MMAP CEF, Maryland, May 2015

It has been almost a year since I have blogged.
Not that the rest of 2014 was not busy!   If I get a chance, I will do a blog or two about 2014 later.

Meanwhile, after Paul had rotator cuff surgery and some other unrelated health issues, we were delayed from going back to work with MMAP until May.  We both had the "hitch itch" by then!

We have been to Child Evangelism Fellowship near Baltimore before, in  2012 and in 2013.  The timing of this trip was a little disconcerting since the riots had just begun while we were on the way to the jobsite.  The affected neighborhood is about  5 miles from where we were working and we felt very safe where we were.  Although one day a bus stopped, let someone out and all of a sudden there were 5 patrol cars and an ambulance!

Little did these poor folks realize what they were getting into when they were assigned with us as coordinators on this project

This years project consisted of remodeling two offices, the 45' long hallway, and repainting the entire outside of the building.

That meant taking up old carpeting, texturizing the walls, painting, installing drop ceiling and new lights, and laying down new flooring in the two rooms.  A new desk was the "icing on the cake".  They finished moving in and changed the desk and the printer around after I took the picture. The end results were fabulous!

The hallway required the same removing carpeting, texturizing and painting walls, painting trim, painting and installing floor molding and chair railing, laying down new flooring, installing drop ceiling and new lighting.
Again, we were all so pleased with the results!  It made the hallway look so much brighter and fresh.

Floor molding was also added after this picture was taken.

Paul did a lot of unseen electrical work in the attic.

The before picture really shows the need.  Some of the facia needed to be replaced before painting, and the trim needed a coat of Kilz before the paint was applied

The plain, unpainted, posts that looked temporary, were replaced with decorative posts 

 The end result was really nice, clean look!

We could not have finished the exterior brick and metal, eaves and trim, without other volunteers, including Bill, who has faithfully served in the office since he came for a year and has stayed for four, (he will be leaving at the end of the month)

 a board member/volunteer, Carolyn, who does a ton of other office work there, as well as having a club at a local church

and Levi, a very loyal volunteer who does anything he is asked!  He was our little energizer bunny and encourager who spent three days with us, loading and taking a truck load of trash each day when he left.  We tried to recruit him for MMAP, but our gain would be CEF loss!

We even got Martha, the big cheese, outside painting!

A couple of CEF teachers also donated a few hours to the outside painting!

And we could not leave the little storage building out.  The ladies took that on as a special project.  It was only going to have the door painted, but on further inspection, we decided it needed the full treatment.

At the end of the project the only exterior wall paint left out of the 15 gallons, had to be scrapped out!  They figured the amount needed almost to the drop!

Although the pressure was on, we took a full Ladies Day Out and had tea at the tea shoppe we visited two years ago.  (We also ended up at Ikea on another day for "necessities" )

We had to ask where the best crab cakes were... one was a deli we made a special day trip with the Rockhills to find, and then found a nice grassy place in a library parking lot to relax and enjoy them!  I think we sat there for at least a couple of hours!  The other was a sit down place, Timbuktu!  Again a fun double date on Mother's Day! 

It was a great project, none of us had worked together before,  but as MMAPers, we formed friendships easily.  We look forward to future jobs together!