So far, working on Mary’s house has been pretty smooth sailing. One phase of construction is finished, and we go on to the next phase (which often covers up our ‘mistakes’ from the first) and we waltz on.
This week… well, it was a bit more…challenging.
Errr…interesting….
No- entertaining.
Yeah…entertaining, that’s it-
Let me start by confessing something…I had no freakin’ clue how to do our assignment this week. We were to lay laminate floors in the 2 bedrooms, the hallway, and the kitchen – and vinyl tile the bathroom & back utility room. Wha? Huh? Oh sure, i'll lead that project- HA!
I scrambled on Monday morning trying to find the more obscure jobs to do for my 3 volunteers until Johnnie would arrive to teach us flooring. Vick & Toni are a couple whom volunteered a year ago with SBP and decided to come back to volunteer this year while amidst a roadtrip from Michigan, through New Orleans, to Florida. Our other volunteer was Gail, a semi-local, hailing from Slidell, and has spent the past 3 Mondays (as part of Women’s Build Month) volunteering with SBP. Pretty cool stuff.
When Johnnie, my project manager, got onto site to teach us flooring, we discovered that I had installed all the doorways too low – apparently Miss Mary is receiving thicker-than-normal flooring… and we didn’t have a tool to cut the bottom of the jambs off to allow for the extra ½ inch… lovely! We spent the day painting and cleaned up a half-hour early & figured we’d tackle the flooring the next day on a full-nights sleep, and with a Japanese hand-saw. No big deal.
Vick & Toni's couple-bonding-time
Tuesday morning rolls around & Gail has left, but a couple of New Yorkers from Long Island enter the mix. There is something about that city – so many volunteers come down from NY, and with all my accounts- are always a hoot! Valerie & Maryanne are high school friends who made a pact that they (and their 4-5 other friends) would take a week-long vacation and help rebuild New Orleans. Turns out that only the 2 of them were able to take the vacation, but they played up all week that their friends just keep calling them the "Do-Gooders". Kinda like the kids who are called Teachers Pet, I guess? haha
So Tuesday mid-morning Johnnie brings this ridiculously large and seemingly flimsy Japanese saw, which to my surprise works beautifully at cutting the door jambs- and we are given the ‘go’ to install floors. Easier said than done.
Maryanne & Val tackle flooring Miss Mary's bedroom
So the laminate floors are the kind that just, "simply" ‘click’ into each other. Ya know? They have a ‘male’ end and a ‘female’ end and without a lesson in the birds & the bees, they’re to just link together like peas n' carrots...err something like that.
We had a lot of ‘trouble in paradise.’ We’d hammer one end of a board in, only to find the other side popping out. They’re called ‘floating’ floors too – so a nice big THWAP with the hammer only shifted the entire floor, which would then undoubtedly pop out the seam of a piece you had done 30 minutes, or maybe an hour, previously. To which then you'd curse, kick a couple things, walk outside for a breather - and then get back to it.
So, on that note, I said ‘peace’ and I let my volunteers go-go-go. Haha ok not really, but having more than 2 people work on a section of flooring was a little much, and since we all knew about the same amount, I did some quality control but let my volunteers just go to town. It took about a day before everyone had their own method to get everything clicking together- and I believe there were a lot more curse-words thrown down this week than the last! Haha
The next day Vick, Toni, Val, and Maryanne finished up the floors in the hallway and bedrooms, and finished painting the bathroom. Paint was everywhere- on the walls, but also all over clothing, and in hair. We deemed the one woman ‘cruella deVil’ as she had big white paint marks in her hair. When the bathroom paint had dried, we hung the bathroom door, only to discover when Johnnie came a day later that I should have made some extra cuts to its frame too – and so the door came back down. Yippee.
The crew
We had finished the flooring everywhere but in the kitchen – so I decided that getting the vinyl tile going in the Utility Room would be a good idea, as then two of them could have a break from the frustrating laminate floors, and we needed to spread out anyways.
Lucky for Toni & Vick, I had them finish cutting pieces of baseboard and continue working on the flooring in the kitchen (though that didn’t come without its frustrations for them too- dang floating floors!). Unfortunately for Val & Maryanne, I asked them to conquer the vinyl tile in the utility room.
It was kinda like what you’d see on Saturday Night Live. There’d be a commotion – either yelling, fist pounding, kicking & screaming – or hysterical, tear-producing laughter. I’d walk over to the room (or run depending on the fit), to often find Val stuck. Stuck to herself. Stuck to the walls. Stuck to water bottles. Stuck to her trowel. The lid of the adhesive at one point was stuck to her bum, while painters rags dangled from her pants, and rubber gloves were stuck to her shoes. She was an absolute mess. I’d find Maryanne, sticky but still functional, standing in the corner, consoling Val to just ‘do 3 more’, just ‘3 more’ Val… I didn’t know whether to laugh, or be heart broken for sending this woman back into her childhood, like when your mom finds you with gum in your hair & lollipops stuck to your pants. Of course, I chose to laugh, but I hope these ladies after a week of crazy frustrations, realize the huge difference they have made in someone’s life.
So, despite a few set-backs, a couple curse words, and a bunch of consoling donuts – we finished the week off in super high spirits. The house TRULY looks like a house. The bedrooms have their floors, the bathroom floor is nearly completed, the utility room is tiled, the bathroom door is reinstalled, and the kitchen is already 1/3 of the way complete. Sophie & Rodney installed cabinets this week, and Porter has been doing construction on the back patio.
Rodney & Sophie install cabinets in the kitchen!
The house is wrapping up. We’re looking at a goal of finishing in just 7 days of work- October 31st. Can we do it? I dunno…but we’re sure gonna try!
… and best part about next week?
My mom is coming to visit. :-D
(p.s. more photos coming...)
The Kitchen!
Oooo look at that beautifully vinyl tiled floor! phew!
No comments:
Post a Comment