Yesterday we went to another new house that had not been touched yet, called a “zero percent house.” It was a larger house than the other ones, but it was still one story. We worked hard to get all the furniture and rubble and tons and tons of mud out of the house. The house had pretty high ceilings so we had to get up there and take off the drywall on the ceiling and the insulation up there as well. It was also a pretty hot day so everyone was getting really hot and tired. We started early, when it was still a little foggy, and that kind of reflected the house when we arrived. It was full of muddy, dirty belongings and debris covering the floor; it was pretty dark and gloomy inside. Yet the more we worked, the nicer the day got too!
Each time we got rid of debris or knocked down a new wall, the house seemed brighter and happier. And by the time we had to leave, we had pretty much finished gutting the house (minus the attic, which I think is pretty impressive!), and the sun was streaming into the clean house. It’s just remarkable, each time I go into a house, I look around and just feel so overwhelmed by what’s in there, but as a group we manage to work together and get things done. It’s funny because even though I know we can gut the house, I always have that same feeling like it’s just too much to be able to accomplish.
As I was going through the house, I found a few older Polaroid photos of a couple and their baby. I also found a plaque that said “Gramma’s house” and that led me to believe it was a grandmother’s house, but there were also kid’s clothes and toys everywhere and in the bedrooms, so I thought maybe some grandchildren lived with the grandmother. I always take a few minutes at the end to look at the different salvageable items and I always look through the photos. I really like to see some photos of happy memories that they had in the past, and I always think that at least they will have some photos to be able to keep. It can be very rewarding to find great things for these people that had so much loss from the hurricane, but it is also very upsetting and difficult to see items as simple as children’s stuffed animals or a child’s sneaker in piles of debris. You get all these different clues as to who lives in the house, but you have to sort of make up what you think their story is. You get a glimpse into these people’s lives through their belongings and you can see what kind of person or people they are. I also think it’s very fascinating that you catch these people’s lives at a moment in time. In the house there was laundry in the dryer still. We found toys all over the floor and notices about a fine posted to the refrigerator. These were all things that the family had been doing or were planning to do before they had to leave their home. It really is very emotional to see all of these possessions in a home that was ruined and won’t ever be the same again.
