A Walk in the Park with Reindeer Fur

I forgot how magical it can be to help someone. Last week was a long one full of extra volunteers followed up by painting a house on Saturday with a group. I can honestly say Friday night did not feel magical. Both of my guys here are fighting a cold and between the one who is coughing in my ear all night and the other one who had to start school all sickish, it's been a bit rough. Add that in with one person calling me Friday afternoon for help as he and his Mrs. are living in their garage as something blew up in his house. The connection was spotty so I never did hear what blew up, but the end of the story was that the house wasn't safe to live in and he was OK for now, but worried about winter due to the living in the garage bit. Those are the kinds of stories that keep you up at night or require a shot or two of tequila to forget for a bit.

I am a firm believer in circumstances and just because you have made all the right choices, it doesn't mean you won't find yourself in a bit of a pickle and need help. This was the case with Bonnie who lives in the house above. A little over ten years ago, medical bills (due to lack of insurance) forced her and her husband to move into this much smaller place. She said she thought that what they had would cover them, but then it turned out it didn't and they had to fix the cancer. I agreed. It's important to fix the cancer. She is determined to age in place and hopefully will get her hubby back soon who's currently in rehab. This why the crew of Corning Area Young Professionals popped in to help keep her house up by painting it.

Since the guy who organized his group is an early riser, I lucked out and the project started at 8. By 7:45 I was carrying five gallon buckets of paint out of the van and throwing plastic over bushes. By 8, he was pulling up in his pick up truck with a ladder and a variety of tools and his wife. The wife part was important as we had to paint A LOT of shutters and she is a wiz with spray paint. By noon, we were getting called into the house for pizza and pie. Real pie. Not the kind with a little grocery sticker on it.

We didn't finish her house. I didn't think we would. The homeowner had a blast talking to all the kids and they were only scheduled for the morning. I'm calling them kids here because when we stopped to talk to her about what to expect with the painting, she asked politely if there would be an adult in charge. These kids are long since past college and working on careers, but but we'll let her think that. We have a professional painter that will come back this next week to wrap things up but a large chunk of the house is done.

I think Bonnie had a nice morning. She was all happy with her paint choices. The yellow was called A Walk in the Park and the brown for the shutters was Reindeer Fur and she kept telling us how nice it all looked. Her daughter popped round to take a photo to show her husband in the nursing home, so that was also nice.

The paint is all stashed under the ramp, ready for Ted to come wrap up painting the house.  He was the same guy who prepped it for us by scraping all the loose paint off and priming. I am thankful we can offer this service at Habitat. Valspar donates all the paint and the volunteers do the rest. I hope Ted finds her as charming as we all did. I am sure the volunteers will remember this for quite some time and feel all happy to have helped. Indeed, it was magical.