Mrs. Russell's House

While in Louisiana we worked on Mrs. Russell's in Slidell, LA. Lots of good things happened. Her house was a week away from her being ready to move in but had been that way for two and a half months because not enough volunteers. Well, they have some volunteers but not with the right skill set, or lack there of as the case may be, to get the job done.

Wendy and me the first day waiting to go to the house.


This is what we saw when we arrived. Trim work and tiling were the main goals.

The house before.

She wants to have this area screened in but Northshore will not cover that, but the framing is there and I think if she provides the screen someone will help her get it installed. This is also where I spent most of my time on the ramp and in the garage in the back. It was full of trash and I installed a washer and dryer in there.

Mrs. Russell was elderly and in a walker. The railing on this ramp needed work and I thought it would be nice to add a step at the far end leading to the yard.

Look! I cut wood! That was exciting for me. That was a post for my ramp.

Remember all the trash I told you that was in the garage that I got to move? There it is. Lots of it was wet insulation and moldy drywall.

Wendy did a lot of tiling. A lot.

This is the after ramp. We build her a little shelf at the other end with some scrap wood because the step idea was just not going to happen. Not enough material and no way to cement the post for the bottom step. :( I was sad when we came to that conclusion. But you can see there is now also a railing for her on the ground as well as the ramp (both sides!) And that's Kathy, we built the railing together. She was one of the co-leaders.


This flag was from the church next door that blew into the Methodist lot during the storm. The Methodists returned it and the other church had it framed as a gift.

Where we slept (below) has a little spot where they fly the flags (above) of every state that is represented by volunteers. They have had all 50 states and 27 countries. Our week was California, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota.



This is the truck the contractor drove. Very manly. I thought of Jay driving around in it to all of his jobs.

Diane was a hoot. Her grand daughter teaches her things about being hip. She came with her two sisters. At dinner that night I had alligator sausage and turtle soup. Tasty.

Jean, one of the sisters.

Susie, the other sister. They spent a lot of time doing caulk work and trim.

Amanda, one of the other people on the trip.

Jodi and one of the co-leaders, Eric.

Everybody


And that's it!