Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011

The team did a great job!  Turning a very daunting challenge into a front wall that can be built upon.  But it may take up to 3 years before the 106 year old grandmother and her multi-generational family can return to it.  Walt told us that next week he has a team of 12 volunteers. Our team of 5 was the first team in this "season".  Now through the end of the year, they primarily have adult teams from all over the country.  During the Spring, they frequently have college teams, totalling up to 150 in one week.  Overall, last year, they had 4000 volunteers.  So far this calendar year, 2500.  click <here> to get to the page where you can download the Camp Restore September 2011 volunteer newsletter.
  When downloading and the Adobe Reader opens, but does nothing, click on the zoom size buttons to see the display.

In the meantime, we are watching for opportunities to help in the recovery efforts in the eastern half of New York State, which had flood and storm damage this summer.

Also, watch your church bulletin for scheduling of a report from our Nashivlle and New Orleans teams.

We left New Orleans at 10:00 AM CDT and got into Rochester at 3:00 PM EDT via Air Tran.  No, we didn't use a NASA rocket assembled in New Orleans (plant now essentially closed):

And we need to remember that the construction materials were provided by Thrivent Financial for Lutherans through a grant from their "Care Abounds in Communities" program:

Previous days below.

Friday, Sept.30, 2011

Today Tom and Liz removed the roof shingles, sheeting, and rafters from the front "triangle" of the house.  Ed and Sharon did the corner re-inforcements in the second apartment.  Karen spent most of the day helping out at St. Paul's Lutheran school.  In the afternoon the crew replaced the "joists" and sections of joists that were termite riddled.  A group next week will put up rafters, roof panels, and tar paper.  We finished packing up about 5:45.  After our showers, we ate pizza in the lounge.  It was only 84 degrees today, not humid and with a breeze.  We have to start out at 7:30 tomorrow to make our 10 AM plane. 

One note about the need to "build communities":  One of the churches has identified that because of the extensive use of "charter schools" in the area, students are not attending a neighborhood school -- and thus don't know the other kids in the neighborhood.  To address this, they are providing a community center where the kids can get together.

Pictured today is our team:  Walt (RAI construction manager), Sharon Kiellach, Ed & Karen Wright, Tom and Liz Chrzanowski in front of one of those "famous" Orphan Grain Train bedroom trailers. 

Faith Mission team to New Orleans 2011

Throughout the week we had problems with roofing nails getting stuck in our boots.  Take your footware seriously, particularly when you are on a rehab site.  Here's one that "missed":

Here's a shot of the "chicken beeks" (joists) where you can see that we spliced new lumber all across the front of the house:

It's obvious that Tom's glad to see that job done.

 

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011

Sharon and Ed spent the first half of the day installing diagonal stiffeners in the front window wall.  Also, Tom & Liz worked on removing rotted roofing over the other apartment.  Karen spent the morning at St. Pauls Lutheran school (Pix below). 

In the afternoon we were led by Walt (construction manager for RAI) on a select tour of New Orleans.  We started out with a stop at the local NASA rocket assembly plant. It is mostly closed [with the end of the space shuttle program].  We then visited sites in St. Bernards, and then the lower and upper 9th wards.  (The house we are working on is only about 6 blocks from Camp Restore, which is in East New Orleans.)  Along the way we visited the National Park's Service new visitors center at the site of the Battle of New Orleans that occurred in 1815.  Andrew Jackson, with a mixed band of 4000 regulars, locals and pirates defeated an army of 7000 British regulars.  2000 British killed to 20 Americans!  Jackson had a built-up embankment, and the British marched into a hail of gunfire and artillery fire.  We also visited homes in Brad Pitt's neighborhood (interesting: he paid for an archetect's competition to design modern houses) where we saw a number of interesting homes.  We also entered "music village."

Tomorrow we plan on continuing the work and meeting the homeowner.

Karen reads in New Orleans

A "Brad Pitt" sponsored design



The inside framing of Trinity Lutheran, Claiborne

The Battle of New Orleans 1815



Wednesday,Sept. 28, 2011

This morning we tore down the front wall framing of the second apartment and completely built a new wall and put it up.  We also put a 104" x 9" header over the front entrance to the duplex.  Sharon and Liz built a short wall for the door to apt. 1, and a 10' "middle" wall.  We ran out of 8 ft. 2x4' studs and RAI bought and delivered more.  Overall, we were left to work more on our own today. 
Here you see Liz and Sharon putting together a wall with a nail gun (powered by a compressed air canister):

We have frequently been invited to participate in community service volunteer activities.  The RAI community service coordinator arranged for Karen to spend most of Wednesday tutoring at Saint Paul's Lutheran Church School.  Pictures tomorrow.

Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011

We completely removed the rotted walls behind the brick at the front of the house.  Then we built a new wall section and put it in place.  During all this the roof was supported by jacks.

It took a little persuasion to get the new wall in place:

It did fit.  A detail in that fitting was that Karen cut off the floor bolts that were rusted:

One of the problems with a house that has had a leaking roof for five years is that TERMITES have attacked the wet wood.  This means that all of the wood will have to be inspected and maybe as much as 20% replaced as well as the roof getting new roof boards and being completely re-roofed.  Termite damage:

Monday's "demo" (demolition work)

Monday's work included "demoing" (demolishing) the front walls and jacking up the roof rafters about 2 inches.  This was caused by water damage and termites eating away the board across the bottom of the wall.  Our construction manager brought in a load of lumber about lunch time and the project really began to move.  One of the complications is that the brick outside is strapped to the wall that is damaged.  We have to replace sections of the roof in order to keep the water out. 

We really got started as we unloaded the electric generator and every sort of power tool, even a fan.

Demo: Water has been pumped away, and now our team goes to work removing the vinyl floor in the resessed livingroom.

Sharon cuts out the screws holding the window frame.

Camp Restore Dining hall

We're not sure whether we'll be using this dinning hall or the original one.  I also have heard that the school has moved to another location.  That may also mean that we may not be in the trailers, but have rooms in what was the school.