rvingwithapurpose

Sunny Florida? Not Today

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Rainy morning with water flowing through our sites

We had lots of rain overnight and into this morning. No getting to morning meeting with dry feet today. Mud puddles everywhere. It rained off and on throughout the day and then a cold front went through and our temperature dropped to 70. Our low tonight is 67 which is quite warm compared to the 26 degrees at home but the locals are complaining of it being too cold. Of course they are still wearing shorts.

Kathy and Larry led devotion this morning and Larry shared a little of his life story. He told of a glimpse of heaven he saw when he had a near death experience after a fall from a ladder a number of years ago. Thanks, Kathy and Larry for sharing with us today.

We all headed back to work at the same locations as yesterday. At Dennis’s Anne, Elaine, Mary and Ron worked primarily on the back bedroom drywall and hallway drywall. We also worked with Dennis on the walls in the living room and dinning room. Those walls are about ready for texture. Dennis has decided rather than flat walls he wants a knock down texture. Down at Sugarloaf Key Max, Larry and Kathy had help from an International Orthodox Christian Charities mission team. Nine college aged students with their leaders came to paint the ceilings for us. There was also more caulking, touch up painting, finishing the transition strips and putting down edging strips. One more door sweep is needed and we will be complete on this house (until the scope of work changes).

We have been pondering how to protect some exposed vinyl plank edges in some of the doorways at Danny’s. (The flooring was in place when we got here.) Jim, the construction coordinator, happened to find some edging trim for ceramic tile in his supply room and came up with the idea to use it.

The ends of some of the pieces of edging trim had to be trimmed to fit around molding already installed inside the doorways.

Jim’s idea worked great. We’ll have to remember it for future projects.

Tomorrow we will have the college students at Dennis’s and go back to a house worked on by previous NOMADS. Should be a good day.

More Mud and Windows

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Today was another very busy day for the team on Big Pine Key. First things first, Ron and Mary brought our devotion from a book written by one of their family members who among many other things was at one time a Methodist pastor. The book was entitled “Light Through Little Word Windows: Two Letter Words from the Bible.” Today’s word was “be.” We haven’t actually read any of the book but the thought is intriguing. When you think of it, there are a lot of little words in the Bible and if we read if carefully, paying real attention to the little words what might we receive? Perhaps we will pay more attention the little words in the scripture we read tomorrow.

For work, we all went back to the same work as yesterday. Max, Kathy and Larry back to Sugarloaf Key, where they installed the last window, caulked, cut off doors, installed quarter round and transitions.

Applying stucco mix to the outside window sills

Cutting quarter round with Jim’s battery powered miter saw

Back on Big Pine, Anne, Mary, Ron and Elaine had fun texturing the ceiling in Dennis’s living room. That project went well and Dennis is very pleased. We decided to do a little touch up on the kitchen ceiling and will probably texture it tomorrow. There was also more sanding and mudding walls in the kitchen and living room and the hall and bedroom. Lots of hard work. Lots more to do.

Dennis took a turn at spraying his ceiling

Progress Being Made

Monday, December 16, 2019

Today Max, Kathy and Larry headed back to Danny’s house on Sugarloaf Key. Kathy worked on a punch list as this house is getting close to complete. She also did some priming of the ceilings we repaired last week. Larry and Max worked on removing some damaged windows and installing new ones. We have one more window to replace but don’t have that one yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Preparing the opening for the new window

The rest of the team Anne, Mary, Elaine and Ron returned to Dennis’s house on Big Pine Key to continue our work on the living room and kitchen ceilings. Today we completed the ceiling sanding in those two rooms and also primed. Tomorrow we hope to texture those ceilings. We will see what tomorrow brings.

Painting primer on Dennis's ceiling — Painting primer on Dennis’s ceiling

First Team Meeting

Sunday, December 15, 2019

It was another beautiful day in south Florida. The team went to church together today and again received a warm welcome from the pastor and congregation. It seems to be a resilient congregation. Maybe you have to be resilient to live in the keys. Looking at most of the church building you would not realize it had 4 feet of storm surge from Hurricane Irma. The sanctuary looks nice but other areas still need some work. We hope to be able to do a few things for them soon. We had a quiet afternoon, getting ready for our Sunday night meeting. The meeting went well and we are all ready to go back to work in the morning. Hope you all had a great weekend.