RVing With a Purpose

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

With Jim, the construction coordinator, on vacation this week the task of purchasing and delivering supplies fell on us – the team leaders. We met with Jim before he left and he asked us to go to Home Depot and purchase the cabinets for Art’s house. This is a house we have not worked on before but other volunteer groups have. In fact, a multi-generational group from Minnesota worked on it last week. They put down the vinyl plank flooring and did some painting. Our assignment is to pick up where they left off and finish the house.  We had planned to go get the cabinets earlier in the week but stayed busy at Dennis’s house and the Atlantis house. But we digress. So this morning Bill (and his larger pickup truck) and Max headed out to Key West to get cabinets. We, and Jim, had checked the online inventory and found out one of the cabinets, a 9” base,  was not in stock and had to be special ordered. The kitchen would not go together correctly without that cabinet.

We met with the kitchen design specialist to start gathering all the other cabinets.  She looked at the list and told us the 9” base is not a stock item. Then she went on to tell us that someone else had ordered one and then just a few minutes before had told her they no longer needed it. It was still sitting beside her desk.  God works mysteriously, and sometimes with kitchen cabinets.

We were able to get the cabinets installed today.  Without that one little God-thing cabinet we would have been delayed no telling how long.

Elsewhere – Anne and Anita worked at Dennis’s cleaning the bathroom and painting trim. Lisa and Barb did some drywall touchup at Atlantis then went to Dennis’s to case and trim a window and the bathroom door.  And Reid and Mark redid some of the flooring and installed transitions and baseboard at Art’s.

 

Tuesday, March 03, 2020

Barb presented our devotion this morning using Romans 3:21-26. She then read a story about a woman who ran into a stack of items in a store and knocked them over and broke them.  When she offered to pay for the broken items, the store manager told her to not worry about it, that the store had insurance for that. Barb reminded us that Jesus provided us grace as our “insurance.”

For the most part today’s work was like yesterday’s. Lisa and Barb spent most of the day finishing drywall at the Atlantis house and the rest of the team worked on plumbing, painting and trim at Dennis’s. His bathroom is almost finished with the painting finished and even the mirror installed over the vanity. This after noon Bill and Max took a ride about 10 minutes south to measure for cabinets and develop a work plan Art’s house on Summerland Key.

Monday, March 2, 2020

It was another busy day. We started by leading our devotional time this morning and then reviewing our work plans for the day. We all headed out to Dennis’s and so Barb and Bill and Reid and Anita could meet Dennis and see where we stand there. Then Barb and Lisa went to Atlantis to continue the drywall finishing and caulking of the door. Anita and Anne worked on painting the ceiling and most of the walls of the bathroom. Reid worked on plumbing and shelving for the bathroom linen closet as did Bill. He also installed the bathroom light fixture and wired in the plug for the stove. Mark worked on plumbing all day. Max went between the houses making sure everyone had what they needed and made a few trips to the store for supplies. A number of items were marked off our punch list today. It was the first day with a new team and often it takes some time for the team to start to mesh. This team, with a good deal of experience, went right to work and accomplished a lot today.

Sunday, March 1, 2020

On Friday we went to Key West again with Mark and Lisa to do some biking around town. It was great weather for biking – a little cooler than the rest of the week. We had a great time wandering around and looking at the sights. We ended the day by meeting Sue for dinner and watching the sunset from Mallory Square. And, of course we went to Kermit’s for chocolate covered frozen key lime pie. Then we rode in the dark the several blocks back to where we left the truck. Thankfully, most of the drivers in Key West are cyclist aware and very courteous. It was still a little nerve-wracking for all four of us.

We spent Saturday welcoming new team members and doing maintenance, cleaning and laundry. We welcomed Reid and Anita and Bill and Barb to Big Pine Key and look forward to working with them for the remainder of our time here. We did take time Saturday to ride the bikes a few miles to find a couple of geocaches since you can only make finds on February 29th once every 4 years.

On Sunday we again attended church at Big Pine UMC and enjoyed the brunch afterwards. The rest of the day was spent on NOMADS business and getting ready for the team meeting. Another great weekend. Of course, any weekend in the Keys is a great weekend.