Back to Biloxi: The Pace Accelerates

It could be my imagination, but it always seems that the pace of work accelerates on Thursday. Reality hits that we only have two more days to make as much progress as we can before we run out of time.

At Hoxie St. on Monday the house was framed and wrapped; inside, the rooms were framed in. By quitting time at 4 today, the exterior siding was complete on two sides and nearly 3/4 done on the other two (the high, hard parts). Ceiling sheetrock had been hung in all but two rooms, and interior insulation was essentially finished. The house is elevated about 8-10 feet, and we insulated the underside of the house and installed and trimmed out plywood finishing, including boxing in all the exposed piping.

Geoff mudding

Keller St. started fully sided, but the interior was only framed. The team insulated he entire house, hung sheetrock on all ceilings and walls, and by Thursday had painted most of the exterior. They also finished the underside of the elevated house a la Hoxie.

There's an urge to see certain tasks fully finished: for example, Jim's team at Hoxie would love to end the week being able to see a fully sided house. Sometimes -- maybe most of the time -- it just isn't possible. But we seem to kick it up a notch as the end approaches.

Working without a net

The fun kicks up a notch too, as relationships deepen.

Birds on a wire?

Ryan and Suzy gave us an assignment on Tuesday that everyone is scurrying to finish before tomorrow night. Each of us was to write a little-known fact about ourselves on a small slip of paper and put it in a bowl. Then we each drew a slip from the bowl, with the objective of finding the person described by the fact. In the process of asking each other these random questions, we learn a surprising amount of other stuff. All will be revealed tomorrow.

We started an Appreciations wall again this year, where folks post notes expressing thanks for something someone else did -- or just for being themselves.

I hope these photos from the day illustrate the range of jobs we're all involved in.