Wonderful Halloween

There were only treats and no tricks this Halloween week.  We got home on Monday and had three upcoming days of wonderful clear and temperate weather for working on the house.

Trish and I were able to get our screen porch back in order so we could actually use a part of our house as autumn rolls on.  It had been power washed and disinfected by Serve Pro and now we managed to get the paper lanterns replaced and repaired, put some treated furniture back in place, and add a new colorful rag rug to the floor.  It feels so good to see one little space begin to look normal.

With new paper lanterns, the porch almost looks normal again.

The biggest work was done outdoors.  The washed up pilings in the front yard were salvaged to use in raising and doubling the size of the food pantry at the Lighthouse Church.  Ivey and Greg managed to pull them out with a ditcher and a front end loader and then the yard was almost empty.

Watching the pilings get removed.

I had managed to salvage two truck loads of wood chips from trees being ground up, and, as soon as the yard space was clear we began filling and leveling with our wood chip treasure.  We hauled many loads in our little truck and our yard cart and in the end sowed annual rye grass to stabilize the
surface.

Wow...the yard is looking better now.

In the late morning the debris haulers came down our street and gathered all of the building and yard debris we have accumulated since the last pickup.  Now the house looks clear to the street and we believe it will eventually look normal again.

All the debris is hauled away...for now!

In mid afternoon the best thing happened:  a Kempsville Building Supply truck got over on the ferry and delivered our order of drywall!  Now the first work can be done at putting something back in place instead of just tearing it out.  It has been almost two months since Hurricane Dorian and at last we can say we are making visible progress toward recovery.

Drywall arrived!  Our first load of new building supplies.

The day ended with wonderful hoards of Trick or Treaters showing the world that a hurricane cannot stop children’s appetite for candy and costume fun!