Final Week in Falfurrias, Texas

This week we finished 3 projects.  First is Josefina's house, then Gilberto's house and finally we finished remodeling the vestibule bathrooms at the church.

Roger and Dave have straightened the shed and are adding a new roof and replacing the siding.

Roger and John continue cutting siding pieces for the side and rear.

Of course, the weather turned bitter cold and windy but Max and Dave bear the elements to begin construction of the new back porch and steps.

Rita, Anne and Dave adding the joist.

Rita and Anne are cutting boards for the deck of the porch while Dave and Roger continue work to put a door and the rest of the siding on the shed.

Diane, Rita Anne and Dave add final touches to the porch railing.

At the end of the week, the finished the end of the house and

the finished rear.

The group gathered to present the homeowner with a Bible signed by the entire team and to bless her house.

Meanwhile back at Gilberto's house, vinyl installation continues and

this is the finished kitchen area.

Anne and Rita are prepping the laundry area for tile and

this is the final result.

The vinyl in the whole house is complete.

Meanwhile back at the church, Bev, Jodi and Diane prepped and painted the baseboard from Gilberto's house to complete the project.

It's also back to the bathrooms at the church and Stel and Diane begin installing vinyl tile.

Stel is cutting the door jambs to allow tile to go underneath.

Rita continues installing tile in the men's room while

Anne completes installation in the Ladies room.

Diane cleaning up the woodwork and adding a coat of polyurethane where needed.

John and Roger now install plumbing fixtures.

John is installing the new light fixture.

Much better appearance and light.

Roger installs the new corner sink in the men's room

And after some touch up paint and wall patching, the plumbing is finished.

John installs new mirrors in Ladies' room

and men's room.

Bev and Jodi sand the bathroom doors and

add a coat of polyurethane. 

On the last night of the project, the church threw a big party for all the NOMADS and the "Winter Texans"  (Sr. Citizens who head south for the winter who support this church each winter.)

It was a really big crowd and we all had a great time.

And finally, this is our team.  By couple from the left are Diane and John, Rita and Dave, Jodi and Stel, Anne and Max and Bev and Roger.  It was a wonderful 3 weeks and a wonderful team.

Now it's on the Rio Grande City, Texas.  Hope to see you next week.

Second Week in Falfurrias, TX

The Second week at Falfurrias was quite eventful.

Roger, Dave, John, Bev, Rita and Diane all returned to Josephina's house, completed window installation, painted the wood siding and trim and continued with insulation and installing siding.

By Week's end, the rear was nearly complete including window trim

as was the lower portion of the end of the house.

We moved Jodi back to the church with all the trim so she could clean and paint it.  She was joined by Bev who also helped with painting trim.

Tuesday was our first rain day so we did not work at Josephina's house.  That gave Rita a chance to learn vinyl floor installation with Anne as her instructor.

Jodi and Bev continued cleaning and painting baseboards and also some of the trim from Josephina's house.

In case you are wondering, we could only tile one room at a time because Ava and Gilberto and one of their sons are living in the house.  Ava is sick and bedridden in a hospital bed in the living room so every day is a "moving" adventure.  Anne is prepping the living room for tile now that we have moved Ava into the kitchen.

At the end of the week, 3 bedrooms, 4 closets, the living room and hallway were all complete.

Hallway before...

Hallway after.

 The other folks from Josephina's house were also rained out so we set out to upgrade the two bathrooms at the rear of the sanctuary at Falfurrias First UMC/

Dave is preparing to tear out this partition in the ladies restroom to allow better access.

Roger is removing the commode in the men's room.

Dave, John, Diane and Stel are removing the old vinyl tile from the floors.

This would be easier if I wait 'til they get this commode out of here.

Next, John is varnishing the old woodwork that Diane worked so hard to sand.

Diane cleaning the old wood trim for use elsewhere.

Bev is cleaning and varnishing the old quarter round to be reused after the tile is installed.

Stel is patching holes in the walls left by the partitions

and Diane is taping off the baseboards in prep. for painting.  We were able to get both rooms painted by the end of the week.

The end of the week brought another surprise.  There was a major plumbing leak at the vestibule area of the church late Thursday afternnoon which flooded the entire vestibule, both bathrooms, & crawl space under the balcony stairs.  NOMADS jumped in with mops, brooms, shop vacs and rented "Rug Doctor" machines to clean up the mess.  One church member, Carson, is standing in the upper right of the picture.  I told him that if he wanted the carpet cleaned, he could have asked. (Can't find a smiley face but you get the idea.)

We then put fans everywhere and some of our team bought new heavy duty fans for the worst area and by Sunday, the whole area was mostly dry.  We will continue use of fans for the week as an abundance of caution.

It was a hard week so Friday we all headed to Baffin Bay (about 40 miles east) and got some great seafood.

One of the group actually tried this.  The Ribs are from Drum Fish.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to eat fish from the ribs? 

It was a hard but fun week.  Next week I will try to show you the work we did at a third house this week since it was raining.  Lots more to do on 3 projects but with God's help and our hands, we will get it done.