Meade Project
June 3-4 in Milwaukee  

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Daniel Meade owns a single-wide mobile home in Milwaukee.  He is a disabled veteran of the Vietnam War, and he is low-income.  His bathroom, water heater, and exterior staircase were in pretty bad shape.  The toilet and tub/shower were completely worn out, and the floor had failed so badly that a portion of it fell through to the crawl-space below. We mobilized a small crew on the weekend of June 3-4 to fix all this for Daniel.  We partnered with Clackamas County's "Home Access" grant program, and those awarded funds enabled Catalyst to do some big projects at no cost to Daniel. 

Here's a project report from Advocate Taft Mitchell:
Advocate report…Meade project

On June 3 and 4 the Catalyst “Super Crew” went to the home of Daniel Meade and his partner Ann to correct problems with their hot water heater, dry rot bathroom floor, almost non-functioning toilet, and unstable porch and steps. We found Daniel and Ann to be delightful people, grateful for the work we were there to do. The spaces in which we were to work were so small that a small crew was indicated…small but mighty. Over the two days the work was accomplished by Cole Swanson, Darrell Kreichbaum, Doug Woodard, Travis Waltz, Dan, and Mike LeClaire.

As with aged mobile homes, it seems that whatever you try to correct requires other repairs, just to make the original repair possible. Time stretches out as unexpected problems have to be diagnosed and then overcome. Over the two days, the crew removed the old, OLD, OLD AND COMPLETELY RUSTED OUT water heater, rebuilt its enclosure and floor supports, and replaced it with one with twice the volume. The crew demolished the rotting porch and built a strong, safe replacement. The bathroom had to be gutted, the entire floor (which had been GLUED Down!) chipped out and replaced with a new floor…and then plumbed for a shower enclosure and toilet. The shower was built from scratch, replacing a dangerous old tub, and a new toilet was installed. When we left, the toilet flushed, the sink ran HOT water, the shower showered, the floor DID NOT creak and threaten to fall through, and the porch was safely danced on by Daniel and Ann.

Originally planned for one day (dreamer!) the project took this highly skilled crew two 12+ hour days to accomplish…but, mission accomplished, leaving Daniel and Ann happy and grateful for the work done.

 

Crew Chiefs: Doug Woodard, Darrell Kriechbaum
Project Advocate: Taft Mitchell