Day Four

Well, it happens in every construction gig -and I predicted it for this one. About midway through the project, progress seems to feather out. On that first day there are so many old friends and new faces. Everyone is pulling the old ugliness out and tossing it curbside. There's a lot of laughing and loud music, and we're all building a House of Hope!

But then that day comes in the middle of the week. The day where you realize the ambition has overtaken the budget, and good ideas need to be scaled back. The day where most people have to disappear to their real life jobs and families, and the optimistic weekend volunteerism is just that -suited for the weekend. And then there is the interminable sanding. Sanding, sanding, sanding. Everything is covered with dust, tools are everywhere, your ears are ringing from the ever-present buzzing of the machines, and that pile of debris in the driveway only gets bigger and just won't go away on its own, like you've been praying for. I woke up sore (again) this morning and was going to complain about it, but everyone else already was.

A low point was when we had a volunteer plumber replacing the cleanout on the laundry drain. He left to get a part after a lunch, right about when all twenty of us used the bathroom. Sewage backed up onto the Family Room floor, and it was nearly impossible not to walk through it and track it onto the newly sanded Dining Room floor. It was nobody's fault. The neighbor told me that the sewer lines on the whole block are aged and root-bound, and need to be power-snaked once a year, if not altogether excavated and replaced. It wouldn't have been so bad but there's been about 4 inches of brownish, hepatitis-ridden gookhh in the bathtub, rising and falling with the tide of people helping out. It's pretty funny actually, but this will be filed under "Unanticipated Costs".

I'd post a picture of it, but this is a family web site, and it's really just too nasty to gaze upon. Our sympathies go out to Sean Day, who spent the night there. (Please send sterilization/sanitation supplies and antibiotics to his home address.)

I stayed late yesterday to clean up and sat on the tools with Sean (the other Sean, 2nd in Command, hardest worker on the property) and we came to the conclusion that tomorrow is the day to push through a single room until we could see the light at the end of the tunnel. When you see that light, you reach for it, pull along everyone within reach, and take care of business all the way.

Help is still needed! There will be A LOT to clean this weekend, as well as all manner of gardening/landscaping projects, and needless to say, more money is desired. Some heavy tools had to be rented for longer periods and garbage dump costs have skyrocketed.

For a more inspiring blog: Please see Matt's assessment of Monday!

For more inspiration altogether: Please come by 2016 Dayton in Lemon Grove and lend a hand, lend your spare change, lend us borrow your 150' Power Grinding Drain Snake!

Thanks again, everyone, and we'll see you tomorrow!