2009 Mission Trip

Keith's Team: Summary of work performed at Becky Lake
By Keith Caswell
Clyde and Diane had been living in a FEMA trailer for 2 years but got too claustrophobic, so they moved back into the house with the leaky roof and moldy ceiling.
Here is the list of tasks accomplished by my team who really came together and pushed when we needed to finish early (Thursday). Our mission was to button up the outside before the ceilings could be removed by the next team.
We needed to dedicate a person off and on to talk to Clyde, Diane and Clyde's father who lived next door. He had just had surgery to remove both legs above his knees. He still had a very positive outlook.
Body of House:
-Scraped and power washed entire house.
-Glazed windows
-Painted entire house and trim. Three coats were needed to cover it.
-Washed outside windows
Roof: (A tree had fallen on house during Katrina 3 1/2 years ago)
-Ripped out living room ceiling to view damage
-Removed and repaired part of new metal roof previous group had put on incorrectly (took better part of Day 1)
-Removed existing old metal roof
-Replaced boards that had rotten or were wrong thickness (house was built 70 years ago as hunting cabin)
-Jacked roof ridge board to remove swale in roof
-Braced 8 roof rafters
-Installed new red Step Metal roof
-Moved pile of bricks from when chimney was dismantled from front yard
-Cleaned up grounds

Look at the before and after below!

Frank's Team: Summary of work done at Wellington St./Yvette Wallace:
1. Scrape, clean and prepare all floors in the house to receive tile, carpet and Pergo flooring.
2. Install ceramic tile in kitchen, mud room/foyer, four closets, bathroom, master bedroom bathroom and walk-in closet.
3. Grout tile in kitchen, mud room/foyer, four closets, bathroom and master bedroom walk-in closet.
4. Install carpet tack strip in three bedrooms.
5. Install carpet pad in three bedrooms.
5. Paint quarter-round shoe molding (for use on Pergo flooring).
6. Remove sheetrock around tub and in shower stall.
7. Install mortar board in shower stall.
8. Install trim plates on light fixtures.
8. Clean garage and organize tools in garage.

Frank's Team: Wednesday and Thursday
By DeeAnna Bouchard
Wednesday was a very productive day for Team Frank. Charlene and the girls shopped at Home Depot in the morning, bringing back all the supplies to finish our tiling jobs. The boys stayed at the site prepping for the day. They mixed the mastic to continue tiling the closets, master bathroom and mud room. When the girls returned Marissa, DeeAnna, Elliot and Dave grouted the kitchen and bathroom tile.
      As the kids continued this work of grouting, washing and re-washing the tiles again, the more skilled team members made the decision to tear down the walls of the master bathroom shower. One of the previous teams had misjudged the combined width of the sheetrock and mortarboard, so consequently our team tore down the sheetrock and replaced the sheetrock with just the mortarboard. This will enabled the water control handle to fit once the tile wall is put up. The tub area also had this problem and had to be corrected so the handles could turn all the way on and off. Verne and Margie put forth much effort into this project. Jack also did a lot of work in this area. He put in a little too much effort, banging through the wall into the next room putting a tiny hole that Frank willingly fixed for him. They forgave him, don't worry.
      The rest of the team worked through the tiling with Tom leading the way with the cutting, placing and spacing. We left around 3 p.m., though we wanted to stay later and finish work. The team traveled to the Ninth Ward, which was devastated by Katrina but has made a lot of progress in the past several years. The best part was "Brad Pitt's neighborhood" that we drove through that afternoon.
      Returning to the church, we had a beautiful service put on by Pastor Nick. Ash Wednesday had never been so touching, especially in an unfamiliar sanctuary. The service prepared the teams for the push at the end of the week.
      Thursday came all too fast. Elliot decided to switch teams for the day to be of help to Keith's team painting. Lauren Crandall and Jessica Hughes were welcomed into Frank's team. The team decided to finish the tiling and start putting the carpet tack strips down with liquid nails. Jack and Frank worked hard on the master bathroom tiling and preparing the tile for grouting tomorrow. Tom also was a part of the tiling scene. Jess and Dave finished the bedroom closet tiling. Marissa and DeeAnna cleaned the already grouted tile. They also began painting the trim for the kitchen floor.
    The team also had two very pleasant visitors on the site. Diane the sister of the owner, (Yvette the owner is still living in Texas), came to the home to evaluate the progress with her daughter. The team interviewed and talked to her for about an hour. They heard the amazing story of how her home was blessed and protected because it wasn't affected by the hurricane whatsoever. Though by 3 p.m. the kids and Charlene decided to go back to church and prepare for our dinner out to Bayou Country.
      As these team members left to go back to the church Jack, Frank, and Tom stayed late at the site finishing the tiling in the master bathroom tub area which could only be worked on by a few members at a time. The rest of the team felt so terribly bad that they had left them! Tomorrow the finishing touches, carpeting and grouting will be in our schedule. Can't wait!

Frank's Team: Tuesday

By DeeAnna Bouchard
      Team Frank proceeded to the site with an invigorating energy to get started. The team includes leader Frank Conery, Charlene Robbins, John Daly, Elliot Smith, Marissa Belair, Tom Belair, David Myers and DeeAnna Bouchard. Also added to the team are two retired folks, Vern and Marge who are down here from Pa. for 7 weeks of volunteering, who parked themselves in front of the church lawn to be of any help they can. Today, Monday, we also had the pleasure of having Pastor Nick as an extra set of hands. Our drive is only about fifteen minutes, allotting time for our daily "Starbucks" runs.
      The morning is crisp and cold. We were all still trying to wake up and are figuring out the work to be done for the day. We began by bringing in our tools surveying the house and starting the generator (no power at the house) and scraping up the wall board compound piles that were left all over the floor from the previous sheetrocking team. This was hard work but necessary as our one of our jobs was to install flooring, both ceramic tile and Pergo wood flooring. We spent the morning cleaning up the floor, sweeping, scraping and prepping the floor. Our morning break rolled around as Elliot and Charlene returned from a trip to pick up a much-needed vacuum and water supply to mix the mastic for the tiles (there was no water at the house). We started our next phase of the project; tile cutting. The vacuum was also put to use around the entire house sucking up the dirt and compound.
      As driver for the day, Charlene taxied Marissa, DeeAnna and Marge to Home Depot for a bathroom break. We shopped for supplies for our afternoon work from a list that Frank provided. After about thirty minutes of shopping, they headed back. Stopping for a quick Starbucks run, Charlene received a call from Frank with another list of stuff needed at the job. This caused them to change direction and head back to Home Depot.
      After we returned from our trip, it was lunch time. We ate quickly, wanting to continue our work. The team immediately started in on tiling in the kitchen and in the bathroom. The team separated into pairs of two or three. Pastor Nick paired with Charlene in the main part of the kitchen. Jack and DeeAnna began their work on the other side of the kitchen into the pantry. Tom, Marissa and Dave worked on the bathroom by the bedrooms. Elliot stayed outside for portions of the day cutting the needed tile and helping wherever he could. Frank, as usual, was watching over each team member and making sure their work efforts were going into the right places. Work was progressing and by five o'clock nearly half the kitchen was tiled. Covered in tile mud, the team decided it was time to get going. They cleaned, washed and locked up. The bathroom was half finished as well and the team could not wait to start their work early tomorrow.
      Frank had his usual evening team meeting where we made a list of more needed items and decided to get started a few minutes earlier to get things rolling. While it took longer to get started Monday, we managed to make a solid start, laying down both the first tiles and the week's plan.
              Tuesday found us heading back to the work site with one van stopping by Starbucks for our morning treat. Once on site we jumped back into tiling with vigor. The morning was spent laying tile with the progress a little slower because we had to cut most of the tiles to fit against walls, doors and in a closet. Charlene was sent out on our regular supply run with the help of David. After lunch we rearranged the team with Elliot and Frank working in the master bathroom room to take down some sheet rook in the shower stall and around the tub. The sheetrock up high had to be taken down by Jack (our tallest team member.) By the end of the day we had finished laying the tile in both the bathroom and kitchen. Our last job before cleaning up had Tom grinding down the high spots on the concrete floor in anticipation of installing the wood flooring.
     Wednesday we plan on grouting the tile floors, laying tile in the master bath, putting mortar board in the shower and around the tub and installing the Pergo flooring.
    The work has been hard but the last two days have been great and exciting!

Ellis's Team: Summary of work accomplished for Ms. Henrietta:

By Ellis Bouchard

-Finished installing the other half of the corrugated metal roof on the trailer.
-Removed all existing aluminum siding.
-Removed old insulation and re-installed new.
-Tyvek all around trailer for a weather proof seal.
-Repaired and replaced rotted wood at base of trailer.
I-nstalled a new sliding door in rear of trailer
-Started and finished the installation of vinyl siding outside the trailer.
-Replaced 3 lights and receptacle.
-And finally on Friday we cleaned, raked all the rubbish around the trailer.

My team was nothing short of awesome!
We also built a wonderful relationship with a very special woman, Ms. Henrietta.

Andrew's Team: WHAT A TEAM!
By Judy Campbell

Our team was made up of Andrew Wallis, Dave Westwater, Tom Woodward, Julie Rizzo, Anne Aubertin, Jasmin Rexford, Heather Hamlin, Hannah Jones, and Judy Campbell. Also sometimes Larry Cowen & Laurie Tyer.

What a great week we had, getting to know one another, (which was a big plus for me,) and working as a team. The house we worked on was in a small neighborhood in Meraux, La on Najolia Street in St. Bernard Parish. The neighborhood was in a square shape surrounding, with an elementary school in the middle. Some of the homes were occupied but a lot of them had been torn down and all that remains is a cement pad.
We worked on a home for a family of four: Don, Renee, Gabriel & Gavin. Their home is almost done, wish we could have stayed to finish it. Gabriel is 4 years old and was only 5 months when the storm hit. Gavin is 2 years old. They are adorable. The house is a four-bedroom home and is very beautiful. They must be so excited to see it almost finished. Don and the boys came over quite a few times during the week; it was nice to be able to meet them. We got to meet Renee during the family interview. They are a hard working family trying to get into their home.
Our week was spent getting all the trim, baseboard, windowsills and doors together. A lot of caulking, taping, sanding, painting and cutting boards went on. The youth and adults on our team worked very hard and laughed a lot. Taking naps on our way back to the church; sorry Tom & Andrew. Everyone is looking forward to going back again next year. It was a blessing to be on such a great team!

George's Team: Monday

by John Brock
The nights have been cool. It feels cool to me, even though I know it's not really cool for NH! Today was warm and sunny, maybe even up to 65.

We are working at gorgeous Carol's house. Doing trimwork, scraping and cleaning a floor, preparing it for tile. I put up, with George and Mary's help, the address sign for her house. Carol has been living in a 20 ft. FEMA trailer for over a year. She told us we are the fifth crew to work on her house including teams from Buffalo and Illinois. She seems patient, eager, proud and very grateful! There are 8 of us working there today. George and Dan are great at finding jobs for us and helping us if we don't know something. They also let us do lots of the actual work.
Carol lost a lot of money to a contractor who took her money and left. This is not an unusual story, I am told. I remember reading that for a time after Katrina it was difficult, if not impossible to find any contractor, and even more difficult to know if they are reputable. Carol said everyone in her neighborhood was evacuated and had damage to their homes. Now nearly everyone has returned, although some houses had to be demolished.