start on the overhead drywall installation. We started at the work site at 6:55, and left for supper at our church home in Metairie about 11 hours later. In between, a lot of sheetrock was hung and a lot of mud was slung. Gotta tell you, the “Montana Mud Women, Plus Frank” are doing a spectacular job filling in holes, sealing gaps, smoothing dents, and making this house look smooth and tight. This is fortunate, because the house is pretty old and a lot of the underlying wood is warped, twisted, and bent. (Sounds like that joke we heard today). The walls aren’t really flat, corners aren’t really square, and I think gravity might even be putting a spin on things in this nice old house. That adds up to some impressive gaps and holes between the sheetrock pieces – holes that the “Montana Mud Women, Plus Frank” have filled with drywall mud, smoothed over, sanded flat, and basically made into perfect junctions of walls, ceilings, fireplace edges, and floor. Well, “perfect” might be a little generous, but it truly does look spectacular, and they’re still working on it.
The high points of our day include the passage of an ice-cream truck, enabling us to get a cold
treat in the middle of the muggy afternoon. A little later, a big noisy truck called the “Pothole Killer” drove by. It stopped several times and we watched as a big hose coming over the cab blew the dirt out of potholes, washed them, and filled them with fresh asphalt spray. It looked like a giant insect to me, with a big proboscis doing all the work up front.We discovered that our work sites are only a few blocks away from each other, within reasonable walking distance. That really helps with bathroom requirements, since only one of the two sites has an indoor bathroom. The other only has some discreet bushes out back. At site number two, the work also went on all day long, but I have to rely on witnesses for a report, since I haven’t seen it myself. They say that they’re working very hard over there. Evidently today was a big painting day, and at the end of the day they discovered that the wrong color of paint had been provided for the bedroom. Unfortunately, that news came after the bedroom was fully painted. “Cookie Crumb” was the desired color, but they painted it “Toasty Something-or-Other”. Tomorrow, they plan to fix the mistake. I got news that Art “had kicked the bucket” today, but he says that’s an exaggeration. He just accidentally stepped into the bucket of paint. He says his shoe and sock are “multi-colored”.
The home’s owner and her son, Mary and Rondell, have been invited to have dinner with us tomorrow night. Rondell is a professional painter. He said he’d bring some of his work and also some artifacts from the Katrina disaster.
Supper tonight was prepared by our team members – rice and chili, with salad and fruit for the healthy eaters, too.
Extra notes:
The tomato plant in front of our work site is about two feet tall, and the nearby rose bush is just about to get a blossom.
It’s still very strange to see so many homes and businesses that have simply been abandoned. They may be boarded up, maybe not. Vines and weeds have grown all over them. The abandoned homes are often in the middle of a block with several others, but restored homes are mixed in with them.
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