Don't try this at home -- funny, but sad

     Saturday, April 20, 2013, Rebuilding Together scheduled a work day to renovate our house. Since there would be dust and paint, I had to leave because of my asthma. I spent the day at my son and his wife's house (Randy and Janelle) while they and their sons Colby and Shane helped the Faith Bible group. 

     I couldn't understand how a house could be renovated in one day, but we were told numerous times that a crew of 40 - 50 people would swarm the place and do the work; that they would put everything from the house into a POD in the driveway; that they would fix, paint, clean; and that they would put everything back in place. Wow! What a major undertaking.

     Apparently the plan worked -- in other places, for other projects. The project leader was left frustrated and bewildered because very few showed. I don't know all the names, but about ten to twelve teens hauled things to the POD and painted. The project leader and his wife worked hard. One couple worked outside replacing the siding above the brick. Another woman helped. Rather short of the number expected. Randy, Janelle, Colby, Shane, granddaughter Keri, her husband Jarrod, and great-grandson Kurtis worked all day. Robert's friend Chris did, too, and he is recovering from surgery.

     When I arrived home, I was rather surprised at what had or hadn't happened. One big problem resulted in the big bath room having to be completely torn out and replaced, but only part could be done because of time and lack of help. 

The wall between Robert's closet and the bathroom, and  around the tub, were full of mold. The walls and ceiling will have to be completely removed, as will the tub. The room will have to be completely rebuilt. Not something anyone expected. Needless to say, the room is not finished, nor is any room in the house.

The living room with new fan and light, still needs ceiling work

     With the lack of help, the house is far from livable yet. We'll have to live in it as is until the work can be finished. The POD in the drive holds most of our things, and we have 30 days to empty it. Hopefully, we can find friends and family to help.

      We do have a beds in place, and we have our refrigerator, range, oven, and microwaves (we need to plug those in). 

One view of bedroom showing where door was and is

      This view of the bedroom shows part of the small bath, part of the hall through the new door, and the wall where the door used to be.

Hall from bedroom

      The view from the bedroom down the hall shows the "new" wall on the right where the door to the bedroom once was.

     Now comes the humor: My senior-citizen cat, Funny Face, knew where the door should be. After all, he had gone through that door all of his 16 years of life. The following pictures are ones I took when he studied the wall where the door once was located. I wish I could have gotten more shots because he studied that space for quite a spell, looking up one side, down the other side, up, down, and then staring straight ahead.

     I could almost hear him thinking, "I know that door was here."

     "I'm not crazy. That door was here before."

     "Where did the door go?"

     I don't know that I would want to go through this process again, but hopefully all will be finished some day and will give us a better place to live. So far, we have a new roof, new exterior doors, and exterior siding. Some of the inside is painted, some repair work, and a new electrical panel.

        We gratefully appreciate all that the people did who worked here Saturday, and for the ones who completed the projects, such as the roof, which were completed earlier.

 

     As stated in the subject of this post, this really is not something to try at home, at least not while trying to live in the place.