Day 1 of the rebuild. Our first stop was "the warehouse", where Episcopal Community Services stores all of the supplies for their many build sites. We were given a short briefing, and then introduced to our crew chief, Annie. Annie can only be described as a lovable hipster - and that's a high compliment from me, as I have a hard time loving hipsters. My hipster issues aside, Annie told us that we would be going to a home of the Still family. The Still family bought their Lakeview neighborhood home in 2002, but due to some sort of financing issues that I do not comprehend, they had not yet closed on the house by the time Katrina hit. In some entirely convoluted and incomprehensible twist, all of the homeowner's insurance went to the previous residents of the Still house - none went to the Stills. Talk about being screwed. So the family of four has been making due in an apartment for the last 5 and a half years, and the house has sat, decaying from mold and a termite feeding frenzy. That is, until today.
The Lakeview neighborhood, as its name implies, borders Lake Pontchartrain. It's a fairly affluent New Orleans neighborhood, predominantly white and middle class. Katrina, however devilish as she was, can never be blamed for racial or socioeconomic discrimination. She was an equal-opportunity agent of destruction, and Lakeview lost the same percentage of residents as the infamous Lower Ninth Ward. Today, Lakeview looks relatively back to normal - new ranch-style homes, green lawns, SUVs in driveways. Its residents have been pretty adamant about rebuilding the neighborhood, and as a result, it is only sparsely dotted with blighted properties. Our home, sandwiched between two very attractive neighboring houses, is one of those dots.
The first job for most of us upon arrival on site consisted of clearing the house of years of accumulated junk. My first job, however, consisted of removing the damaged gutters from the roof. I was practically up the ladder before the title question was posed to the group. Although more exciting than accumulated-junk-removal, gutter destruction proved to be quite the arduous task. Half of the gutters were fairly easy to pry from the soffits, while the other half required us to slice through thick screws with a metal saw which wasn't quite up to the job (we burned out one engine and went through 3 blades). Let's just say that it would have been nice if the same guy had engineered the New Orleans levees... It was extremely satisfying, however, to yell "Timberrrr!" as we succeeded in detaching each section of gutter. The job took about half our day.
Slightly sick of maintaining my balance on the now-sweltering roof, I retreated inside for my next job - installing new wall studs. Within the course of a few hours, Neil (another kid in our group) and I had framed out a new bedroom (the family has two kids and had previously only had one bedroom). Throughout the course of this process, we honed our skills at cutting 2x4 stud wood to length with a circular saw, lining it up and wedging it into place, and sealing the deal with the AK-47 of nail guns. This thing kicks back so much air, you feel like you're constantly being examined for glaucoma. The going was slow at first, but we had gotten the hang of both stud-framing technique and power tool exploitation by the end of the day.
Exhausted and sore, we nonetheless headed home from our first day with a sense of accomplishment. I'm stunned by the amount of responsibility our crew chief and contractor give us. Ollie, the not-unfriendly, but rather brusque contractor who directs Neil and I in our framing efforts, speaks at a thousand miles a minute and expects us to catch on almost instantaneously. He has plenty of other tasks to worry about without having to add babysitting us to his list. Luckily, we've managed to keep up so far, despite a few mutual glances of sheer terror when, say, the nail gun was first demonstrated and then placed firmly into our hands (by the way, that thing must weigh at least 20 pounds - maneuvering around with it while trying not to shoot your eye out can be a rather daunting challenge). Despite the occasional pangs of fear, however, I am certainly enjoying the freedom and sense of trust. Here's hoping, though, that the house doesn't tumble like a stack of Lincoln Logs anytime soon...
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