Scotland 2012:  Work Day 5

The scene:

It was a beautiful day today.  Cool and breezy but bright and even sunny for a few hours.

The work:
The big accomplishment today was finishing the floor in the dining room.  David Hailey drove the final nail in at 6:15pm.

Bob Hill and Ryan Haney worked all day on the roof on the leaks.

The library painting was completed including the walls, pipes, and floor.  Shown in front of the "Tuttle Library is the crew:  John McClendon, Cindy Tuttle, Jennifer Hawkins, Bill Wilmoth, and Mickey Pleasants.

A shopping crew went to Glasgow and successfully returned with a painting to go above the mantle in the dining room and a sofa for the library as well as other important purchases for renovation and furnishing.  Ed Causey was given a special hand-drawn "duration" award at dinner for chauffeuring Janice McClendon, Audrey Lassiter, and Susan Hailey on the all day shopping trip.

The website team finished 8 of 16 pages of the website and added an Events feature that was new.  Since we were in the room the roofers were using for access the window was wide open and sometimes it was pretty windy.  Working hard were Chris Lambert

and Martin Ritchie and Annette Foster.

"Leisure Activity notes":
Which setting would you choose on the Scottish dryer?

More tomorrow!



 

Scotland 2012: Work Day 4

The Scene:

There was a period at midday that was cloudy and then sunny—Clara Gay and Annette Foster went up on the roof for a few minutes to enjoy the view.  It poured about 5 o’clock and it’s a light drizzle for evening.  Martin Ritchie who is helping us with the website revamp (and lives here) says he’s never seen it rain this much for so long!

The work:

Today we started laying the dining room floor and got about halfway finished.  There are still 2 leaks near the window (which the rain has helped identify!!) so a certain area may have to be left undone until the leaks are resolved.  Here’s Jerry Causey stapling the floor with Larry High.

With Prince and Dawson (volunteering from Mozambique) helping.

 The library wall painting was completed and painting the floor was begun.  Cindy Tuttle designed the finish for the library walls.

 Annette worked with Martin and Chris Lambert on revamping the Overtoun House website and you can see the work in progress at http://overtounhouse.com/ .

The fun:

The team fits fun into the day.  Here are some sample moments from Friday:

Vivian Hughes heads up the lunch feast with Jo Ellen and Larry High behind her.

David Hawkins (in an Alabama shirt!) rests a minute with George Hughes.

Modeling the new fashion accessory “ankle pads” is David Hailey.

And we close today with a snap of our after dinner devotional.

More tomorrow!

Scotland 2012: Work Day 3

The scene:

Question: Does it rain every day in Scotland?  Answer: No, some days it snows.  Rain again.  To us Raleighites this is a nice steady very serious rain.  Today Bob Hill told us the forecast this afternoon was a 12 hours of heavy rain with storm conditions.  But it cleared up!

The work:

Today the walnut flooring arrived for the dining room. 

Since the goal is to lay the floor on Friday (tomorrow!) the target is to finish painting today--which requires that all the repair work get completed.  Baseboards were removed to access the wiring and they must be put back.

All but one of the leaks were repaired allowing Riley Pleasants to replace the wall panels that had been removed.  Beautiful carpentry job!

There’s been lots of repair work to get to this point and a lot of innovation has been used to complete the repairs.  Here Bob Wilmouth patches a hole in the floor using the “patented drop the wood in” technique. 

Our roving photographer (David Hawkins) caught these other scenes in the dining room:

George Hughes and Larry High study their handiwork.

David Hailey on the stairway to heaven.

Outside the dining room, John and Janice finished painting the “McClendon bathroom” today.

Susan Hailey talks to Betsy while Jennifer Hawkins and Mickey Pleasants are hard at work cleaning the dining room table top.

Joyce Causey finished drapes for several of the B&B rooms.

Ed Morris, David Hawkins, and Annette Foster went into Glasgow to get white paint.  The B&Q home repair store is owned by Lowes and once inside the store you’d swear you were in the US.  Ed and David are on first name basis with Jimmy in the paint department.

On the way home we stopped to look at the swans on the ponds on the Overtoun House grounds.

Annette worked on the website redesign with staff of the Overtoun House including Martin and Mairi Ritchie, Melissa Hill, and Chris Lambert.  They are rewriting content and along with Susan Hailey, providing pictures and documents. 

Audrey’s scavenge of the day was a chef’s coat for Vivian Hughes!  What else will she find in storage here?

Several of the team have remarked on how much preparation was done before the trip so that the team here could just execute.  Just to mention a few:  Susan Hailey ordered the furniture and other purchased items, Audrey Lassiter planned the design and colors, Riley Pleasants and Jerry Causey worked on engineering design, and David Hailey prepared the devotions and handled the monetary affairs.  Kristen Muse helped on travel and insurance and the office staff assisted with all of these tasks.

Time to get back to work.  More tomorrow!

Scotland 2012 Work Day 2

The scene:  Today was a pleasantly cool one.  It has rained all day, hard at times.  The house has such big windows that it still feels very bright.  Outside its very green and misty.  BTW, it stays light til after 10 pm.

The work:

The planners let us know that the big focus for today needed to be the dining room if we intended to finish this week.  Susan Hailey, Jerry Causey and Audrey Lassiter are masterminding the day.

Folks were working on the water leak which entailed tearing out wall around the bay window.  And floor had to be torn up to run electrical wiring.  Continual cleanup was needed to keep up with the needed “demolition” in order to make progress.  Mickey Pleasants and Janice McClendon are so happy!

We had super help from two young men from Mozambique—Dawson and Prince—who came to give assistance to Overtoun House.  They hauled out trash, moved out heavy scaffolding, and helped with cleaning the woodwork.

Tremendous progress was made on cleaning the mahogany woodwork which is looking looking beautiful.  Clara Gay worked on it most of the day along with help from Jennifer Hawkins, Mickey Pleasants and Sandra Holloman.  Here’s Clara.

Jennifer Hawkins, Mickey Pleasants, and Cindy Tuttle cleaned the big windows. 

John McLendon sanded the walls prepping for the painting to come.

Ed Morris, David Hawkins, Audrey Lassiter, and Susan Hailey went on a shopping spree to Glasgow to buy prep materials for cleaning the woodwork, drapery rods, spackle, and paint for the dining room walls, library walls, library floor, and the bathroom.  Audrey continued her successful scavenger hunts in the basement, attic, etc. finding a framed needlepoint picture and a small chest to be put to good use.

The big event of the day was the arrival of the mantle for the dining room.  The funding to purchase the mantle was donated by the Pleasants family in honor of Clyde Pleasants.

Meanwhile John and Janice McClendon finished all the prep work on the bathroom—all scraping, removing a shelf unit, and removing wallpaper.

Ed and Cathy Morris went grocery shopping.  Great meals today thanks to Cathy Morris, Vivien Hughes, and Jo Ellen High.  Grits for breakfast.  For lunch we had white bean soup and the delicacy Scottie Hotties (which were named by Kristen Muse on a previous trip) sandwiches.  Rumor has it that dinner is spaghetti, salad, French bread, and chocolate cake.   Here are our Cathy and Jo Ellen planning our feasts.  

We’re becoming the well-oiled team that Susan promised!  More tomorrow.

Day 1 or is it Day 2 already?

The Scotland Mission Team left Raleigh on a 1:30 pm flight on Monday to Philadelphia and then onto Glasgow Scotland.  We arrived Tuesday 7 am a bit worse for wear but raring to go.  The conga line massage in Customs and Immigration was done by Joyce Causey, Vivien Hughes, Audrey Lassiter, and Sandra Holloman.

The scene: We rode the bus to Overtoun House with sunny weather and beautiful landscape that is intensely green. Someone remarked that it looked like western North Carolina.  Overtoun House is up a long drive out of the town of Dunbarton and looks much like a castle. 

Susan Hailey gave some of us the full tour from the basement to the rooftop.

The rhododendron are so tall they looked like crape myrtles.

The work:

Considerable time was spent assessing the state of the 3 rooms we will refurbish.  The before state showed us some significant challenges.

Folks set to work in the dining room repairing the wood subfloor and repairing the wood molding on the doors and walls.  Larry High is removing nails from the flooring and Riley Pleasants is fixing a hole in the subfloor (isn't carpentry a lot like dentistry?)

The library crew removed storage items, organized donated books and bookshelves, and got the room ready for painting.  Here are Annette Foster, Sandra Holloman, Jennifer Hawkins, Susan Hailey and Mickey Pleasants.

We need to get sleep!  More tomorrow.

Thanks and Posts Never Written

Dear Overtoun House and Hayes Barton Baptist Church:

Thanks to everyone for making this mission a success.  You can see from the blog posts that we accomplished the mission we chose to accept.  The blessings and prayers we took with us as well as those we received while there helped us be the hands and feet of Christ in a place far away from home, one in need of love and care.  We know that our work will assist in the creation of hope and healing for those who may not even know that hope and healing are possible. 

We close this 2011 Hayes Barton Baptist Church Scotland Blog today even though there are many more stories to tell.  A selection of some titles for posts never written might just generate some questions to ask of mission team members when you ask them about Scotland:

• You Paint the High Wall and I'll Paint the Low Wall
• Waiting Makes People Wait
• One Stick Short of a Bundle
• Overtime House
• Give Me Liniment for My Joints
• That Studfinder is a Liar
• The Second Wind for the Second Shift
• It’s Saturday Night!
• It is What It Is
• People Who Build Glass Walls Shouldn’t…
• Where Are the Tape Measures?
• We Had a “Hoochin’” Good Time…Scottish Style
• Blessings Upon Blessings
• Are We There Yet?
• There Are No More Puffins to be Had
• Use Paper Plates
• James Taylor
• The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From Audrey
• We Say “Yes” Cindy “Yes”
• I Do Windows…and Floors…and Ceilings…and Doors
• My Hobby is Kissing
• We Left the Bodies on the Floor
• Quincy
• Did You See the Owl?
• We Have Bats in Our Belfry
• Fanny Packs Are Allowed on This Journey
• It’s 100 Degrees at Home
• Newlyweds: 55 Years and Counting
• The Glossy Girls
• You Can Paint Dirt

I have been privileged to write the blog for this team.  While everyone else was measuring and cutting and caulking and painting, I was blessed with being able to take time to write a wee bit about our mission.  I encourage anyone who is reading this to consider going on a mission when they hear the calling to do so.  For me the call came in the form of hearing bagpipes on NPR; I knew when I heard them (combined with some not so subtle nudging from Susan!) that Scotland was a mission field for me. 

Watch and listen; you will hear your call, too, if you open yourself to do so.  You will find "blessings upon blessings" and may even have a "hoochin' good time...Scottish style"!

Footnote

Body, Mind, and Soul

We’ve been home a few days now and have had some time to rest as evidenced by most of our attendance at church yesterday. Resting after such a mission is needed for the body, mind, and soul. While our bodies may have been most immediately in need of rest given aching muscles and jet lag, the mind and soul also needed some time to be still as well.

Thinking through the mission we completed generates the knowledge gained from our shared experience. From learning how to do things for the first time (“I’ve never done that, but I’ll try.”) to conquering previous fears (“I’m not good on tall ladders, but I’ll climb up there.”), we each took away from this mission lessons learned that we will carry with us forever. We learned about each other and about ourselves. Our minds were expanded through exposure to new things and old things made new.

Our souls were also expanded as we experienced God’s world. The discovery and sharing of the gifts of our team members evidenced how God created each of us to be a unique person who has unique contributions to make. The teaming of us for this mission no doubt was guided by God’s hand as we came to complement each other and to work in concert. Beyond the teamwork that formed, the magnificence of Scotland’s lochs and lands reminded us of God’s omnipotence and omnipresence. Indeed, our souls were refurbished just as the rooms we worked on were refurbished.

Now that we’ve rested, we will continue to reflect upon this mission experience. We’ve written another chapter in the story of Hayes Barton Baptist Church and Overtoun House. It is a chapter that will further move Overtoun House toward its goal of serving as a Christian Centre for Hope and Healing. In a way, we’ve planted the Hayes Barton brushstroke cross at Overtoun House. And what the cross symbolizes will be there even as our reflections become distant memories.