BACK TO CONWAY

We left the Annual meeting in Kalamazoo on Thursday and headed to Arkansas to be the leaders the first four weeks of the fall rebuild at Conway,  Arkansas.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon, October 3rd with the rest of the team coming in later that day. The Christian Aid Ministry group was already here and they had put in another RV site and put down more stone.

Our first assignment was to work on the house on Otto Rd where we had worked in the spring. It is so sad that the home owner is still not in her house. The team beside the rail are Dottie, Jodi, Shirley, Stel, Sara, Sue, Bob, and Virginia. The second row is Larry, Paul and Jim.
 This is the only day I was on the project for the next two weeks, for I flew to PA on Tuesday. My son had overdosed on heroin. Thanks for all the prayers. Some of the blessings from this was we now know he is addicted to drugs, he admits he is an addict and is going to NA meetings and today is 33 days clean. One day at a time.

Thanks to Jodi for taking some pictures for me.  Stel did a lot of floor repair. the boards had been cut too short in the one bedroom and it needed to be fixed.

The walls hadn't been mudded enough to cover the tape in the living room and hallway. Which meant it had to be remudded, painted and textured again. Learning the hard way to take your time to mud three coats before painting.

These cabinets had been installed in the kitchen but when they went to finish them they were not of a good quality and really weren't very good. Byron agreed and had new cabinets delivered. So off with the old.

And in with the new.

Sue working on the walls, They used a brush to dab on mud to give the texture.

Pat joined the team the second week and Jim and Shirley left.

Stel got off her knees from flooring and painted the ceiling.

Larry installed the toilets in the bathroom. The plumbing is still not hooked up under the house. Once it is done (by a plumber) the house will be ready for occupancy.

Stel replaced and routed handrails on the front stairs and deck and Jodi sanded them all.

On the weekend the team traveled to the Heifer Ranch and had a tour.

A picture of the team for the second week. Back row Paul, Pat, Jodi, Stel, Jim, Larry. Front row Sue, Sara and Virginia.

I flew back to Little Rock on Sunday night and Monday morning we started work on the Torres house on Chippewa Rd. It is an addition to the mobile home that was put on by home owner and other volunteers.

This little room is just for the toilet.

Some mudding had been done when we arrived, but there was still much to do. Sara mudded and sanded the next two weeks and is probable still doing some this week.

The opening they had for the room with the toilet was too small to fit a door, so Larry had to  move the wall back and re frame it, so we could install a door.  

Stel spent two weeks on the plank mudding the ceiling in this very large room.

Jodi lent a hand to sanding.

Installing the tub in the long bathroom presented a problem. The room was a little narrow for the tub,  and the drain was at a floor joist. So Paul and Jim built out the wall so the drain would come farther over.

After sanding we all looked rather ghostly.

Wesley church, where we are parked, was painting the outside of their building. They asked for volunteers each Sunday, especially those 20 feet tall. So some of us worked on the church on Thursday.  Virginia and Sue painting the brown boards in the front of the church on theleft.

Pat and I worked on the right hand side.

We were able to get a lift to be the 20 foot person. When Larry went to  pick the lift up they didn't have one and had no record of the order. They did have a taller lift but it had to be delivered and picked up. It was a blessing for it was movable and higher, Just what we needed. God does supply!

Sara, Virginia and Sue stayed on the ground and continued painting the brown around the doors and windows.

Pat and I went up and painted the cross white.

Larry finished painting the top of  the brown boards.

Friday most of the team  pulled out in the pouring rain. Larry and I moved the lift to the archway between the church and the activity center and painted above the stone and the ceiling panals.

On Saturday Sara worked with us. We even gave Ken, an older member of the congregation, a ride in the lift. We found out that there were functioning lights in the ceiling.  We had painted over their covers. We just had to,install bulbs and remove the covers.

By Saturday afternoon the painting was finished.

Monday brought a new team to the Torres home. Marvin and Mark worked on plumbing for the tub.

Paul and Jim had put in the tub and built the wall on Thursday before they left. The only problem was the shower walls we were given didn't fit that tub and none were available that fit it. So out with the tub and drywall. We got a tub to fit the shower wall we had.

Janice used a ladder, instead of the plank that Stel used last week, to sand the ceiling.

Sara finished the window, The only window in the addition.

Larry and Mark finishing the closet now that the plumbing is done.

Sally and Paul, leaders when we leave, installed the underlay for the tile floor in the bathroom and toilet room.

Sure takes a lot of screwing.

Larry installed the plumbing for the water and sewer under the home.

Marvin, Sally and Paul working on the flooring.

Mark working on plumbing.

Deb working with Larry to learn plumbing.

Glad there was a large crawl space to work under.

Mark cutting drywall

to finish the ceilings in the closets.

We celebrated Pumpkin Day with the Torres family with a pumpkin and box full of goodies. They have five children, luckily all were at church when the tornado hit and took their home.

From the rain last Saturday we had been parked in a swamp. All the rain just ran beside our coach and formed a lake. Amazing we were able to get out without being towed. It was to rain again this weekend and two new team members were coming in and I hope they were able to get parked safely.

When we got to Montgomery, Alabama we thought we were headed to Atlanta but our GPS took us on 281 for over 100 miles. It was a nice road except for going thorough some towns with many lights, and lots of hills and curves, but little traffic!

We arrived in Florida on Sunday morning.

Pulling into our new home. Come and visit when you are on a project in Florida.