Thursday, May 02, 2019

New Bern, North Carolina

We are in New Bern, North Carolina working with the Fuller Center for Housing on houses that were damaged by Hurricane Florence  et. al. 

I haven't written before because we've had technology issues.  I'm not the most tech savvy, so a younger person may have had more success than I have, but here are the updates as best as I can:

Because of the long drive, nine of us left on Friday night from the church in West St. Paul.  We took a rental van and Howard's truck.  We drove to River of Life UMC in Beloit, WI and spent the night there.  They were great hosts and gave us breakfast in the morning. 

The next day, we got up and drove to South Charleston, West Virginia.  Again-  great hosts!  They gave us dinner.  :-) 

Finally on Sunday, we arrived in New Bern.  The travel was pretty uneventful. 

Also on Sunday, seven more people flew in and one more drove in from Atlanta.  So on this trip, we have:

Rod Sc.
Rod St.
Howard N.
Carolyn, "The Colonel" N.
Diane D.
Corinne (Seedy or CD) D.
Linda B.
Debbie O.
Jon and Debbie F.
Ron C.
Mike "Troll" B.
Mark Y.
Brian L
Leanne C.
Timm C.
and Joanne S.

It was kind of neat on the way down because the van group was in Winston Salem, Howard was in Raleigh Durham, and three other flyers were in Charlotte.  All close to each other converging on the same spot. 

We have three worksites:

1-  Jon's team-  working on a house for Miss Mary.  Here we are putting down vinyl flooring, painting, putting up sheet rock on the ceiling, cleaning, putting in a bathroom, putting down finish molding, and anything else we can do to get this house ready for Mary to come back to her home.  Mary is 87 and has a daughter and an occasional grandson staying with her.  We are pounding out a lot of things that need to be done on this house.  Jon, Mark, Brian, Joanne, Diane, Ron, and Rod Sc. are working on this house.

2-  Howard's team-  working on a house where they have had to pull out and replace cabinets, lay down vinyl flooring, (with complex cuts around a diagonal fireplace!) More about this house in the next installment.  Rod St., Howard, Timm, Troll, and Seedy are at this house.

3-  Leanne's team-  This was going to be a half day, maybe one day job.  Just a few touch ups before this house is completely done.  Maybe a little paint.  A little cleaning.  But they just keep finding things to do.  The Colonel has spent a couple days on the floor cleaning up paint that has spilled/dropped/smeared into the texture on the vinyl flooring.  They just keep noticing things.  Yesterday, several of us went to the dedication service and met Miss Libby, who lives there.  More on this later-  Leanne, Debbie F., and The Colonel are at this house. 

I almost blew up a house.  I was moving an appliance and bumped against a gas line and accidentally opened the valve for a gas line.  It was propane.  I couldn't get it shut off.  So I told everyone to get out of the house.  (There is some difference of opinion about that from Jon, who says I left him under the house)  -  Jon and I went back in to try to get it shut off and after some intense moments, he actually got the valve off again.  Lots of open windows and some "air out" time later, we were back to work.  Nothing dramatic happened unless you count me running around screaming, "get out!  get out!"  (ok-  that didn't happen, but it makes a better story)- 

Yesterday some of us went to a Dedication service for Miss Libby's house.  The service had Libby's pastor, some friends, some of our team, and some from the Fuller Center.  The pastor prayed a blessing over the home.  Miss Libby was also presented with a quilt that was made by a team from Rhode Island that had been working with the Fuller Center a few weeks earlier.  Today, Miss Libby is buying lunch for the team that had been working on her house. 

The place we are staying at has a function on Wednesday nights and we can't do dinner there.  So we took a half day yesterday and went about thirty miles south to Atlantic Beach and went to a State Park that was the site of a civil war battle.  There was also a beach that we walked on.  Then we went to a local seafood restaurant (very good) and then to a beach for devotions.  After devotions, we went down to the water and Troll and Rod Sc. ended up in the water.  Imagine that.... 

We are going to get as much done today and then tomorrow is another half day due to constraints at our housing facility.  The plan for tomorrow is to bum around New Bern for awhile.  We will post more about them afterwards. 

I'm having technical difficulties with my laptop, and I can't get my photos from my phone to this laptop.  I'll upload the pictures to our Smugmug site, though.  You can see them here: (Smugmug page) I think my laptop needs more attention than I can give, so I can't put pics in here.  I'm not as savvy with a phone, but maybe I can get them to Facebook today, too. 

I need to get this posted and get back to work.  More and insights later.  Although honestly, maybe not until we get back. 

Quack!
Rod