Hookfin's Heroes

So it's been a few weeks since I wrote about the New York construction union crew who drywalled some lovely rooms. Well, since then the Hookfin house has been plugging along nicely.
The home is owned by Mary Hookfin, a longtime Parish resident who had the opportunity to buy the place and give each of her three children their own bedroom for the first time. I look forward to getting to know her better now that she is done with her crazy weeks of 12-hour retail shifts leading up to the Christmas shopping rush.
Several great groups of volunteers have been working on the house for the past few weeks. I am particularly fond of the University of Kansas crew pictured at left (including one token guest from Ohio who carpooled with them and was an honorary Pharm school kid). They built an amazing fortress door to protect the back of the house until we get our back-ordered French doors.
The really exciting thing about managing these volunteer crews is watching people push themselves and get jazzed about learning new skills. These guys were all great about learning mudding, and they all got pretty good at it by week's end.

I also gave them a challenge, which they more than met. I had two pieces of plywood I nailed into the drywall each night, but that just didn't cut it. I asked the crew to make some kind of replacement, and they engineered this magnificent piece of medieval defense weaponry - complete with handles. See, this door that Abby and Danny are showing off fits perfectly in the space left for the French doors, and it has turning locks that fit between the brick and the drywall. And it even has handles for carrying. Just looking at it gives me the same rush as hitting a newspaper deadline did in my former life.
Go kids.