March 13 – “Let the repairs begin”

How many of you were able to enjoy a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon, lounging on the couch or in your easy chair, watching some World Baseball Classic on TV and drinking a tall glass of iced tea?  Sigh.  Sounds inviting, doesn’t it?  So was that the image of my house yesterday afternoon?  Not exactly. 

Immediately after church, while Chris got her hair cut by our incredible church hair stylist, I entertained some students from Texas A&M who are staying in our retreat center.  They apparently arrived shortly before their sponsor, do they were huddling inside to get away from the cold, damp air.  They were quite amiable, too, and even agreed to help remove some stickers from our new driveway reflectors.  Oh, and they carried the trash out as well.  Great start for their ministry trip to Galveston.  By the time we got home Nathan and his fire fighter buddy John were already well into the demolition phase of the house repairs our insurance company required of us.  John had to leave soon after, but two of Nathan’s neighbors soon arrived, and they were there for the duration.

Nathan and I headed off to Home Depot to get the supplies while the finishing touches were accomplished on the demo.  We found most of what we were looking for.  They didn’t carry the nails we really wanted, so we had to settle for next best.  And then when we got back to the house we realized they didn’t fit the nail gun we had anyway.  Fortunately, the guy who owned the gun had plenty of extras that he happily donated to the cause.  We stopped on the way home to pick up some pizzas for the guys to eat.  They took care of two of them in short order.  Of course they had help from Cailyn and the daughter of one of the workers.  Cailyn had to leave very soon after we got started working, but the other youngster stuck around.  Little did Chris know that she was going to have an opportunity to be Nana for the entire afternoon.  And she apparently did a bang-up job.  The little one cried when it was time to go home.  She just didn’t want to leave.

And finally, let the repairs begin.  The three neighbors worked well together.  Measuring twice, cutting the siding, adding a two by four brace as needed, making sure the moisture barrier was in place, carefully placing the pieces, and nailing it.  And then there was the old guy, hanging out with a broom, acting like he was actually part of the process.  Occasionally Nathan took pity on me and asked for help cutting something.  I appreciated the chance to whatever I could without getting in the way.  We finished up most of the siding part of the job.  Still have to caulk the seams and prep it all for painting.  We didn’t get to the eave work, though.  That will be a job for another day.  Tuesday, actually, weather permitting.  That’s Nathan’s next day off.  Once we get that done I’ll take some pictures and send them to the insurance company to see if they will sign off on them.  Hopefully they will give us a few days to get the painting done.  We want to do the entire house when we do paint, so there is a lot of prep work we still need to do there.  In the meantime, though, our work crew is to be soundly applauded for their efforts.  Thank you so much fellas.  Couldn’t have done it without you.

1 Tim 2:8 says, “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.”

Father, thank you for the guys who worked so hard yesterday to get the house fixed up.  Bless them for their efforts.  Amen.