Saturday, January 27: It's coming together.

Our Biblical passage for today was Isaiah 41: 5-13, God telling his people not to be afraid of the problems that come their way. The Lord will be there to help us, and we are all His servants in helping each other.

Today was to be our final full day of work (Monday is supposed to be just a half day, to allow us to inventory the tools and prep for the next team). But many of us are hoping that we’ll be able to work a full Monday: the next team is arriving tonight in time to join us for dinner, so the transition should be easy! That’s if they are assigned to work on the same houses.

Today was cloudy all day, with rain in the afternoon, just to make it extra fun for those working outside…

Progress seems to be quite rapid: it helps to have so many people working! At the Daniels’ home, Eugene was already there to greet us when we arrived 10 minutes early; we understand that being there by 8:00 a.m. has been a running joke, but we were all ready to go!

Don, Stoddard, Mike, Beth & Marge take a well earned coffee break.

John – our miracle working (2 houses - 1 day) electrician

John and Mike tackled the electrical work immediately, hooking up outlets (mostly GFIs), the doorbell, the smoke detectors, and the new fans that we purchased with Juanita yesterday.


Mike doing the vents for air conditioning got covered with grills, and suddenly the walls looked so complete: no gaping holes!

One setback occurred when we started to cover the electrical outlets: we discovered that almost all the holes were too large for the covers to… well… cover!

One of Laurel’s many talents...

So a new job involved plastering the half-inch gaps, which will take at least two coats. This means we’ll have to return to the painting as well, but just touch-up.

Marg

Also painted: the two bathrooms got their primer coats, and now that Juanita has chosen the final color, the final coat can be applied.

Dr. Beth

Ready to be painted: the window and door trim, thanks to the patient work of Marge, Barb and Don, who painstakingly set each nail, then filled and sanded each little hole and gap.

Stoddard

Stoddard and Bill continued plugging away on the door and window casings, coping with the non-90-degree angles, the out-of-plumb uprights, and the unlevel floors. Their perseverance sets an example for us all! They reported that there was clearly a mistake with the delivery of the final door: it actually fits, as is!

And our wonderful (and young!) electrician John won our admiration by going under the house even though it was pouring rain, to move the 220V location for the stove from on side of kitchen wall to where the stove will be installed.

Down the street at Mildred’s, Mel and Rudy completed all the floor joists, and even worked out some other problems they checked out while Rudy was under the house. To all expressions of concern, Rudy would cheerfully say, “I’ve just been lying around on my back all day!”

Rudy – or should we say Muddy

Mildred’s laundry room was transformed with its primer coat of paint, plus the top coat on the ceiling. Mildred has chosen her wall color, so that can be completed before we leave. In addition, both garage closets were primed, leaving only the interior garage walls left to prime.

The large closet in one of the bathrooms had not been taped/mudded: that’s now done thanks to Dorrie. We think that’s the last of the taping and mudding at Mildred’s!

The men at Mildred’s (Ted and Fran) worked steadily at the door and window casings, finishing ALL the windows. These will now need to be prepped for painting by setting all the nails, and filling and sanding all the holes. Thresholds are needed for every single interior doorway: that will be next.

Carol playing in the rain?

Bill caught this drive-by photo of Carol, using Mildred’s hose to clean all the painting equipment – in the rain! Notice how long the trash bag raincoat looks on her, compared to when Rudy was wearing it?!

Dinner tonight was later than usual: the next NYAC team arrived, and we wanted to welcome them with a hot meal. Cassandra outdid herself, working with Jan to produce a pork loin dinner with Southern specialties like Hoppin’ John (a black-eyed peas dish) and fried okra. For those who don’t already know, Cassandra was born not too far from here, and has been a guiding light for this mission work of Simsbury United Methodist Church.

Cassandra, hard at work!

Your journalists, Carol and Laurel.