Saints TV crew

We had Roman Harper & The Saints TV crews come to site at Miss Yolanda's house a while back.

Here's the 9:32 video they captured. It's beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2ipGrKLh24

As for me, I'm sorta takin' it easy! I worked one week as a co-site supervisor, and spent last week doing repair work in our Opportunity Houses ( houses that we rebuild & sell at an affordable cost to qualifying applicants). So, I haven't had any volunteers for a week now, which has been a nice change of pace, but certainly less entertaining. I'll be doing more work on Opportunity houses this upcoming week as well, as the house i'm hoping to lead is not volunteer-ready yet.

I'm in the process of trying to figure out logistics on a fundraiser for a wait-listed client of ours... more to come. (and i'll need your help!)

The Julien Family Home

Now we're simply waiting on the HVAC unit to be installed, and inspections to be completed.

Thanks to all the volunteers, you guys rock! Check out Miss Yolanda's 3rd Generation, newly rebuilt home!


The Julien Family Home


Front 'Saints' Room


Miss Yolanda's Bedroom


The girls' bathroom


Janile's (8) Bedroom


Kitchen/Laundry Room


Gilbert's (19) Room


The Boys' Bathroom


Justin's (13) Room

The final sweep

Dolores, Jesse, Sam, Miss Yolanda, Izzy, and Mitch

I don't want to be done. But, I do. But, I don't. It's not easy to let go of something that you've spent so much time & effort towards completing. Two weeks ago I just wanted to be done. Now, I just want to clean the house til every speck of dust & paint is GONE. I want to fix every tiny little detail to make it spic n' span & "Housekeeping" magazine worthy. But, that's not what we're about here at SBP. We want to give the highest quality of house possible, but we strive to have a continually spinning wheel of homeowner turnover. Miss Yolanda, this is your home. It is complete. It was made with love. It is blessed. May it serve you and your family well.

I had a great way to end out my time at Miss Yolanda's. A group from Centenary College in New Jersey, 6 of them, helped finish the shoe mold, the caulking, the painting, the grouting, and the cleaning of the house. Mel, a reporter from the school, Dolores her friend, Jesse & Mitch (nephew & son of past trip leader), and Sam & Izzy - college students.


Nicole (site sup) and Sam

Thursday and Friday, Dolores, Izzy,and Sam spent their time with me to finish up odds and ends. It was laid-back but productive, and I got to spend a significant amount of time just being goofy with Sam & Izzy. 'sho'! It was a different atmosphere than the past 7 weeks, but a nice change of pace.


Jesse and Izzy caulking

On Friday around 2:00 I had the girls all cleaning floors and I decided to begin moving garbage, etc. from around the outside of the house. My klutzyness does not falter, and I grabbed a garbage bag that apparently had something in it that was sharp. I gave myself a nice cut, and decided to get it stitched... to my dismay, I only got glue and a band-aid and a couple well-wishes...oh, and a hefty co-pay. But, now 5 days later, the wound is pretty healed, and I can't use it as an excuse not to do work anymore. haha bummer!

Thanks guys for all your help. We did it. We DID IT!

The week of January 8th i'm filling in as a co-site-supervisor for a house that has 27 volunteers from 7am-3:30pm. The following week I may begin on a house that Nicole & I will be working on together to completion.


Dolores shining up the windows

Yolanda's Surprise

There was a great big surprise unveiled to Miss Yolanda today!

An anonymous volunteer donated a brand new washer & dryer, in the name of "Miss Yolanda's team - all the past & present volunteers"

You all have been such a blessing, and I wish you could have seen her face when she saw them sittin' there on the kitchen floor, like two pearls :) She began to tear up as she expressed her surprise, and gratitude for everything that you guys have done, and for the gift. She is sincerely grateful, and she kept saying she wished she had a way of telling you all. (she still doesn't know about the blog... i'm going to print out the pictures and make them into a book for her at the welcome home party).

So, check 'em out! Beauts :)



Tomorrow will Truuuuuly be my last day at the house. I mean it this time. To those of you interested in coming to the Welcome Home party, I was told they will be trying to do it in conjunction with Roman Harper & the United Way, so it will probably not be in the immediate future...perhaps another month or so. I'll keep ya posted!

Mixed feelings about finishing the house i've spent the last 2 months obsessing over :) ...

Like a new penny!

There's no place like home. I was blessed to go back to the farm for the Holidays, and spend time with family & friends. I'm missing them already! I flew back into New Orleans at midnight on Wednesday the 28th, and was back on site by 7:30am on Thursday.

Miss Yolanda still comes by every day. She jokingly hassled me the other day about where I'd been, and I could tell she was happy for me to have been able to take a vacation home. She understands better than anyone I know, the longing to go home.

I'm really learning a LOT. I'm learning how to lead groups from 1 person, to 24 persons. From 12 yr-olds, to 87 yr-olds. From Ethiopia, Mexico, New York, Wyoming, and many more. I've felt pretty confident working in this atmosphere. But, the finishing stages of a house, i'm finding, is where I really struggle. Physically, and perhaps even more mentally.

Remember when you were a kid, and you used to hide the broccoli under your spoon so your mom couldn't notice that you hadn't eaten it? Yeah. I've caught myself starting to do that, in order to reach the goals and deadlines that we'd set... err, actually Johnnie caught me. I was getting anxious, tired, and just wanted to finish a step, to get started onto the next. Johnnie slapped me around a little this week, and explained that quality was much more important than quantity. He is Right! Miss Yolanda deserves a nice house, rather than a sloppy faster-finished house a week or 2 in advance. I know in my last blog entry that I wrote about putting quality over quantity... I think it was my conscience coming out onto paper...

So, I arrived back into New Orleans and had a group of high school volunteers meet me on site Thursday morning. These guys were entertaining! Haha we had a good time, and were able to get a lot done for the project.


Young Judea group


Putting the pieces of the puzzle together... Laminate Flooring!


Friday we had a group from Cabot Methodist come on over to Miss Yolanda's house. Majority of the kids were in 9th grade, and were able to make some great progress on the house!


Cabot Methodist - Caleb, Jake, Lewis, Kate, Cody, Lauren, Grandma & Terry

So, check out the place now! There's not going to be a whole lot of visible changes (through photos) until Miss Yolanda moves in... lots of smaller things left - like grouting the bathroom shower & floor, hanging & cleaning doors, and laying down shoe mold. Hoping for another group of hardworkin' volunteers next week to finish 'er out!


Miss Yolanda's bedroom


Janile's bedroom


Kitchen & washer/dryer space!


Boys Bathroom


Gilbert's bedroom


Justin's bedroom


Front "Saints" Room