Fourth week in Wimberly, TX

We had a personnel change this week.  Two couples left and two more arrived.  The new group from the left are Suzanne, Sally and Paul, Jodi & Stel, Woody and Nancy, Pat and Ken, Pat and Norm and Brenda and Wayne.

We all returned to the house we've been working on.  We are getting into the time consuming "finish" work all over the house.

Stel continues work on that "rotten" window getting ready to splice in new wood by adding caulk.

and new wood previously primed.

The final window ready for matching paint when we get it.

Nancy continues adding caulk to the door trim,

as does Pat,

and Suzanne.

Wayne working on reversing one of the doors as per the owners request.

Norm and Woody continue with trim installation.

That kitchen floor still has a lot of glue on it so Ken is joining the stripping with a power wire brush.

Stel and Suzanne are trying another method of stripping the glue by soaking the floor with "Goof Off" before scraping and Wayne and Paul are giving it a shot as well.

We finally finished that and Brenda is cleaning up the residue with the shop vac.

We thought we were done with this til we discovered that the utility room needed more glue removed before the vinyl is installed so Brenda and Stel are cleaning with TSP and scraping off the residue.

Now that the dirt from scraping the floor is over, Brenda is cleaning the cabinet doors so polyurethane can be applied.

Sally and Pat are setting up the "clean room" to apply polyurethane.

Suzanne was applying trim when the nailer jammed so she and Stel are combining efforts to fix it. Nothing is ever easy.

Wayne and Brenda are preparing the template for the utility room vinyl and seeking confirmation of their plans from Stel and

Woody.  Plans approved so....

Wayne and Brenda cut and are gluing the vinyl.

Meanwhile, Ken and Pat are having much too much fun in the master bathroom cleaning windows, and tile and fixing grout as they go.

and that Pat really gets into her work!

Nancy painting shelving for closets

 

with the help of  Suzanne and Jodi.

and Pat painting window trim for the master bath.

While Ken attempts to install that "new fangled" toilet in the master bath.

There is a lot of trim to be cut and installed.  So Woody, ...

and Suzanne, ...

and Pat and Norm and others are "trimming away".

Sally has nearly finished the polyurethane on the cabinets as the work week draws to a close.

We celebrated Paul's birthday over dinner at the end of the week.  He's a little older than 3 candles would indicate but you get the idea.

As if we didn't work hard enough this week, some folks decided that a stump in the campground by the driveway had to go.  Marty is back from a week off and is firing up that chain saw

and after several hours, the stump is gone.  Now we are really ready for a day of rest.  See you next week.

3rd Week in Wimberly, Tx

This week we're continuing with the house we've been working on.  We've been joined by Paul and Sally who will be leading the project beginning next week.  So now we are 15 people all working on the same house.

Here, Marty is going over the needs for staining cabinets with the new folks, Paul and Sally.

From the right, Larry, Paul and Sally are beginning the staining of the cabinets to attempt to match them with the existing upper cabinets.  Marty is reviewing kitchen needs with Darryl the Disaster Coordinator.

Sally and Kris spent most of the week staining and applying finish to the new cabinets.

This is an oven cabinet that was built by Larry and Paul this week.  They worked on this back at the Campsite area where there was more room.  As a result we were not able to get pictures of their construction efforts but this is the final cabinet with 1 coat of stain.

 

Since Jodi and Stel needed to stay at camp the next day to get propane delivered to their RV, they finished staining the oven cabinet while waiting.

Nancy and Pat are painting the new doors (13 of them) before installation.  Since the rear deck has been reconnected to the house and new stairs built, There was great access to the best painting area.

It took most of the week to do two coats on both sides of all those doors.

Woody adding screws to the doors to make them easier to paint on both sides at the same time.

Woody is preparing to begin door installation.

Norm also is installing doors.  These are original doors which Stel and Jodi repainted last weekend.

Keith and Larry also got into the door installation process.

We are finally just about finished with those two bow windows in the front.  Stel is applying the final coat of paint.

Two of the bedroom windows need new sills and Stel is working on that project.

What do you know, it fits!

Jodi spent the entire week painting trim and baseboard. (In addition to her picture taking duties)

Other window sills required reinstallation and repair, sanding and cleaning of windows.  

Suzanne spent a lot of time cleaning and caulking window frames.

The vinyl floor covering (and glue) has to be removed from the kitchen floor to allow for ceramic tile installation.  Here Carol and Marty are working on that process.

Sally on left is continuing to work on the cabinets, Jean is scraping the vinyl  and Suzanne is cleaning those window frames and adding caulk.

Marty doing the bulk of the tile removal initially.

At one time or another, a lot of folks helped with cleaning that kitchen floor including Suzanne,

and Stel

And Paul, 

and Kris and who knows who else when the camera wasn't looking.

There were lots of other jobs worked on this week like  here as Carol installs more light switch covers,

and here as Keith reinstalls the heat defusers,

and here as Larry mends some drywall,

and here as Norm repairs some electrial boxes,

and here as Jean applies caulk to door jambs and frames,

and here as Keith prepares for touchup painting.

and Suzanne also doing touch up painting.

and here, Marty and Norm working on electrial repairs.

and Carol cleaning the homeowners "knic knacs" for reinstallation.

When we were cleaning windows for applying caulk, we discovered that one of the sidelights to the patio doors had become dislodged due to rotten inner framing.  Here Stel is beginning the tearout process to access the framing from the outside so as not to disturb the new drywall inside.  

The glass has been removed and now we are trying to cut away the rotten framing to make room for new wood.

We need to cut plexiglass to replace the window.  Marty is showing Stel how it's done with Paul and Carol supervising and assisting.  (Can you guess why we need plexiglass?  Yep!  We broke the original glass and it's not legal to replace it with the stuff that was in there.)

Well, we're not nearly done here but the work week has come to an end so it's pack up the tools and head back to the ranch for the weekend.

As an aside, earlier in the week, the owner of Quest Ranch (where we are camped) asked for some help to begin construction of a cabin that he intends to make available to a terminal cancer patient and veteran who has no one else to help him.

We've been asked to help move these two sections of platform from the area where they were originally built...

to this base that has been prepared for the purpose.

We hand loaded each platform (one at a time) onto this trailer.

After the trailer was backed into position, we hand carried each platform into the new position and turned it 180 degrees in the process.

Even with all this help, 

carrying and turning this thing was no treat.

Later, other volunteers combined the frames and covered it with plywood to form the floor of the new cabin.

To close the week, we wanted to show the beautiful Texas sky.  A lot went on this week as you have seen but God's beauty is the final work of art for which we are so grateful.