The Tale Of Two Toilets by Tammy Peters

Tuesday we got our assignments and Sam was our team captain. He of course chose me (his wife) to be on his team. Our assignment was to work on a bottom floor condominium which was damaged by the flood waters. Approximately 2 feet of water sat in the condo for awhile so all the walls had to be replaced. When we arrived it was surprising because we were expecting to be in a place that was riddled with disaster, but in reality you would not have suspected there were any problems in the area because everything seemed to be intact. Reality was that most of the bottom floor buildings were damaged by flood waters.

When we entered the condo we found that the entire place had been gutted and new sheetrock was put up in every room except the kitchen and 2 bathrooms. After assessing what we needed to do, our team of 9 students and adults alike got right to work. The first thing I started on was the bathrooms (2 bathrooms back to back). Between the studs on the floor was rotten, moldy drywall that had been sitting there for 2 years. I had to scrape and vacuum the sludge and clean the filthy floors. Jenny (another member of our team) then sprayed the studs with bleach to kill the mold so it would not grow between the walls. Good idea! Next we decided to tackle the toilets that must have had and inch of grime and crud stuck to the inside and outside of the bowls. The toilets appeared to be leaking so we took them outside and decided to replace the wax rings. Sam designated the stripping of the old wax ring to two girls on our team (Molly and Amanda). This was a really dirty job and you could tell the girls were thrilled they were chosen, but they did it without complaint. Max, another student decided to help out. It was quite a treat to watch them in disgust remove the stinky, gooey, yellow wax from around the sludge encrusted toilet hole in the floor. The pictures are priceless. They made the best of it and turned it into a fun time posing with their tongues out as though they were licking it. Yuck!

Outside, Jenny and I began to scrub the toilet bowls. Jenny did most of the work. With a little bit of elbow grease we got them looking like new. With Jubilation we put one of the sparkling toilets back in, but quickly found that it was leaking. Bummer! We had to replace the toilet with a new one after all that work! We then had another major leak that left the bathroom in 1 inch of water but Sam quickly fixed that and jenny and I cleaned up the water before it ruined the new drywall. Next, we put the remaining toilet in after the drywall was finished and realized that it no longer fit in the space anymore. We realized that we had to get another new toilet! All that hard work down the drain! Jenny walked with her head down as we trekked the toilets across the parking lot to the dumpsters.

Sam was our ring leader, handling multi tasks and was our resident toilet expert. Abbey was our resident cleaner, who not only cleaned nasty tubs, but also mold on the doors and anything else she could get her hands on. Amanda and Molly were jacks of all trades, getting their hands, clothes and faces dirty on all sorts of jobs. Kevin, Max, John, and Caleb were our resident drywall guys, measuring, cutting, putting up, taping, mudding, etc. We also had some new members join in the middle of the project, Katie, and Joe S., who were instrumental in helping us get the job done. It was a good experience for all. I was really impressed with our group who did not complain and worked the whole way through even on grimy jobs. When we were through we had completed drywall in both the bathrooms and the kitchen, tapped, mudded and sanded. Cleaned and replaced 2 toilets, and cleaned 2 tubs that were equally as dirty as the toilets.