Monday, March 23, 2009

Not your typical Monday





















Usually Mondays are days where the new incoming volunteers start the day with the "deer in the headlights" look on their faces and spend most of the day planning for the next day. Not so today. We were able to have our usual Sunday night team leader meeting where we line out the jobs needing done and see who feels qualified to be the leader of that job. After the leader steps up we let the rest of the volunteers decide which home they feel they would like to help in. After about an hour we have our teams set up and ready to face Monday morning. This time we actually put up a dry erase board with all the information listed and I think it worked well.

With teams from North Carolina, Michigan, New York, California and South Dakota they can all be sure that they will be working with some folks they don't know. It works well and allows team members to get to know others outside of their own team.

With Monty and I leading the convoy of vehicles into San Leon we made our stops and drops to Terri's, Barney's, Butch's, Hai's and Richard's. It allows all the teams to see where all the other teams are working. In San Leon each job is less than 5 minutes from the other one so stop and drops work well.

Terri's team started with cleaning all the furniture and things from her bedroom and pulling up the plywood flooring in preparation for ceramic tiling. We were thrilled to find the under boards completely dry and ready to go. Terri made a stop at Lowes to select her tile and get everything else ready for us to pick up tomorrow morning and then head straight to her house. They even made friends with her dog, Flower, within the first few minutes! She was a stray after the storm and doesn't like men -- which is really an understatement.

Another team headed to Butch and Teresa's where they sanded and finished and sanded some more. Butch was able to concentrate on the kitchen and has a plan for them for the rest of the week.

Jason and a team of one more went back to Barney's to repair his chain link fence. I don't know how they did what they did with what they had to work with but it looks awesome! When they finished they went to Hai's where they will stay for the rest of the week.

Hai's team spent the entire day priming -- doors, door frames, incoming door trim, incoming bifold doors and whatever else needed priming. We will also be picking up materials for her tomorrow morning, more door trim and wood to create "original" crown molding throughout the house.

Richard's team helped them organize the kitchen and also stain some floor trim for his newly done laminate flooring. He and Peggy have their bedroom completely set up and are hoping to be officially moving in before too long.

The crews that headed off to Galveston worked in Marie's house with sanding and more sanding. Naomi had Gregg all to himself to finish the 6" ceramic tile flooring. Pam took her team to Benjamin's where they also sanded and finished and sanded even more. One last team spent the day at the church also installing ceramic tile.

Monty and I were blessed to run into Pastor Bob at noon and he had a couple more people and places he wanted us to see. We followed him and met one gentleman who really needs help and another home that a team started and needs completed. The homes and homeowners keep coming, we just pray the teams also keep coming!

Even though we have plenty of tools our tile saws are all out this week. We borrowed one from a couple who loves to come in and cook for our teams -- thanks Kyle!

As I said at the start -- Mondays are usually spent just planning for Tuesday. These teams aren't the usual and accomplished quite a bit for their first day! We are anxious to see what the rest of the week holds! Be sure and stay tuned!

Until then . . . be blessed. Susan and Monty

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I Susan, I check your blog every now and then to see how you and Monty are doing. Tell him hello from Allen. I pray one day God will let us meet up again. Just know that you and Monty are always in our hearts and pryers.
Love..Dovie