Texas 2 update 6                                                                                                                                      10/5/19

Another time of greeting from Texas!

Some interesting things have happened since my last update.  Of course there has been a lot of drama about tropical storm Imelda.  According to the local newspaper, we only had about 20 inches of total rain from it in Orange.  Further west, they had 40 inches or more.  Some homes that were not flooded from Harvey were flooded from Imelda.  I understand about 200 homes total.  As I understand it, FEMA will not declare it a disaster for aid until damage reaches $37 million and it had only reached about $27 million about a week ago.  However, there are many disaster response teams coming to muck out the homes that got flooded.  A few homes that Iconnect helped remodel were flooded again.

Another interesting drama happened to the home I was working on during my last update.  I mentioned that the couple was going through a divorce and have 3 racially mixed children about 1, 4, and 7 years of age.  On Monday after the storm, I got a call from Pauleau, my boss saying that the husband had trashed the house and I needed to pick up my tools to work at another house.  I carry a miter saw, table saw, ladder, and many hand tools in my van but leave many of them in a “secure” place in the homes I’m working on.  Well, my tools weren’t damaged but you should have seen the house where the remodeling was nearly finished.  All of the windows were broken out, there were many holes in the drywall of all of the rooms, the kitchen cabinets were beat down until the sink was laying on the floor, the new stove top was beat in and the new refrigerator dented, the laundry washer was turned over, the new stand-alone lavatory in the master bedroom bath was beat to pieces, and the other bathroom cabinet beat in.  Most of the furniture was also damaged.  The baby crib, many chairs, lamps, and sofa were beat to pieces.  It’s hard to imagine the rage the man must have gone through while doing this while the rest of the family was not at home.  The police said there was nothing they could do about it since the house was still in his name although there is speculation that his wife was set to get it as part of the divorce settlement.  They had purchased the house about a month before Harvey.

Anyhow, I have been working at the other house that I mentioned for most of 2 weeks.  I’ve installed all of the door and window trim and baseboard and caulked it, and reinstalled the doors, many of which needed additional repair.  I’ve never met the owner.

Steve, the person that I have worked with a lot began to have dizzy spells while cleaning.  He was in the hospital a night but they ran tests and said there was nothing they could do for him.  He has had 20 surgeries for a water-on-the-brain kind of condition and is still trying to work with the dizzy spells.

Yesterday, I started a new project on a house only a couple of blocks from the last one.  It will probably take a couple of weeks.  The man, his son, and his son’s wife (who is very ill) are living in the house filled with a lot of junk.  He wants a lot of special kind of trim so it will be challenge.

Sorry, no pictures this time. There is nothing to see of special interest.

Christians Together!