Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Work day yesterday

Greetings from New Orleans.
Yesterday we worked on the home of a woman who is a member of a Baptist Church some distance from where we are, the UU church in New Orleans. She lived there with some of her family. I met her daughter, son-in-law and grandson. Today we are going to meet her. The building was flooded, however she lived on the second floor which had wind and rain damage. Much of the damaged sheetrock had already been removed. I worked with several others to remove remaining nails and bits of sheetrock from one room. Others did structural repair on the first floor, others cleaned up the kitchen and bathroom, worked on the electricity, tore up a rug. I can't say more, because I was busy pulling nails. Today we will put plywood on the floors at least. I can predict we will be stunned by the amount of work that we can get done, same as yesterday. Some plumbing and electricity are working already.
OK today just the facts, and not a lot of them. Personally I was very impressed with the amount of work we were able to do. Coming down here with a contractor and an electrician has made all the difference. We are the first reconstruction project that has worked out of this church (the project up until now has been headed by the UU church in Baton Rouge) After a year and a half, the city will soon reach a point where most of the damaged houses have been gutted, so the task now is reconstruction, which requires specific knowledge.
Post questions! I'm not sure what people want to know, and between all of us we have lots of information to share.
See you on Sunday!
Cris

5 comments:

Peter Everett said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Peter Everett said...

Hi, Cris and the rest of the Sherborn UUAC NoLa team.

Thanks for the update. I think what people really want to see is PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES, of the work, the team, the church, and the local scene! I know I do. Please pass around the camera along with the hammers and spackle tools.

Your loving husband is keeping the home fires burning.

-Peter

Irwin Jungreis said...

Hi, Cris.

Are you using any building design software to help with the reconstruction?

Chris said...

We have pictures of our group at work here in New Orleans. They are at the church home page.

Chris and Marco

Donna A said...

Thank you for representing us with such important social action.