Author: rvingwithapurpose

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.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Today was another fun and productive day for our team. Pat shared a wonderful devotion this morning about peace. Our devotion times are so meaningful and set the foundation for the rest of the day.

Today was not as sunny as yesterday, but was still warm. Several of the team members spent most of the day outside preparing lumber for the new stairs and installing siding. The Volunteers in Mission (VIM) coordinators working with us today put the roof on the new porch and started hanging the drywall. Since the concrete was sawn by a contractor yesterday, Henry was able to prepare the trench for the new plumbing. Hopefully, the plumbing supplies will be delivered tomorrow. More milestones were reached on the new stairs. The first run of steps and the landing were completed and the opening for the second run was cut upstairs.

During lunch some of the team members mentioned a plaque “downtown” about the first tornado warning issued based on a Doppler radar signature, so after work we walked over to get a picture of it. A little Internet research shows that Gary England was a Oklahoma television meteorologist for many years and was the first to have Doppler radar at his station and was the first person to use it to alert his viewers of a possible tornado. And that just happened to be right here in Elmore City. Between that historic event and Footloose, why had we never heard of Elmore City before the NOMADS project?

Monday, February 27, 2017

What a wonderful day it was today. It started off cloudy but then the sun came out and it was warm with a gentle breeze rather than the wind we have been having. Wonderful!!

Gwen led our devotional time this morning which we moved to 7:30 to try to be working by 8:30. Gwen did a great job leading us and we did make it to the job site by 8:30. It seemed everyone felt good about what we accomplished today. We divided up into 3 teams. We were on the porch team along with Gwen and we had a good day. We put up all the hangers for the rafters, the rafters, the roof decking and the felt today. That was more than we thought we would do. All that’s left on the porch is the shingles. Gary and Henry were the plumbing team. However, they were limited in what they could do because the VIM coordinators decided against renting the concrete saw we needed and instead elected to have the professionals come cut/remove the portions of the slab that had to be removed for the drains. So when Gary and Harry completed what they could do on the plumbing they became the demolition team on the stairs while we waited on the concrete guys. The stair team was Pat, Barb and Scott. Before they could start they had to move a lot of stuff that was in the way of the new stairs. The old steps were then removed and the stringers built for the first flight of steps and the first landing framed in. They made a lot of progress. There was also a window installed in the kitchen and additional framing on the back wall of the house.  The concrete guys came late this afternoon shortly before we were going to stop work and they ran us out of the house.  They are NOISY and MESSY!!   Some days you work really hard and don’t see a lot of progress. Today we could see the progress. That felt good.

When we got home we visited with Molly and Gus while they got their exercise. Then we went for a walk since it was still so nice out and we needed the exercise. Then had peach pie and ice cream for supper. Yep, supper. Oh and then we had some chips. We had our big meal of the day for lunch so … life is short – eat dessert first, or instead. See you tomorrow.