Just finished up a great first week back in Port Sulphur, Louisiana. I'm back to assist the Fuller Center Disaster Rebuilders which is ably led by my good friend Bart Tucker. We are in the middle of building four brand new homes (elevated on piers) and two rehabs. This past week we were host to 55 volunteers from Idaho, Iowa and Minnesota, eh? The Idaho group were college kids from Univ of Idaho in Moscow who came down on their spring break and decided to party by building a house instead of the more traditional alternative activity for spring break. The first part of the week they did demo work on a volunteer center run by a local pastor, Rev. Ted Turner. The last two days worked on a rehab for Malcolm Savage's home. They repaired vinyl siding, sanded drywall and restored to their original splendor, the original kitchen cabinets that were made by Malcolm. I "cut and pasted" the cabinets to make them work with the new design, and once they were cut down, they were sanded and painted brilliant white- just like new! Malcolm was so happy that we were able to save the cabinets (in addition to saving him the $3,000 or so that new cabinets would have cost). On friday night, Rev Turner invited us all to the center for a shrimp boil and bonfire- most of the kids had never been out of their state and had to be shown how to peel and eat the shrimp.
     The Minnesota group was from Salem Lutheran Church in Duluth . This was their fifth mission trip working with us in Miss, Texas and now Louisiana. Three of the men in the group- Dave, Mark and Kevin are married to three sisters. Kevin is a contractor back home and is a one man workin' machine. at the start of the week, he finished framing the hip roof on a house, sheathed it with plywood and installed 50 bundles of architectural shingles. They also set all the windows, completed the interior framing and blocking, bent a bunch of metal for fascia and started the siding. Pat and Lee did an excellent job on the front railing. Mark offered to help Miss Beverly cook breakfast and dinner for the troops during the week and also helped at the church to set up playground equipment.
    the third group was from South Western Comm College in Crescent, Iowa. Seventeen kids from the trade school and three adults led by Mr. Charlie Mundy. They were working at the end of the earth, south pole, as far down the Mississippi Delta that you can go without getting wet. We are starting a new home there in Venice . Charlies guys started the week by installing the plywood decking on the frame that was put in place by the pile-driving subcontractor. By weeks end they were ready for trusses and would have, could have installed them had they arrived on thursday like the company promised instead of saturday like they did. I hate it when the words and actions dont align with each other.
     I'm living temporarily at the double wide trailer that serves as Bart's family's home until the bees are gone and the electric is hooked up at the other trailer on site. This week, Bart's wife Heather and their cute as a button 18 month old daughter Allysa went up to Boston for a week to celebrate Heather's mom's birthday. The Fuller Center is missing their mommy and I really miss Miss Alyssa's greeting in the morning "Pete, Pete!"    
     A month from now we are planning a blitz build- building a house in a week. Bring a group and come on down! That's all for now- I'll keep you posted- Peter