House Repairs Underway for Flood Fam #3

Bulldozers whirled, saws zipped, and and hammers pounded today symbolizing a giant leap towards the end of First Lutheran's flood recovery efforts in 2009. Workers from Cutter Construction tore off the porch and cut up and removed a giant oil tank that the flood waters uncovered behind a hidden wall at the Gilpin's. Contractor Mike Cutter said he would wrap up in about 10 days. Check back for a time and day for Gilpin's house blessing.

Construction Set to Go at Gilpins!

This has been a fun week full of good stuff and God's surprises. Mike Cutter of Cutter Construction and I just met to discuss a work schedule of repairing the basement at the Gilpins home! Both the contractor and Mariann Gilpin have signed a contract which is required by Jumpstart to officially begin the project. Cutter Construction was selected during our "bid meeting" with Jumpstart officials earlier this week. Thanks to recommendations from people in our church, we were blessed to find three high quality, highly recommended contractors to bid on the job. Thank you all!!!

We have agreed on the following dates to repair the Gilpins home:

Oct. 19th Probable start date
Oct. 26th Definite start date

Oct. 31st Probable end date
Nov. 6th Definite end date

We are also planning a house blessing on-site and a celebration at the church once the work is completed. Stay tuned for a date and time on that one.

Lutherans Provide a Shelter Over Shellsburg Mom's Head

From Tom Brennom of St. Mark's in Marion: THANK YOU for your volunteering! We were very successful and 4 of us finished up the roof Wednesday with another perfect day (Thank you God for 2 great days between really bad ones). We had 15 volunteers on Tues from 6 churches and 4 on Wednesday. Tuesday was equivalent to 3 people working a full week(40 hours)...what a lot of good work was completed! We put in ventilation baffles, ice and water shield on the whole roof, shingled it with new shingles, and installed a ridge vent across the top. We also put on new fascia boards, vents in the soffits, and painted these. The west roof was completely shingled with all the vents installed (and heat was pouring out when we installed them).

Transition to Family #3

We had a nice turnout today for the house blessing at the Boardman's house. With our first two families moved back in, we turn our focus to family #3, the Gilpins. I have a "bid meeting" this Wednesday with Shawn and Mariann and an official with Jumpstart. We have obtained 3 bids and hope to get the greenlight from Jumpstart on which contractor can get to work fixing the collapsed wall in the Gilpin's basement. It's been deemed safe for the family to live there, but quite a hassle. We hope to have the work completed before the snow flies and celebrate with them "returning" to their home before the end of the year. Stay tuned for celebration plans to come! God is so good.