Memoirs of a Crew Chief
Mrs. Coleman’s house
Crew: Ron Blackburn, Trent Johnson, Beth Kulow, Katie Parks, & Bill Shanebrook.
Additional people who helped from other crews: Deanna Davis, Molly Kulow, Emily Walters, & Charles Parks.
Comments: All I can say to start is we were surprised and shocked to see the condition of the Mrs. Coleman’s house. We all believed it would be best for the residents (6 total living in a small three bedroom house) if they could stay somewhere else as the whole house needed to be gutted. The outside of the house was in reasonably good condition with recently installed roofing. It was installed in 1½ days by 4 college girls. For the most part, the damage done by Katrina was the roof and subsequent water damage to the ceiling and walls in the back bedrooms. Our assignment (three teams) was to fix two bedrooms that had water damage and the bathroom that had considerable damage (not caused by Katrina).
Our first day there we went to all the projects to understand the problems and start putting a list together for materials and tools (It never fails that the list is only the beginning and different tools and supplies are identified every day).
The second day (Sunday) we attended Christus Victor Lutheran Church. It was a very nice service and sermon. In the afternoon we toured New Orleans and some of the coastal area between New Orleans and Ocean Springs. Things are improving but have a long way to go.
The next several days were spent on the project. First was demo work. We started taking off a little to see if we could salvage drywall etc. Bottom line we took the walls and ceiling down to the studs and found mold, 5 mice and cockroaches. The floor was taken down to the first layer of sub-floor. All electrical outlets and switches in the bedrooms needed replacing. I cannot do justice describing all the work put in by everyone to get the room’s gutted, dry walled, new flooring installed, and walls and ceiling painted in 5 days. We worked 8 to 12 hour days and felt rewarded by every hour. We watched Katie Parks swing a sledge hammer during demo, Beth Kulow’s great leadership in organizing the trip, all the younger crew learning to operate power equipment (some with training wheels, right Emily), to Deanna (sometimes called Judy by mistake) and Bill running in and out to help get the laminate flooring cut to the right dimensions. Note: We made sure every night that the floor was clean and cleared to allow the residence to set up their air mattress for that night.
Tim Gibson’s team and Steve DeWitt’s team worked mainly on the bathroom. However, everyone helped from time to time. Because of the major damage in the bathroom, a portion of the wall was taken out to allow new floor joists to be put in. The old ones were rotted and sagging. The reason for the damage was not Katrina. It appears the sewer line was plugged all the way to the street and someone before us got the bright idea to open the clean out trap below the bathroom. Needless to say there was quite a mess below the house with all the drains dumping onto the ground under the bathroom and back bedroom. Don’t know how long this was there, but the smell and damage were beyond belief. Emily and Molly worked on digging a trench in the back, but only a small amount of sludge would drain. The rest was neutralized with lime pellets and shoveled out in wheelbarrows so plumbing and floor joists could be installed. Because of the damage our crew could not get the bathroom done in the 5 days. However, plumbing was 90% done, floor joists installed from outside wall through the hallway, new inside wall was installed and dry walled, hallway floor re-installed.
We left the house in much better condition than when we got there. A special award should go to Tim Gibson who stood in the middle of all the sludge to get the bathroom as far along as we did. The only comment is I would not sit next to him in church for at least a couple more weeks. We made him change his clothes every night when leaving the worksite.
There were so many things that made the trip special. However, they are too numerous to mention. Lastly, we were all saddened by the loss of John Okeson and our prayers go out to the family and especially our fellow worker Betty Okeson.
Ron Blackburn
Crew Chief
Crew: Ron Blackburn, Trent Johnson, Beth Kulow, Katie Parks, & Bill Shanebrook.
Additional people who helped from other crews: Deanna Davis, Molly Kulow, Emily Walters, & Charles Parks.
Comments: All I can say to start is we were surprised and shocked to see the condition of the Mrs. Coleman’s house. We all believed it would be best for the residents (6 total living in a small three bedroom house) if they could stay somewhere else as the whole house needed to be gutted. The outside of the house was in reasonably good condition with recently installed roofing. It was installed in 1½ days by 4 college girls. For the most part, the damage done by Katrina was the roof and subsequent water damage to the ceiling and walls in the back bedrooms. Our assignment (three teams) was to fix two bedrooms that had water damage and the bathroom that had considerable damage (not caused by Katrina).
Our first day there we went to all the projects to understand the problems and start putting a list together for materials and tools (It never fails that the list is only the beginning and different tools and supplies are identified every day).
The second day (Sunday) we attended Christus Victor Lutheran Church. It was a very nice service and sermon. In the afternoon we toured New Orleans and some of the coastal area between New Orleans and Ocean Springs. Things are improving but have a long way to go.
The next several days were spent on the project. First was demo work. We started taking off a little to see if we could salvage drywall etc. Bottom line we took the walls and ceiling down to the studs and found mold, 5 mice and cockroaches. The floor was taken down to the first layer of sub-floor. All electrical outlets and switches in the bedrooms needed replacing. I cannot do justice describing all the work put in by everyone to get the room’s gutted, dry walled, new flooring installed, and walls and ceiling painted in 5 days. We worked 8 to 12 hour days and felt rewarded by every hour. We watched Katie Parks swing a sledge hammer during demo, Beth Kulow’s great leadership in organizing the trip, all the younger crew learning to operate power equipment (some with training wheels, right Emily), to Deanna (sometimes called Judy by mistake) and Bill running in and out to help get the laminate flooring cut to the right dimensions. Note: We made sure every night that the floor was clean and cleared to allow the residence to set up their air mattress for that night.
Tim Gibson’s team and Steve DeWitt’s team worked mainly on the bathroom. However, everyone helped from time to time. Because of the major damage in the bathroom, a portion of the wall was taken out to allow new floor joists to be put in. The old ones were rotted and sagging. The reason for the damage was not Katrina. It appears the sewer line was plugged all the way to the street and someone before us got the bright idea to open the clean out trap below the bathroom. Needless to say there was quite a mess below the house with all the drains dumping onto the ground under the bathroom and back bedroom. Don’t know how long this was there, but the smell and damage were beyond belief. Emily and Molly worked on digging a trench in the back, but only a small amount of sludge would drain. The rest was neutralized with lime pellets and shoveled out in wheelbarrows so plumbing and floor joists could be installed. Because of the damage our crew could not get the bathroom done in the 5 days. However, plumbing was 90% done, floor joists installed from outside wall through the hallway, new inside wall was installed and dry walled, hallway floor re-installed.
We left the house in much better condition than when we got there. A special award should go to Tim Gibson who stood in the middle of all the sludge to get the bathroom as far along as we did. The only comment is I would not sit next to him in church for at least a couple more weeks. We made him change his clothes every night when leaving the worksite.
There were so many things that made the trip special. However, they are too numerous to mention. Lastly, we were all saddened by the loss of John Okeson and our prayers go out to the family and especially our fellow worker Betty Okeson.
Ron Blackburn
Crew Chief
posted by Aaron W. at 8:31 PM
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