Another wonderful weekend of progress at THGB.

The exterior demolition is now in full swing. This weekend we were able to tear off the second floor and the bricks from three sides of the house. There is a great deal of construction debris that will need to be hauled off this week but once that is done we'll be ready to finish demolishing the remainder of the house.

We were blessed with lots of willing volunteers and good weather again this weekend. This coming weekend promises to be great as we're planning on receiving a special offering to support this project.

Don't forget to click on the "Volunteer Now" button to the right to schedule a time to help out.

Volunteer here

We're looking for a few good men and women to help out over at The House God Built. We have nearly finished the interior demolition and hope to begin exterior demolition this weekend. We need your help though. If you can volunteer this weekend or another time please take a moment to register at http://www.thehouseGodbuilt.volunteerhub.com . It only takes a couple of minutes to provide us with your contact information and view our upcoming schedule where you can find times and jobs that work with your schedule and talents.

Wonderful weekend at THGB

Wonderful weather, friendships forming, and a house quickly being dismantled combined to make a great weekend at THGB. The interior is down to stud walls in much of the house and as you can seee in the pictures we were finally able to get a former back porch torn down. We will continue with demolition and cleanup this week and into the weekend.

The project was formally announced at LaCroix this weekend and the outpouring of support was fantastic. We had 42 people sign up to help with construction, material donations, and food. There will be more sign ups this weekend as we also take a special offering for THGB.

Pastor Thomas and several members of his family and church came to help with the project this weekend. He said he is sleeping better now that he is out of the house. He says the excitement about THGB is growing and that it has given him numerous opportunities to share his story of faith.

Plan C

Our first idea with redoing this house was to bulldoze it and start from scratch. Then preliminary inspections found the structural integrity of the home to be adequate so we moved to Plan B - to gut the interior, tear down the addition on the back of the house, and add a two story addition on the back. Last night we met with a mold remediation expert who told us the wooden structure of the home had too much mold damage to deal with cost effectively. So, we're back to tearing it down completely but we're not quite back to Plan A. Our thought at this point it to try to save the basement to build on as this would significantly reduce foundation work required to build the home. That means we'll tear the house down manually - one brick and piece of lumber at a time.

Demolition Weekend

This weekend is the beginning of demolition. We will be removing plaster and drywall as well as tearing down the addition on the rear of the home. If you have them bring the following tools: hammer, flat bar or crow bar, gloves, sawzall, wheel barrow, and anything else you can think of that might be useful in a demolition project. Also, wear boots if you have them.

We'll start work at 8 am on Saturday and 1:30 on Sunday. Childcare is available at LaCroix. Additional childcare workers are still needed.

If you are available to work on The House God Built please register at http://www.thehouseGodbuilt.volunteerhub.com/ .

Update on progress and upcoming work schedule

The first floor is now essentially cleared of debris after the work done on Monday and Tuesday. We're now ready to do the same in the basement and the second floor. Today the City of Cape Girardeau is scheduled to pick up the items that are curbside so if anyone has free time today to swing by and add to it before the City is done that would be great. Otherwise, we have a dump truck coming this weekend for burnable items and a dump trailer for items that will be taken to the transfer station for disposal. If you can work any time on Thursday or Friday just pile the debris at the curb and we'll haul it off this weekend.

Saturday and Sunday will be major work days with demolition begining. We need all available help those days to keep this project on schedule.

To volunteer for The House God Built please register at http://www.thehouseGodbuilt.volunteerhub.com/ .

Tenative plans for October 15-17

Our plans for the first half of this week will clearing rooms prior to demolition beginning in earnest. The front room should be cleared first as this is where we will be storing doors and trim work that is being removed from other rooms for salvage.

The City of Cape will be doing a special pickup on Wednesday so it would be nice to have as much ready prior to Wednesday as possible.

If you are available we'll be doing work on Monday and Tuesday afternoon. (Times will be posted as soon as those are available tomorrow.) Wear long pants and preferably boots as there is a risk of stepping on nails at this point. Bring gloves, a rake and scoop shovel if you have them. When working in the house wearing a respirator is advised. The church has a few respirators and we'll be posting their storage location as soon as we have it available.

Salvage begins

Today we removed doors and baseboards that might have salvage value. The drop ceiling was pulled down and debris was removed from the home.

Holes were placed into several exterior walls to inspect for mold inside. Many of the areas on the first floor turned out to have less mold than anticipated. In addition to the mold we found termite and water damage.

Please keep this project in your prayers as we make decisions on how to move forward with this home.

Moving begins!

Today our groups met to move Pastor Thomas out of his home so that demolition can soon begin. Many, if not most, of their things are damaged by mold and will need replacement before moving into their new home. We plan to return tomorrow for another workday at 1:30.

We're not quite ready to start accepting items for the new home but if anyone has a bed they can donate there is a need for that item now. A twin sized bed would be ideal but a full could also work. Please leave a comment here or post it to the donations section on the forum if you can provide this. Thanks.

Forum

If you havn't taken a look at it yet, Chad has put together a nice forum that we can use for interactive communication on this project. There is a link to the forum on the right side of this page or you can access it here: http://www.phpbbserver.com/lacroixhelpingh/

Packing and moving

Here is a picture of the house taken today. Some packing is already underway. Moving day is scheduled for 8 am on October 13th.

History

LaCroix Church began doing 40 Days of Community this past September 16th. This is a campaign developed by Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church that looks at the question of why the church exists in a study that lasts for 40 days. Our small groups were challanged to come up with a mission project that is beyond what we could accomplish with our own abilities. From this challange two different groups had the same idea of providing housing to a needy member of our community. This blog is the story of how that process is proceeding.