Month: March 2017

Thursday, March 2, 2017

It was even COLDER TODAY!!! It wasn’t suppose to be but it was 29 degrees this morning and we had a beautiful frosty sunrise. We were very thankful for the warm clothes we packed.

After a great devotional time when Gary shared his personal testimony we headed back to our job site. We all tried to work inside for the first little while today. You know that those work lights on a tripod can warm a small space up pretty quickly. We had two with two lights each and they can warm your hands quite nicely. We all started back where we left off yesterday, with drywall, electrical and stairs. A little later the VIM coordinator arrived and yea!!! he had the plumbing supplies. He also brought all the other supplies we needed. This is the first DR project we have worked where the coordinators actually work side by side with you. Hal, Chad and Kevin have been really good to work with. The house has really started to come together. The banister on one side of the stairs are complete, but the other side has to wait for the drywall to be installed. The safety rail at the top of the new stairs was completed. About half the downstairs drywall is complete. All but one of the new windows have been installed. The down stairs plumbing is almost complete, the upstairs bath has been insulated, window installed and plumbing and electrical started. We took pictures of our last day here and have been promised updates and final pictures that we will share with you when the job is complete.

On a disaster rebuild project it is tradition that whenever someone is leaving, the team goes out to dinner Thursday evening. Tonight, because we are leaving Oklahoma in the morning, we all ate together next door at the Badger Den. It’s a fairly plain place but the staff is very nice and helpful and the food is good. We had chicken fried steak and hamburger steak both of which were very good and we ate too much (and still have leftovers for lunch tomorrow). The last day with a group of NOMADS is always a little sad. We have made such good friends.  We would love to stay. It’s been a great team and we hope to see  everyone down the road sometime soon. After dinner it was time to return to FRED and prepare to travel. Tomorrow we will probably be overnighting at a Walmart in Arkansas.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

We have been watching the weather in Alabama today and are so thankful that so far we have not seen reports of damage or injury from the storms in Blount County. Everybody be careful. This morning was COLD! It was really only 44 but with the 15-20 mph winds it seemed so much colder than yesterday. The predicted low tonight is 31 so it will be another cold start tomorrow. This is actually more the type of weather we were expecting when we came to Elmore City in February. We brought lots of cold weather clothes but have sure enjoyed the spring like weather. Hopefully it won’t be quite so windy tomorrow.

Today the stair team completed the stairs with the exception of the handrail and they are working on that. The stairs look wonderful. We built them with wider treads and shorter risers so that they would be easier and hopefully safer for our homeowner. Hopefully the handrails will be completed tomorrow because the homeowner came over this afternoon and we couldn’t talk him out of going upstairs without a handrail.

We also continued to install the drywall. The Drywall (formerly Demolition) Divas are getting pretty good at measuring, cutting and installing the drywall. We were excited that Henry was going to be able to do more work on the plumbing today but the VIM folks said that the Home Depot didn’t have all the needed supplies so there was some plumbing done, but Henry moved on to electrical. He had to install some outlets before the drywall was installed. The VIM guys were going to Oklahoma City for a meeting today and hope they can get the things necessary to complete the plumbing. Gary continued to work hard on the exterior of the house.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent, so tonight we went to Elmore City UMC for their Ash Wednesday Service.  Pastor Caroline had a very good service with the placing of the ashes on our foreheads. At the end of the service, since tomorrow is our last day here, Pastor presented us with a beautiful quilt made by the Peacemakers, the quilting group at the church. It is so pretty and we appreciate it so much. The church has been so nice to us and so welcoming. Hopefully we can stay in touch with them as we have some of the other churches we have visited in our travels.