I Heard You Need Some Work On Your House . . .

I ran to my office this morning to post since my computer is dismantled at the house.

The wife and I have stayed out of the planning for the big week for a number of reasons:

1) In the face of so much generosity, we just can't bring ourselves to make requests such as, "We would like to you build this there" or "The colors we have in mind are . . ."

2) Many of the people who have volunteered know much more about construction than I do and there is really no point in me putting my two cents in.

3) Many of the people who have volunteered have better taste than I do and so I am much better off just letting people do what they want and try and stay out of the way.

Consequently, as 9am approached yesterday morning, the wife and I found ourselves not knowing what to expect. We had no idea who was going to show up or what they were going to do once they got here.

A little after 9am, a white pickup pulled up that had some sort of yard tool in the back (turned out to be a roto-tiller). When the man got out of the truck I realized that I had no idea who he was. Panicked that this was someone I had met in passing and now could not remember their name, I yanked the wife out of the bathroom (she was blow-drying her hair) and said, "Look out the front window - do we know this guy?"

"No", she replied, "I have never seen him".

And yet, here he was walking down our driveway. I went out to greet him.

"Hi, my name is Matt."

"Hi, my name is Eric. I heard you need some work on your house." And so it began.

It was an unbelievable day. At one point I stopped in the middle of the house and it sounded like I heard the sounds of demolition and construction coming from all sides.

Half the time, I would walk around the house and have no idea what it was that someone was doing - but all hands were BUSY.

I walked out back and someone was in the planter (that for three years has been nothing but dirt and weeds) "I'm going to go ahead and build you a butterfly garden" he said. "Thanks!" I replied.
I walked into the kitchen and a friend was hammering the ugly tile off the kitchen counter; "I'm just going to go ahead and re-do your counters" he said. "Awesome! Thanks!" I replied.

I walked out front and people were raking and scraping and sanding. Someone tore the old rotted wood paneling off the front of the house; "We are going to go ahead and stucco this for you" - "Ok, super! Thanks".

And on and on and on it went.

Three or four times during the day I could feel my throat start to tighten and tears would begin to well up in my eyes and I would head out back to "Check on the dawg" who had been relegated to one corner of the yard.

It's all too much to be believed.

It was only the first day.

Thank you so much to all those who came and thank you to all those who pitched in with the funding so that when people showed up, they had supplies and materials to work with.

My office computer will not allow me to do what needs to be done to upload a slide show so here are some photos from yesterday . . . .

Adequate words escape me . . .