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Published: March 18th 2009
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"Ouch! That was my thumb! "
Mallory and Amy shingling on the roof. Tuesday, March 17th
Fog, Fog, and more Fog… that was how our day began. Will, the director of the youth program at the Pittsburgh project took our group on a tour of some of the neighborhood in the north side of Pittsburgh. We stopped briefly to offer prayer to peace in the streets. From there we regrouped and headed out to work on our homes.
Amy, Mallory, McKenzie, Susan, Kevin, and Michelle went to Jim’s home in the Southside. Jim is a very gracious man who has a beautiful, but very old home. His kitchen is PINK and filled floor to ceiling with trinkets and collectibles. We were introduced to his cat, Marie Antoinette (who acts like a queen) and found out that Jim is living in the same home that he grew up in and that his grandparents lived in before that. We split into four task groups and dispersed.
Mallory and Amy tackled the art of shingling and soaked up the sun on a hot roof.
Kevin and Michelle were demolishing plaster and lath walls in the bathroom in order to prepare for insulation and dry-walling on the second floor. Kevin got KRAZY with a
Demolition Time
Kevin working to take out the wall in one of Jim's bathrooms. sledgehammer and Michelle murdered mounds of material.
Kenzie and Susan were a level below eating the dust from the Michelle and Kevin’s destruction from above while cutting the old damaged water pipe with a monsterous sawzall. They chiseled a floor beam to make room for the new pipe and replaced the old pipe.
Outside, Dave and Jack, our trusty leaders worked on electrical business and ran around to impart knowledge when we weren’t sure what to do next. It was a wonderfully productive day!
The other group including Scott, Zan, Katelyn, Stephanie, and Jessica went to the home of Kim. Part of Kim’s roof had fallen off and had a large opening into the attic where a group of rodents (we are hoping they were squirrels) had taken residence. Kim had been pestered by the invasion and the lack of insulation in her attic made her house extremely cold.
Scott and Zan set up our scaffolding system and remodeled the squirrel residence by tearing off the damaged and rotten portion.
Katelyn, Stephanie, and Jessica tackled the attic, removing decades worth of toys, clothing, and other odds and ends that had been completely damaged
Rub-a-dub-dub Susan in the tub
Susan replacing the pipe to the shower drain. by the rodent residents. Kim was able to find a few priceless items including her brother’s military uniform and her entire families’ birth certificate. They worked to completely clean out the attic and began to install new insulation. We were very thankful for having face masks. Kim told us she was so thankful we were not in Mexico this week and she didn’t know what she would do if we hadn’t not decided to come.
Tomorrow we will patch up the hole in her roof, finished insulating her attic, and begin to shingle her roof.
After an extremely looooong and tiring day, our groups met back up for a spaghetti dinner (with Scott’s famous cheesy bread!!!!!). We were joined after dinner by Michael, the former director of the Pittsburgh Semester, who talked to us about life in Pittsburgh. He led us in discussion/reflection about our experiences in Pittsburgh so far. We did a lot of comparing of our lives in Iowa to what we have seen of life in Pittsburgh. With a head full of lots of new thoughts we are very ready for bed. GOODNIGHT!!
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