Day 1:
After stepping out of the van and
knocking on the back door of the petite house, we were greeted by the owner. A
decrepit old woman named Dorothy stepped outside into the sunlight to introduce
herself. She was followed by her caretaker and nephew, Willy. This was the
family of whose home we would be repairing for the week to come. Although quiet, Dorothy seemed like a
respectful woman, and always had a smile across her face. After our
introductions and learning everyone’s name, Willy gave us a tour of the house
and informed us on what has happened over the years, construction wise. He
occasionally threw in a joke or two every time he saw the opportunity. He had
attempted to fix up the house himself but due to age, he couldn’t keep up with
repairs and eventually fell behind. He showed us the room that needed the most
work. That was Dorothy’s bedroom; the master bedroom. Willy explained that due
to previous storms, beams underneath that section of the house had broken and
this was causing the floor to gradually sink into the ground. That was our main
project for the week. On top of that, we were asked to refurnish the room and
fix up Dorothy’s closet that was in need of desperate repair. (Holes in the
wall etc.). After receiving our orders, we wasted no time in getting to work.
Our first task was to use teamwork to move the heavy furniture that Willy was
unable to move by himself. This included emptying the closet of old boxes and
other items. Our next goal was to remove the old carpet in Dorothy’s room in
planning of placing new carpet when we had fixed the floor. To our surprise,
after removing the carpet we found a nice wooden floor that neither Willy, nor
Dorothy knew was there. Thus we changed our plans and decided to bypass the new
carpet and use the wooden floor. Removing the carpet was a dreadful process
though. After ripping up the carpet itself we had to carefully remove every
staple by hand that had been used to attach the carpet to the hidden wood
beneath.
After
the carpet had successfully been removed, I was assigned the job of working on
the closet. There was only room for one person at a time in the tight space and
I got the job. My first step was to remove the drywall that had holes. This was
only a small section of the wall. My next step was to place new drywall over
half of an old piece of drywall. This saved me from having to replace the
entire back wall of the closet as only half the wall needed to be repaired.
After multiple measurements, re-measuring, and screwing, I finally had the new
section of wall up. Then to top it all off I spackled the edges where the new
drywall met up with the old dry wall. Before I knew it, it was 3:15pm and time
to pack up and go home.
Day 2:
As the second day of work began, I
started off the day by finishing my previous day’s work in the closet. I sanded
the dry spackling from the day before until it was flush with the original
wall. My next task was to replace a square section of the side wall of the
closet. This section previously had a hole and after a series of measurements,
I was able to cut out a new piece of dry wall. Using a drill, I screwed in the
new piece of wall and immediately began to spackle. After completing the
spackling I moved to assist my crew in caulking the walls of the room as I
waiting for the spackling to dry. Caulking the crevasses and gaps that had
formed in the walls over the years, would prevent unintended air from
escaping/entering the room. This is most important around windows. To save
time, as we placed the caulk, we smoothed it out with our fingers so we
wouldn’t have to take the time to sand the excess caulk off later. This trick
allowed our crew to being priming the walls a day early. We were ahead of our
originally planned schedule. Being that
there was already a coat of paint on Dorothy’s walls, we needed to prime the
walls before repainting. The primer acted as a cohesive for the paint and
assisted the paint in sticking to the wall. Without primer, most of the paint
would have run right down the wall and onto the floor. This concluded the
second day of work.
As we arrived on the third day, we
were eager to give everything our best attempt in an effort to finish the room
that day. We started off with painting the trimming. This was done outdoors as
the boards we were painting were extremely long and required two people to
carry. When we were finished, we continued to prime Dorothy’s room. While
working, Dorothy’s children and grandchildren were checking up on our progress
and wanted to help. The more help the merrier! We delightfully handed everyone
a paint brush and they assisted us in laying down the second coat of primer.
This made our job go even faster. After the priming, everyone took a thirty
minute break because our project managers arrived to view our progress and make
comments, but I took this time to work on the closet. During this time, I
sanded down what I had spackled the day before, making it flush and smooth up
against the wall. It looked good as new! Our managers were blown away at how
ahead of schedule we were. They commented on our pace and told us to continue
as long as we weren’t rushing and got everything done right.
After
they left, the primer was dry and we began to place our first coat of the final
paint. The day before, Dorothy had selected the color she wanted for her room.
After some intense thinking, Dorothy chose a pretty, eye-catching beige color.
So we began to work on the walls with our rollers. This continued until it was
time for us to pack up. Our arms were exhausted from having them raised while
painting the whole time but we suffered through the pain. We left our fan in
the room with the windows open to air out the smell of the paint that night as
it dried. And with that, day three came to a close.
On the start of our fourth day of
work, we began the day by cutting out more lengthy pieces of wood that would be
used for the celling trimming. After we measured twice and cut once, we
proceeded to paint them outside of the house. After successfully painting, I
left the wood to dry and went to work on the closet. The adult leader of our
crew bought handles and other supplies to be used in the room. I used the
handles to make a removable panel to cover up the plumbing pipes in the closet.
Next, I assisted my team in painting the second and final coat of paint for
Dorothy’s room. This took up the majority of our time because we knew there was
no room for error. Our next task was to put up the celling trimming. By this
time it was completely dry. We used a step stool to reach the celling. The
thing long pieces of wood were surprisingly heavy and required one person to
hold each end of the wood in place as we hammered it into its final resting
position. To close the day, we filled buckets with water and scrubbed the
wooden floors on our hands and knees to remove any excess paint that had
dripped onto the floor from the walls and ceiling. Even with a crew of 7 people
this was a tedious task. After the floors were spotless, we packed up and left
for the night.
Day 5:
After we got to the worksite on our
final day, we immediately got to work. Right from the start, we unloaded
equipment and took what we needed into the crawl space underneath the house.
Today’s job was to attach a girder (support beam) underneath the house to
prevent the floor of Dorothy’s room from sinking any further. My partner Adam
and I brought everything we needed underneath the house so we wouldn’t have to
leave to get equipment. To start things off, we placed a number of small
support blocks in their designated positions that would be used later to hold
the girder in place. Our next task was challenging. We had to bring the girder
underneath the house, into the crawl space and place it into the supports. With
limited space, light, and air we somehow managed to get the girder in place
without too much frustration. With sweat flowing off of us like a waterfall, we
pushed our limitations behind us and attached hurricane straps to the girder.
These straps helped keep the girder attached to the house in case of strong
(hurricane like) winds. After accomplishing our main task for the day, I moved
back to the closet and swiftly attached a shelf and hanger pole. Now the closet
was ready for use. After finishing the closet, our crew moved in Dorothy’s
furniture that we moved out on the first day. After placing the furniture in
their final resting place it was time to bring Dorothy in to see her new room.
Although we did work past our scheduled hours, we decided it was necessary to
stay a little while longer just to see the smiles of a more than happy
grandmother who deserved a refurnished room. The reactions and emotions were
priceless and will remain with me for years to come.
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