New Orleans - work day 1

Lesa and I were very excited to start work on the houses in New Orleans. We were assigned to do sheetrock - hanging, mudding, sanding and painting of the entire house. Well, not the entire house - it had already been started. :) We worked with a wonderful couple, Fred & Jan, from Lebanon, Ohio and Fred taught me all about hanging sheetrock. It was fun - just like putting together a puzzle. The only bad part was cutting out and re-doing the job that was done prior to us. One of the pitfalls of volunteer labor.
New Orleans is HOT! We were quite disgusting at the end of the day but it was such a wonderful feeling to be able to help build instead of just tear down. I did discover that I am much better at cleaning because there isn't a lot of expertise involved. The work goes a lot slower when you are building someone else's house because you want it to be perfect. Fred was a great teacher and he's really good at getting the sheetrock to line up perfectly. I was even able to use my math skills which were getting a little rusty in my wee little brain.
After work Lesa and I took a tour of home - well, a tour of the homes we previously gutted on various mission trips. I won't tell you how depressing it was to see several of them completely gone (oops - I told you anyway) but it was quite comforting to see these two homes that are completely finished. I'm sitting on the porch of a home that looks gorgeous inside and a new couple has just purchased and are in the process of moving in.
This was Kathleen's house and it has been refinished and is currently for sale. Yea!! Two out of five - not bad. :)

We spent the evening at the camp visiting with new friends and getting ready for another hard day of work. It's great to be here!