Big turn out today...thanks to one & all!!xxx

Many thanks to New members Stuart & Hannah, Muni & Natalia, Pat, Chris, Paul, Johnny Cashman and myself on deck, showin' genuine love and giving their time and energy today to the Phoenix Refurb.... If you've got a spare hour or 2, or even 3... come on down ...We can do this...come on folks ...we're nearly there!!xXX

Ray

Snagging and prepping

Another Saturday opening. Enter Ahmed, Alison, Jiska, Marcus, Mark, Paul, Ray and myself – with John Walker being our excellent foreman whipping us kindly in shape in order to complete a long long list of tasks for the day put together by Chris.

So it was 'snagging' no. 10 – paint removed of where it didn’t belong, paint applied where it was still missing. Cleaning. Mark spending the entire afternoon in solitude to complete painting the woodwork. Not too long ago, when I was struggling with my first steps in the art of rendering, the flat was in an awful state. It’s looking fantastic now.

As for no. 7..... What seemed to be years of dirt in the kitchen of no. 7 has been chopped off and scrubbed away by Jiska. Radiators and pipework painted meditatively by Ray. More painting, more filling, more cleaning done also. Almost there – almost ready.

Ahmed and Paul prepping no. 5 – sandpaper! Marcus cleaning the windows, removing years of paint and months of building dirt. The kitchen walls now no longer blue but magnolia.

Sometimes the Ashes score coming through the ether. Fry-ups with tabloid reading. Tea and roll-ups. Beers & 80s tunes as afters.


Throughout the day I often felt really proud of what Phoenix volunteers and Chris have managed to do with this project. 5 more working days to go – 5 more days for you to contribute to what I think is a success.

Marike - pix by Ray

Groundrush: 9 working days to go (and that includes this saturday)

Only 9 working days left to go before completion and that includes THIS SATURDAY (August 22nd when the refurb will be open 9-5pm). Please come down - WE NEED YOU.


Last week was very quiet on the volunteering front - just Johnnie Walker and Chris in for most of the time (with Johnny Cashman doing some work on getting the boilers working - curiously enough his mother and younger brother once lived in Sumner House). Today was busy with Johnnie, Johnny, Chris, Pat and your humble narrator on site - Alison called in long enough to inspect progress and drink a cup of tea.

See you saturday my dayjob peoples!

If you remember altern-8...

Perhaps I spoke too soon last time.

There was a rush of new volunteers (Gary, Akani) but the few people who have been trained to do what they do - in particular Sten who had just completed a plumbing course and Pat who's been taking care of most of the carpentry- are away on unavoidable holidays next week. Even your humble narrator will be away next week. This is at a crucial stage in the refurb when we need to sort out the more difficult plumbing tasks and the electrics.


Now Chris has the skills to do these - but that would mean he couldn't deal with the volunteers at the same time - so the plan is to get Johnny (the maintenance man) in for two days both do the work on the boilers and certify them (as he is CORGI registered to work with gas appliances).

Obviously the only other alternative would be to shut down the refurb to volunteers while Chris did the work and then have Johnny certify it but while this would get it done it would be less than ideal in terms of keeping the refurb a project of Phoenix's members. One problem Chris faces is never knowing what volunteers he's got coming in on which day and what skills they will have (and therefore what level of supervision/ help they will require) - it makes it difficult for him to timetable and complete the tasks that only he can do - if there is a lesson to be learnt from this refurb it is that this side of things must be better organised.

If you wish to come down please get in touch with Chris or the Office first and lets try to plan this further ahead than on a day by day basis.

We have only a few weeks left to complete the project and we need to get No.10 let pronto. Thanks to all those who have shown up this week - Keep the good things going in my abscence.

Back Soon. Paul.

at last! people who know what they're doing

Volunteering has picked up with people coming in having useful skills - painting and decorating Akani and Hazel, plumbing Sten, carpentry Pat - please come back again soon you were all great!

Chris has temporarily shut down no.10 (which is pretty much painted and decorated) so that we can concentrate on no.7 (which still needs a lot of work). no.14 is finished and people are already living there, no.5 (the site office) still remains to be done.

More people have also been coming who have no building trades skills but just want to help out, eg. your humble narrator. Our thanks go out to Ray and Martin who've been phoning around. While there are still a lot of the more skilled tasks to do there are still lots of opportunities to learn things - your humble narrator has tried his hand at plastering (as did Tony during his visit)and tiled his first bathroom wall in no.10 (with creditable results).

More photos soon.

paul.