Construction Activities
For the week I was in the Gulf Coast region, I spent the majority of my time working in the parsonage of the church that was housing all of the SI volunteers. The ranch style house had been gutted after the storm, because it had been flooded almost to the 8 foot ceiling. All of the drywall was ripped out and the studs were sprayed with disinfectant and mold-killer and then the repair work had started.

When our group arrived, all of the walls had been replaced and painted and a brand new wood/linoleum floor had just been installed 2 days before. I was paired to work with a gentleman named Mike Liston, who has a vast amount of refinishing experience. We were assigned the task of installing the kitchen cabinets that we had brought down with us as well as the vanities for the bathrooms. Mike took the time to explain to me what we doing every step of the way and was patient to allow me to stumble through the process with him. By the end of day 2 we had all of the kitchen cabinets installed as well as the counter top mounted.

Our third day we began laying tile in the master bathroom. Actually, Mike did all of the measuring and laying, I did the tile cutting. I have never seen a tile saw in person, let alone operated one. Add to this fact that Mike and I had to assemble the brand new saw before we could use it and it was altogether intimidating. Mike showed me what to do and gave me some tips and then left me outside to do the cutting. The morning started off cold outside and by 10am I was quite wet from the saw and my fingers were almost completely numb. We finished the bathroom and closet and moved on to tile the laundry room (which we almost finished the same day).

Day four Mike showed me how to grout tile and left me to grout the bathroom, closet and laundry room while he worked on tiling the one remaining bathroom. I ended up doing all of the tile cutting for him as well as the grouting I was assigned. A

The last day Mike and I installed the final vanity in the last bathroom. I spent the remainder of the morning grouting the last bathroom and sweeping the house clean of dirt and dust. The afternoon was spent getting all the tools back where they belonged and preparing the church for incoming group of 40 people for the next week.