Thats it for now

Well, thats it for the regular DRS for me for now This coming week will be a whole lot different. From working with retired/semi-retired folk to working with people my age and younger. Could prove to be very interesting. Just this past Tuesday, Bill and I were riding around and we stopped in at the house which we gutted. There was a lot of action happening there. The Lutheran crew was crawling under the house, finishing up leveling the house. The plumbers were in the back with a mini-excavator digging a new sewer line, and there were about 15-20 people in side hanging drywall. I walked in there, 6-8 people hanging, another 8-10 mudding in one bedroom. And I just shook my head. But then it occurred to me, wait, thats going to be us next week. All of us all working in one house. But I am looking forward to it.
I had a pretty neat surprise on Wednesday evening. When I got home from work, I peaked into the dining area and saw a "Happy Birthday" sign on the wall. I walked over to the kitchen and asked the ladies there whose birthday it was, as it wasnt mentioned at breakfast. They wouldnt say, as it was a surprise. So I thought it must be the next construction supervisor, as they came in that afternoon. Then supper rolled around. It was wonderful. Steak and baked potatoes. I was sitting there, chewing a nice bite of steak and stopped. I turned to Bill beside me and said "Im suspicious." On Sunday, one of the cooks asked me what my favourite meal was. I told her steak and baked potatoes. I thought nothing of it, as she asked a few other people, until that moment. That was my favourite meal. So I looked around a little and everyone tried not to make eye contact. Then it was dessert time. All the cooks left to the kitchen, cleaned up and then came out with a birthday cake, singing "Happy Birthday..... Happy Birthday to Reuben". The on-site-manager decided that they should celebrate my birthday before I headed home. So I got the cake placed in front of me and was handed a big knife to cut the first piece. Now I have heard before about the signature DRS cakes, but wasnt thinking about it at the time. I started to cut and it was tough. Real tough. It was styrofoam. And the icing was Chrisco. It was decorated real nice with toy tools and a girl and boy figure that was supposed to be Emily and I. We all had a good laugh about that. I was then presented with a gift from the group. A wonderful card and a Home Depot gift card. I was also given a card and a Home Depot gift card from the head office in Byron Center.
My time has been wonderful, full of friends and memories. I came to the sites expecting to have more grandparents, but the people I worked with always were more than that. They are all friends as well. Im sure I will write sometime next week when the group is down.

Demo, Doors and Drywall

Well, I dont have much more time down here. Only 2 weeks. For those that dont know, I am finishing up my 3 weeks with the regular DRS group and then next weekend, the youth group from Calvary CRC in Ottawa is coming down. I will spend the week with them, living and working with them. On the Monday of that week, Ben and Tracy are flying in to Houston and they are going to work with the group Tuesday through Thursday. Then Friday morning, Ben, Tracy and I are going to head home. Our route is going to take us through New Orleans, Slidell, Gulfport and Laurel. I would like to show Ben and Tracy the community which we worked in in Gulfport. Our plan is to arrive home on Sunday. That really doesnt seem like to far away.
Yesterday I went golfing again with Bill. It started off extremely foggy, but eventually the sun came out and burned it off. It turned out to be a beautiful day with the high getting to be about 27 degrees. I lost quite a few balls and didnt feel like retrieving them all due to the alligators. On the first hole, there was a water hazard not too far from the tee, and it being the first hole, that was where my drive ended up. I wasnt paying too much attention as I walked up to the ball. Then I look up a little and there is a 6 foot alligator laying about 5 or 6 yards in front of me. There were two in that pond and we saw 6 in total, the largest being about 8 feet or so.
The past week and a bit of work has been Demo, Doors and Drywall. Bill and I have been working together. I was called in to help out with the gutting of one house. All the walls were covered in 3/8s plywood and it took a little persuading to get it all down. It took us a few days to get that all down. Then we installed a new front and back door and 5 new windows. We took up the kitchen floor down to the joists so that the plumbers could get at the pipes easier. It should be almost ready for drywall now as the plumbers and electricians were supposed to be in there at the end of this week. Then we moved to another house. The man is still living in it with ALL his stuff. So it is getting down room by room. His bedroom is done and now we are working on the 2nd bedroom. We had to tear down the drywall on one wall and patch some holes in the other walls. We also had to gut the closet as it was full of mold. As it stands, the closet needs some more mud and the wall in the bedroom needs to be sanded and then it can get textured. While we were waiting for the mud to dry at the house, we were called in to do a little work on a porch at the Reedom house, where Ma and Pa spent their 5 days. There is a older husband and wife living in the house along with their handicapped son. The father isnt well, so the mother cares for him as well as the son. The son is deaf and mute, but not much gets past him. I know Ma and Pa have some good stories to tell about him. He notices if a nail isnt in all the way or if something is getting done differently. At this house Bill and I hung some drywall in the kitchen and taped it. Who knows what jobs we will get this coming week, but I know it sure will go by fast. I am looking forward to going home, but I am going to miss being down here as well.

Team #7

Team #7
OSM - Marv and Jean Rozenboom
CS - Dale and Lin Gilmore
Julian and Norma Baas
Leroy and Arlene Veenstra
Wally and Metha Alberda
Ted and Tina Veenstra
Lloyd and Carol Zoerhof
Don and Marilyn Brunsting
Bill Smit
Elizabeth Perez
Ma and Pa

Off to Texas

Well, my stay in Gulfport is now over. I really enjoyed my time there. I met a lot of wonderful people, did some hard work and felt good about it. I liked how CRWRC was working in one neighbourhood, trying to improve it. Not just by fixing home, but by working with other organizations to better the community. Recently there has been a Community Development Corporation which is suppose to continue the new construction once DRS leaves in May. CDC also set up a construction school to train men from the community in the construction trade.
It was an interesting place to work because the 3 week DRSers were just a part of it all. Along with us were one week church groups which come down to work on the new homes which are being constructed through a partnership of DRS and the CDC. We had dessert socials on Wednesday evenings with the one week groups working in the neighbourhood, but also with church groups which were working around Gulfport, some in Biloxi and some in Ocean Springs. We had close to 70 people at some of our dessert socials. It was quite neat to see everyone come together, all united by the same purpose and working for the same Boss.
It is quite early into my stay in Port Arthur. It seems to be a very industrial town, with a lot of oil refineries around. Our accommodations are quite nice. We occupy a building which is a former daycare center run by St Johns Lutheran Church. Before the storm there were 200 children, post Rita, less than 40. They couldnt keep it up. So they were happy to have us come and occupy the building. Our bedrooms are former classrooms, so there is plenty of space. The dining room is very spacious as well. A little more room for group gatherings than in Gulfport.

Team 6
OSM - Ben and Marijanne Huizinga
CS - Ken and Donna Westveer
Shannon and Sarah Riley
Ted and Pam DeVries
John and Marlene Smith
Stan and Reuvena Bruxvoort
Tom and Char Glass
Duwayne and Carole Heilman
Fred and Alvis Lucas
Tom and Jeanne Thorburn
Jake Koster

More Pictures

Windows in and tar paper on.

Moved the back door.

More tar paper.

What a change.

Quite a Transformation

Well, a little time has gone past, and quite a bit of work has gotten done on Miss Barne's house. The electrical is just about done, as well as the siding. We have a certified electrician on our crew as well as a professional sider. The plumbing is also just about roughed in. Its coming along real well. Its been pretty neat to see it. Hopefully it can pass the electrical inspection and then it can get insulated and then drywalled. Meanwhile, I have been hanging drywall on one of the new builds. I have been working with a guy who is 77. He never ceases to impress me. He is a hard working man.
Last Saturday I worked a few hours on one of the new builds, adding a few things that the inspector requested. This Saturday I worked with the construction supervisor of the new builds. He taught me how to properly lay out interior walls.
It has been a little chilly lately, but it is warming up. We have also had a bit of rain, but during the nights. So we havent been rained out.

A few pcitures

Putting down the new plywood.

All the plywood is down.

Finally got materials.

Some structural repairs.

A new window.

New interior walls.

With some old siding back on.

Its coming along.

Miss Barne's House

This week we started to put the house back together. It has been somewhat of a struggle. Since there is no funding for this house, it is hard to get materials, as well as other important things, like window sizes. But by the end of the week we had some window sizes and some materials, but no funding yet. We started out by putting 3/4 inch plywood over the whole floor in order to stiffen the floor a little. It work quite well. We then had to deal with the sagging cross beams of the rafters. The code down here says that if a house has ceilings shorter than 7 ft 6 in, it needs to be demolished. With the added 3/4 in of the plywood, and the sagging crossbeams, depending on where you measured due to the sloping floor, the ceiling was consistently under 7 ft 6 in. So we had to brace up the cross beams in order to raise the ceiling. We put some braces pulling it up the the angled part of the rafter.
Once we finally got some material, we could frame the interior walls and frame in the new windows. Once we got some of the windows framed in, we could also start covering up the exterior of the house so it can be insulated. Since it would have been to expensive to replace the old rotten siding we tore off with like material, the whole thing is going to get vinyl siding. So we just need to roughly cover the exterior so there is something nail the new siding too.

Friday Lunch

Today I got to go to a client's house for lunch for a catfish fry. I got invited because I worked there on Wednesday because of the rain. When the client, Mr Harper saw me he said, "Alright, its the big guy tha dont need no ladder."

A Funny Little Story

I was working at the Little Rock church yesterday, and a few of the church members were helping out. One elderly gentleman asked me where I was from, so I told him Canada. Another man standing around asked where in Canada, so I said Ontario. "Ah," the elderly gentleman said, "Do you know Peter?".

A Few Pictures

A nice open house.After we tore out a few ceilings, a pile of insulation which wouldnt fit in the dumpster.
Miles of white sandy beach, just a few blocks south of us.
The house, with some missing beams.
A few sections of beams we replaced.
Yes, I fell through.

Well, 11 weeks to go. This week went by fairly quickly. I met a whole new crew of people. New names and new personalities. Our crew is around 20 or a few more. Gulfport is an interesting city. The neighbourhood we are in, as well as the surrounding ones, are quite poor. Just down the street is around 10 Habitat for Humanity homes. But, only 1 or 2 are occupied. Apparently the water main isnt large enough to handle the new homes, so the city wont provide the occupancy permits. But weve seen crews out there working on a new home the last few days, so maybe the city worked something out.
On Monday and Tuesday I worked with another guy doing a few odd jobs. Fixing some holes in drywall, leaky drains and so on. On Wednesday we were given the go-ahead to tear apart a house. So myself, the other guy, Don and another gentleman, Henry, went at it. We filled a dumpster and started making piles. We replaced about 50 ft of the exterior beam supporting the house as it was rotten and termite eaten. We tore off some old siding, all the drywall, the ceilings, kitchen and a few patches of the floor. Quite a site. Lots of work to be done. And now that they have funding for it, on Monday we can start putting it back together. Replace some studding, put plywood on the floors and all that other good stuff.
Today, Saturday, the same 2 guys that I work with, went down the street to help with putting on a new tin roof on the Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church. A couple from Michigan, one who I worked with in Slidell, are helping with that. He works on the roof with a few guys from the church everyday. They really appreciated the help today. The old roof was too flat and leaky, so a whole new set of trusses is going up and all new tin. Its quite a job. I have a feeling I may be back there on my other Saturdays here.

Back Down South

After having delays in both Ottawa and Chicago, snow and baggage, I made it to New Orleans. I was picked up and brought to Slidell where I had parked my car. I was glad to see it was still there and that all my tools and my bike were there. I had lunch in Slidell and then made my way east to Gulfport. The drive was under an hour. I arrived at the site around 3. The OSM had gotten my email and was expecting me sometime in the afternoon. I was showed my apartment and started to settle in. The lodgings here are in 2 small apartment buildings, with 4 units in each. Each unit has 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, washroom and sitting area. I believe I will be sharing the apartment with another single guy. One of the units is used as the dining area and kitchen and the head cook's bedroom. It is going to be very tight once we get the whole group dining together. Another one has the lounge, the OSM's office and their bedroom. We are a few blocks north of a beautiful looking white sandy beach. The sign says it is closed. But its just a sign.
There is one man and a couple here that work with shorter term DRS groups. They stay in our lodgings, while the groups are housed elsewhere. Friday night we went out to IHOP for supper, the OSM, the CS, the man and couple and myself.
I think I am going to enjoy myself again, but I just need to readjust. It didnt take me too long to readjust to the weather. I will try to keep this updated with stories and pictures so that y'all can stay informed.