August 7 – “Replace the wood”

Our work team arrived bright and early this morning - about 6:30.  They had to get their other team to the Habitat for Humanity house they were working on by seven.  Have to be honest here.  We didn't start right away.  I had another cup of coffee with Cary, the team leader.  We showed off the inside of the house.  Several of them had helped do sheetrocking and some other things, so they wanted to see what became of their handiwork.  We finally got going, though, and the work began in a flurry.  I returned to caulking, then sanding.  We got the girls to start scraping and priming around the windows.  The guy hooked up a power washer and cleaned off the entire outside of the house.  Cary found me as we were well into the work and asked if I wanted to go ahead and change out the rotten boards.  I had planned to wait and get Nathan to help me, but how do I say no to that?  If we did it today, we could paint it and not think about it.  I don't want to think about it.  "Replace the wood."  We had to rip out what was left of the boards, measure, and head for Home Depot for replacements.    When the rest of the group arrived this afternoon, the guy who is a finish carpenter came with them.  We asked his opinion on replacing one of the pieces of wood making up the eaves.  I was kind of hoping he would say to caulk it and move on.  Cary wanted to take two whole pieces down and replace them from scratch.  Thankfully, Grant knew what he was doing.  He said, "Replace the wood."  He actually cut away the rotten wood in such a way that we needed a new piece of wood only about half the size as we would have.  And he had all the right tools to do the job.  He even caulked around it when he finished.    Tonight we joined them at Joe's Crab Shack for supper.  We met Kel and Christina there, and then we took the boys home and stuck around until they got back from their date.  We are all tired.  6:30 again tomorrow.   Psalms 59:16 says, "But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble."   Father, once again you amaze me with what you can do.  Amen.