The Good, Bad and Ugly

Late Sunday afternoon Larry Stoner, Regional Operations Coordinator for Region 1 from the MDS office in Pennsylvania dropped in to see our group and give us updates on what MDS is doing in other areas.

On Monday morning Jim and Bob went to Ms Tomeka's house to complete the remaining work in the bathroom.

We enjoy passing through the tree tunnel along W Hall River Rd. on our way into town.

The rest of us went to Mr. Bill's house our next assignment down Fishbowl Drive, a few miles from our campground. We had heard bits and pieces of what it was like in this home. The Good has not appeared yet, but we are hoping it will show up. This past week work has been both ugly and bad. These photos will show some of the beginning and then our progress.

This home in Homosassa is a combination of an 8' x 30' old old mobile home set down on the sand with two additions across the front totaling 500 sq. ft. Years of neglect and then the storm surge of 16" of water in 2016 left Mr. Bill and his wife to live in their moldy trailer. Due to the mold she was admitted to a care home and died sometime later of a heart attack.

We started with the gutting of the kitchen cabinets, bedroom, kitchen floors and the lower 36" of all the walls. We have filled two trailers with debris from this demolition.

After the gutting it could only get better. We replaced all the wood floors with new plywood.

Another not so nice job was the gutting of the bathroom with the removal of the fixtures.

There is always a beehive of activity - while some of us were installing floor sheeting, others are insulating or putting up the wainscoting on the lower portion of the wall which had been cut out due to the flood water.

Even the bird house is in "rough" shape.

This big and unique rooster with his hen entertained us during breaks.

On Thursday evening we have our regular potluck supper with the group. During the supper "Joker" Bob handed us an email he said they had received. While we read it he kept a totally straight innocent face. See letter below:  (left click on the photo to enlarge it - and esc to continue reading)

We have increased our MDS crew by three this week, Tom from Tampa and Ken and Linda from Winnipeg. Looking forward to getting to know them while we work together.

Saturday mornings activity was a group outing to the seafood and craft festival in town.

One of the groups reminded us of our time in Louisiana. Very unique Cajun music style.