The Family: January 2008

Good morning to all. Its saturday morning and the last of the weekly help has just left. We had a very cool and rainy week but had windows of rain free moments. With tarps on the ready we got one more house shingled and got alot of painting in on Carols house. With Hanna and Larry taking leadership it moved along when ever it was possible. The Ontario boys finished up the hardi trim and Mahlon and all the others worked hard inside and underneath. The drywall is all up and taping close to done. Roughin electrical and plumbing is caught up. I thought is had more house pictures but Sandi got away before i got her pics.

We had a very good time on wed night with the Ontario boys singing and the rest of the group sharing in different ways. Yea , Justin looked good in suspenders. That was an hour of his life he will remember for awhile. Thanks to the whole group. A job well done despite some lousy texas weather. Ker

And outside.....

Outside there was no stopping either. The windows were installed,

The doors were put in,

and the siding was nailed on and by the end of the week it was pretty much all on. The last of it was nailed on on Friday morning in the rain.

when these stairs got put on, the homeowner said that she would walk up those stairs and go have a look around, but she would wait until everyone had gone home because she did not want anyone to see her cry. The next day she said she had gone in and sat and looked around and just been in awe that this was all happening. She continues to be very appreciative and amazed at how things are progressing. It was a good week and we had to say good-bye to a bunch of good workers at the end of it and it is always hard to do. We know though, that come Monday we will have a new crew and the work will continue and God will provide what we need. Maybe the work will go slower, but there will be progress by Friday.

More work

The work contineud on, Underneath the house,

inside the house, the preliminary wiring was going in,

The rough in plumbing and the hot water tank were being installed,

and interior walls were framed up.

Porch building

By Tuesday afternoon the look of the house was quite different already.

Back at the new house

This is what the house looked like Monday morning when the crew drove up. We had a good crew from Manitoba here again this week and were supplemented with four men from Ontario. The house looks a lot different again at weeks end. There was a flurry of activity there all week.

First thing Monday it was time to put on the shingles and our capable crew had the job done in no time. In fact they had to slow down and wait and help get the porch roof on the front so they could finish the job on Tuesday. From there Brent and Erik and Chad went on to shingle a house for Habitat for Humanity.

As the shingles were going on on top, down below the action was on getting the porch on.

Site #2

We are busy building a new house down here in Texas, but we do have some other jobs going as well. This is one of our other sites that we are working on. durilng our first week here this house got new shingles and this past week we continued on with putting on fresh siding and replacing a couple of windows as well as repairing the deck and stairs. This house was damaged by wind coming across the lake and tearing off the shingles and then because he was not able to close up in time, there was more damage that occurred inside the house. We have also been working inside the house and replacing drywall that was ruined. All this activity has motivated the homeowner and now he is wanting to keep on with the repairs. He went out the other day and bought more drywall and started to put it up, and our crew there decided to help him out with that project and worked alongside him all day and were able to visit and get a good relationship going with him.