Some of us got up easily this morning, but for some of us it took a little extra effort. It was great though to wake up to daylight instead of darkness. Everyone enjoyed breakfast followed by being brought up to speed by our Craven County Disaster Recovery Alliance leaders on what types of work we can expect this week.
We will primarily be working on “Miss Mary’s” home, which is pretty far along, but needs to be ready for her to move in by November 18. The tragedy is that Miss Mary’s house originally had only minor damage to its older roof. She decided to get the whole roof replaced rather than worrying about further patching that might be needed later. However, after she paid $8,000 to a contractor, he never returned to do the work. She had no more money to get the work done, and she couldn’t find anyone to take on the job. The further damage came sooner rather than later. It wasn’t long before other corners of the flat roof began to leak, water accumulated on the sinking middle of the roof, which caused it to collapse, and destroy most of her belongings. A roof patch project turned into a total house replacement.
We have arrived at a great time to help move this project closer to the “finished” line. We are working from a punch list including hanging interior doors and trim, patching wall paint, putting up light switch and outlet covers, caulking around all the interior trim and painting it, putting in plank vinyl floors, installing some cabinets, patching exterior paint, and perhaps setting in commodes and installing the water heater. Whew!
Fortunately, we’ve got a great group of skilled and eager-to-learn volunteers. I didn’t see Fletcher sitting on an overturned paint bucket with his head in his hands even once. Though, full disclosure, others did see him sitting on a bucket shaking his head. Did I mention that the temperature went up to 81 degrees today? We hadn’t expected a November heat wave. But looking at the long-range forecast, the rest of the week will be cooler but still very pleasant. I’m claiming that the high heat was the only reason we were wiped out by the end of the day.
We will definitely bounce back and be ready to Take on Tuesday’s Tasks!
Meanwhile, please enjoy some photos from our Day 1 efforts.
