Hammers 4 NOLA: Movin' Right Along!

Is it obvious that I'm finding less and less time to blog?

My camera has been quite finicky (phonetically speaking) and has begun to turn on but go into a 'system failure' mode... which I can 'cure' by turning it on and off about 5-10 times, until it finally decides it wants to work again. Needless to say, I'm even slower now about the photos - I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna keep up with this blog, I promise!

We started the week off a little lacking in numbers. Rick & Becky joined me again (they were transferred to my site last Friday) and I put them back to work on floating seams. On Tuesday, nearly the entire Site Supervisor team from SBP came to my site and helped me hang one (and the only remaining) room of drywall, and learned how to hang siding on the house. All but one side wall were completed with drywall in the very front room (Miss Yolanda's ''saints'' room). We nearly doubled the amount of siding that had been hung the week previous.

Wednesday things got CRAZY. I turned around Wednesday morning to find three "old farts" (self-proclaimed! I swear!) standing in the doorway. I started to explain the homeowners' story, and how to do some of the tasks at hand...but they certainly wouldn't have it... they were there to WORK and GET THINGS DONE and there was no stopping them, and no time for shenanigans. Over the course of 2 days, these 3 guys jumped Yolanda's house ahead by at least a day, maybe 2, in terms of the amount of work they got done, and to the caliber that they performed it. They were great mudders, and with the quick working hands of Rick & Becky, they were Caaruuusing through all the tasks.

Thursday I got the opportunity to lead the Glover Park Group from D.C. and NY. Fourteen of them jumped off the bus to help with Miss Yolanda's house. Adrian, a fellow site sup, lead a group of 8 underneath the house to complete the insulation between the floor joices. Dirt clung to everyone's clothing, in their ears, etc. They had to scoop out years of junk and some of Hurricane Katrina's old play toys out from under the house... even a wooden BB gun made it into our 'findings' pile (congrats Craig!) The other 6 helped mud inside the house - up n' down ladders, emptying pan after pan of mud, and learning the amount of work it takes just to make a wall seem 'seamless'! The group advanced the mudding stages on several rooms, helping us continue to propel forward to finish Miss Yolanda's home! Thanks GPG!

Friday the 3 ''old farts'' John, John, Richy - and Rick and Becky all came back to the house to continue mudding and begin priming the Kitchen and the 2nd Bedroom. Three other folks from Tulane joined us to help as well - Jorge (Panama) and Christina & Alex (Guatemala) spent the majority of the day hanging Tyvek under the house. The three of them worked pretty much on their own and accomplished a lot! Next week we'll only need to hang Tyvek in a small 4' strip along one side of the house.

By next Friday, I hope to have all the rooms primed and textured, and hopefully several of them painted! Fingers crossed that all goes well, and that our doors are indeed delivered next Friday like i'm wishing!

Thanks for a great week everyone!