Home repairs continue, despite winter weather

This last week in Housing was a very productive week for us. We finally finished repairing all three floors in the house we are working on, so all our inside work is done. This is a relief because we all thought repairing the floors would be a much bigger job, but we actually finished the last floor in one day, with the help of Mark and Kyle, two other housing volunteers.  Now all we have to do is wait for some nicer weather because we still have a roof to pull off and put a new one on. This is kind of frustrating because we are in the middle of winter, so of course the weather isn’t too great and all this week it looks like we won’t have any good weather either. Luckily we still have a few more weeks before WorkFest (CAP’s Alternative Spring Break Program for college students) starts and we move on to other projects.

On Thursday we had the opportunity to meet a woman and her daughter who are very much in need of a new house. The mother has some medical problems and her daughter stays home to take care of her. The current house they are in has no running water or indoor plumbing and very poor electricity. The house is back in a hollow that is owned by the whole family and it is a very peaceful area, but the family really needs some safer living conditions. So we are hoping to help them out very soon. After seeing their house I’ve realized how blessed I am to have a nice place to live  with plenty of food, heat and water. And it truly is amazing to see how grateful they are even though getting them a new house is still in the works. So I pray that God gives CAP  the tools and funds to help this family out and give them a home that is safer for both mother and daughter.

This past Friday myself and two of my housemates got to pick up a new short-term volunteer (Hannah). So with the addition of Hannah our house is pretty full right now. Especially since we are having volunteer orientation at our house as well and even though they are all staying upstairs in our house, we do share meals together which creates a very cozy setting.

Kate Stefanowicz is a long-term volunteer in CAP’s Housing program. She lives in Floyd Volunteer House.

Mark helping out with the floors