A Three House Day

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Another cloudy and cool day in New Lisbon. Really nice for work. Today’s devotion was presented by Jodi who read several scriptures referring to laughter. Then she read us several quips, one-liners or as she called them ditties. We all had some good laughs, sometimes at our own expense. Thanks, Jodi.

Harry working on moving a wall at Nate's
Harry working on moving a wall at Nate’s

Today Max and Harry returned to Teresa’s, the house we worked on last week, and did the final sanding on the drywall.  She has decided she would like us to go ahead and do the texturing so we will try to get that done tomorrow.  Afterwards, they joined Stel and Jodi at Nate’s house and worked on the subfloor and walls. His house is now ready for the new subflooring and the plumber was there today to look around and prepare an estimate. The materials should arrive tomorrow, but who knows about the plumber.

Norm and Tom trimming out a door at Rhonda's
Norm and Tom trimming out a door at Rhonda’s

Anne, Norm, Tom and Jenny went to Rhonda’s where they got the back bedroom baseboard completed and door hung and trimmed. The bathroom ceiling and walls are painted, the door hung, the baseboards installed and interior door trim installed. The front bedroom baseboards are almost complete and the door installation is underway. It’s beginning to look like a home. We will be pushed to get all the little remaining things done in those three rooms tomorrow but hopefully we will make it. We are all tired tonight but tomorrow is NOMADS Friday.

More Progress

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

It was another cloudy and cool day compared to Alabama. Our high in New Lisbon today was 78 and it’s currently 74. Don’t know what the high was today in Remlap but it is still 90 at 8:00pm. Yes, we are enjoying the end of summer in Wisconsin.

Today Jenny and Tom shared our devotion and again Tom lead our music. Tom shared a God Winks story titled the State Farm man and reminded us of Matthew 7:12, So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. We don’t believe in what so many call coincidence, we see God in action. God Winks. Thanks so much, Jenny and Tom.

We all went back to our same house after devotion and it was a busy day at both houses. So busy that there are very few pictures today. We will try to do better tomorrow. At Rhonda’s house, Tom and Norm worked on trim and doors. They got the bifold door hung in the back bedroom and it looks very nice. There is a little trim work left to be done. In the same room almost all the baseboard is installed and both windows are trimmed out. That room is close to complete. Jenny spent her day staining trim and then putting polyurethane over the stain. She also completed the doors. The trim and doors look really nice. Anne completed the texturing of the bathroom ceiling and walls and began the painting. At Nate’s house, work continued on disconnecting some plumbing and striping the remainder of the paneling from the walls and removing the rotten subfloor. In one of the walls they found a huge wasp or yellow jacket nest that fortunately was inactive. They did some dirty work today.

We had hard rain again this afternoon as we were returning home and then after time for showers, we were fed another wonderful meal by ladies of the church. We had cowboy casserole that was so very good. We plan to have the leftovers tomorrow night. Think it will probably be an early bedtime tonight. We are tired.

Start of Week Two

Monday, August 12, 2019

Today it was very cloudy all day but we never got any rain. Tomorrow is going to be much like today so hopefully we won’t get rain again. After that the rest of the week is predicted to be really nice, highs 75-80 and lows 55-62. We are really thankful we are not having to endure the 110 heat index predicted for home tomorrow.

As is our custom, we did devotion today, the first day of our lead with this team. We used a portion of the Seedbed devotion for yesterday based on Psalm 46. Tom volunteered to lead music playing his guitar. Such a blessing to have someone to provide music for us. Thanks, Tom! Pastor Deb wanted to sign him up for Sunday’s service but unfortunately for us he and Jenny will be leaving us Friday.

Great having a guitar accompanying our music at morning devotion
Great having a guitar accompanying our music at morning devotion

After devotion, Max went with Stel, Jodi and Harry out to Nate’s house. At Nate’s the plan is to remove a wall between a bath and laundry room, remove the shower, replace it with a tub shower combo at a different location in the new room, remove a toilet and repair the rotten sub-floor. Today was demo day and a large part of that was done by the end of the day. They still haven’t removed all the rotten subfloor so that process will continue tomorrow.

Anne went with Norm, Jenny and Tom back to Rhonda’s house.  Remember we are trying to get three rooms complete so the two sisters can move into the house and continue the remodel while living there. They need to move out of the niece’s home. Today Anne worked on sanding and texturing the bath. It will get the remaining texture tomorrow. Tom installed the toilet and some window trim and base board. Jenny stained and finished the base boards, window trim and doors, while Norm built door jams and routed the hinge placements. A busy day for all and everyone is tired tonight. Tomorrow will be another day much like today.

Busy Sunday

Sunday, August 11, 2019

We had a quiet night last night. A good deal of rain but it was gentle with no wind or thunder. The parking lot was really muddy this morning but otherwise all is well. Today was cloudy all day. Temperatures stayed in the 70’s due to the cloud cover. We keep up with the Alabama weather and we feel for those having to work out in the horrible heat. With the predicted heat index of 103-108 tomorrow, y’all be careful.

Prayer CandlesWe had a wonderful worship service here at Winding Rivers today. There was a baptism and communion – two our our most sacred rituals. This church also does their prayer time a little differently than what we usually see. People can go up front and light a candle from the Christ candle and state the name of the person or situation they are lifting in prayer. The sermon was titled “I believe in Jesus but I don’t want to go overboard.” Pastor Deb used a clip from the movie “War Room” as part of her illustration. BTW if you haven’t seen the movie it is really good and very funny at times.

Tonight the church fed us a wonderful meal of pork roast, roasted potatoes, corn on the cob, deviled eggs and made from scratch lemon pudding. Oh so very good! We had time to visit and get to know Pastor Deb and her husband Larry. Both are passionate for showing God’s love for their community. After dinner we had our opening meeting as leaders of the team with all the usual introductions and paperwork. It was a good meeting with a good team. Looking forward to a productive week for our home owners.