Storms last night led to a surprise for us when we arrived at Edgewater to start work, but not for the residents of NOLA (apparently this happens quite a bit). Power was out in the whole church. So, we spent the first part of the morning caulking by the light of an overcast day. Entergy (the local power company) showed up en masse and finally restored the power before we ate breakfast.
"Right horizontal 18 degrees, 82 inches, left vertical 45 degrees..."
The directions rang out through the stairwell as the baseboard team spent all day on the stairs - literally. Baseboard and moulding was laid throughout the lobby and all the way up the stairs to the second floor. We coined many new terms, like "caulkable 45 degree angles" and developed our skills at using preprocessed paper (also known as scrap wood) for notes.
After completing the stairs, we realized we still had several hours left to do some additional work, so Jay started us on some chair moulding in the lobby. More measuring, more beveling, more chopsawing, but this time standing up. More geometry, this time to work around light switches and fire alarms. We didn't have time to complete the entire job, but knocked out most of it. Mike made sure he caulked what we completed, so the next group could just finish installing the rest of the chair rail.
Kathy completed her eighth door, including windows. She plans to have the paint sandblasted off her skin on return to Raleigh. Now if we could just figure out how to remove Liquid Nail from skin...We worked a little too long and were late to dinnner with Jay and Lilian and Jim. We had a wonderful meal of (now) famous Creamy Pasta Florentine, salad and homemade foccacia. All was quite tasty, only to be followed by delicious mint chocolate brownies. Thanks, Jay & Lilian.
Tomorrow we plan to leave NOLA before 9 AM headed for snowy Atlanta.
We lose not one but two hours on the way home (don't forget to turn your clocks ahead one hour Sunday morning at 2 AM - let me know how that works out for you). Many thanks to our host families - Jeff & Laura, Bob & Marilyn, and to Jay & Lilian for coordinating our efforts and putting up with endless inane questions about the work to be done.Pleae pray for safe travel tomorrow and that the emotional wheels don't fall off before we arrive in Raleigh. Hope to see you all Sunday afternoon.
1 comment:
Kathy & Mike, Jeff, Lisa -- thanks so much for coming to the rescue of our son Jay!! His life's work for the last year has been to coordinate the rebuilding of his church, and you've helped to add the finishing touches. Now, it looks like all his proud parents need to do is come to NOLA and admire your wonderful work!!
God bless each of you, and please drive carefully -- it's snowing like crazy in North Georgia!!
Jack & Karen Schroder
Big Canoe, GA
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