After arriving at our site on Staten Island, we started by meeting the homeowner Michelle and some of the Rebuilding Together NYC staff, including the Site Supervisor Jimmy Ryan, the Director of Construction Terry Scott and the Program Manager Brianna McKinney. We learned about our project house, which had been severely damaged by flooding during Hurricane Sandy. The homeowner was not in a position to fix all of the damage by herself and was enormously grateful for our help, so that her family could resume life as usual.
Prior to our arrival, Jimmy had already been diligently working with other volunteer groups on the rebuilding process. When we arrived, the whole basement had already been completely gutted. Additionally, most of the drywall had been replaced, but needed much help towards completion.
We began our efforts by working to complete the taping and mudding portion of the drywall process. This required all of us to spend the day sanding down the first application of drywall mud and to apply the second coat of mud, which served to fill in cracks and prep the drywall for future painting. Sanding was a dirty and dusty task, but we were all happy to help and enjoyed working as a team on this effort, while singing along to the radio that was playing in the background. To finish off our first day, Nia Hollister-Bernier, Keren Dillard, Lucas Zeppetello and Sarah Kerson completed the second coat of drywall mud while Jeff Solazzi and Julia Peck worked on hanging drywall, by filling in gaps in the bathroom.
On the second day, our workforce grew by two when Terry and Ian Potter, the Disaster Recovery Workforce Training Instructor, joined us to assist in the repair work. We all started the day by receiving a tutorial from Terry on how to install drywall corner tape and then got right to work, working in teams of two, installing corners, mudding them in place, and sanding any spots that needed extra love. After lunch, Nia and Jeff worked to install drywall around a window, Lucas and Keren built a soffit around ducting in the ceiling, Julia repaired gaps in the wall with new drywall and Sarah finalized the installation of drywall corners. To finish the day, the Columbia Habitat Team commemorated the trip by signing our names on a piece of ducting that would eventually be hidden by drywall. As we left for the day, we turned back and looked at all of our progress that we had made during the previous two days and saw that the house was nearly ready for the next step: paint.
This is part 2 of our series of reflections from our Fall Break 2015 trip. Check out the rest: