Back o' the Page Stories 1/05
By Scott Coverdale
So we got a call from a guy who said that he had a plugged up kitchen sink in his mobile home. Matt went out to look at it, and was taken aback by the floor of the place. Its not that the floor had gone soft as particle-board mobile home floors are won't to do. It had given out completely in most of the place, held together mainly by some very unsanitary carpet, which had not been vacuumed for a few years because it hung down between the floor joists. The homeowners, two brothers with plenty of health and medical problems, had taken to hopping joist-to-joist to get around their home. It was a rather bizarre scene. Anyhow, Matt got the plumbing resolved, and Megan, Kristy and Roger spent a week putting down plywood, underlayment and VCT flooring. It was a massive job. On Thursday, they were not done, and since all of the furnishings and contents had to be moved from room to room as the project proceeded, they asked the brothers if they could maybe get things out of the way for the second bedroom floor to be done on Monday. One of the residents asked if he could learn how to lay tile, and Kristy gave him a tutorial. He seemed a most unlikely worker. On Monday, when the crew came back they found that the homeowner had actually laid the tile in his own bedroom. It was not as beautiful a job as we like to do, but the man was glowing with satisfaction. He told me that this was going to change their lives. "We could never have anybody over to visit, because we knew they would fall through," he told me. "It sure is a good feeling to walk on a real floor again."
The two brothers have some things to deal with in their lives, especially regarding their health, but the floor situation had been very disheartening to them for a long time. It was a dirty, hard and horrible job in some ways, but I never heard a word of complaint from our volunteers (or even from Matt.) The brothers are certain that CHRPA is comprised of angels and saints. Which it is. Mostly.
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