Lytton, B.C. – May 5-11, 2024

Our newest volunteer, Connie Reimer, arrived Sunday night. The cook, Shirley, from last week, came back Sunday night with groceries and cooked her last meal for us on Monday night. She stayed to meet the next cook, Judy Schmidt, from Manitoba, whom Mark picked up at the Abbotsford airport on Monday and brought to our one-house rebuild project. Todd, Rhonda, Lorissa, Teagan, Dave, Anna, Mark and Ben made up the rest of the crew. 

On Monday we had a delivery of trusses, plywood and metal roofing. Temporary scaffolding was built, and a number of trusses were installed with vertical supports and bracing in place. 

Tuesday the rest of the trusses were put up with bracing and blocking installed. Owen, the homeowner, continued to work on levelling the fill around the house. Another material package was delivered. 

Wednesday the truss blocking was completed, and the outriggers and blocking installed. They framed the front overhang and sheathed it.   

Thursday the window rough openings were prepped with house wrap/sill sealer for window installation next week. Sheathing was installed on gable ends of the house and insulating between the floor joists in the crawl space was started. Drywall backing was installed. 

Friday, an additional father-son team, Phil and Caleb Funk from Abbotsford, arrived to help with the roofing. Facia boards were installed, and the roof was sheathed with plywood. The second and third entrance posts and beams were installed. The insulating of outer floor joist space in crawl space with fiberglass and Styrofoam was completed. 

The blue roof membrane was installed on Saturday morning, before the Funks went home.         

Judy has made us wonderful meals and we all look forward to next week.   

The weather has been steadily getting warmer and air conditioners are being turned on in the campers. Our neighbour, Shirley, has advised us to water our lawn to keep it from getting brown and becoming a fire hazard, so that is what we are doing. Mark mowed the lawn, and it looks pretty good now. The marmots are a cute but pesky animal with the way they make holes everywhere.