Winterization in Bellview

September 6th

On Saturday Dayspring Church volunteered to help winterize a home in Bellview. During the workday, the old uninsulated windowpanes were replaced with an insulated wall and storm windows.








Here is the wall before, during, and after the winterization process

Visit to Lagnaippe- Bay St. Louis, MS

Spent the day with Jordan Sikema working and checking up on multiple jobsites configuring plumbing issues and keeping crews going. This organization has around 7 new homes going up at once! Here we worked on leveling all the pilings for the flooring on this home 8 feet off the ground.

Travels to the South

Olive Branch Mississippi City Project-While five out of six days of Olive Branch City Project I ran a crew restructuring and reroofing an elderly lady's home in 115 degree heat index, I spent the last day working on a home of a lady whose husband was in a serious accident. Here we are pouring a new sidewalk for wheel chair accessibility.

Closing night festivities

Van Dykes' hosted the last night's cookout. A big thank you to all who hosted dinners in the evenings. This time of fellowship, worship and recap of the day is one of the best parts of City Project.

Day 5

Nicole Roloff installs trim after new floor went in.

Day 4

Alan Strope begins to hang new doors.

City Project Day 3

Finnley VanDyke came prepared with tools in hand, here he shows off his painting skills.

City Project Fort Collins 2008

This years' City Project we worked on three different projects. This one was at the Matson's, a family from Grace Church, who needed some renovation done to beable to house Kathy Matson's mother who has had heart surgery and other health issues. She is now wheelchair bound, thus the renovations!

John, Michael, Eric and Steve reframed doors and walls and hung drywall for wheel chair accessability on day number 2.

Youth Build on the Farm

On Friday the Youth Group spent the day on the farm, working on the fence, cleaning up, and generally helping the cows feel more at home. Libby and Josh are seen here with some of the group during a rare moment when they paused in their work for a picture.

Iowa Flood Relief

Over the 4th of July holiday, Nicole's cousins and I went 10 minutes outside of Nicole's grandmother's small town in Iowa to a place called Oakville. The residents of this town and surrounding farmlands were devestated by the recent flooding of the Iowa River. As of now, it is uncertain whether the town will even be rebuilt. We spent time in 2 different homes hauling out personal belongings so FEMA can come in to assess whether the home is salvageable. Thankfully there was enough warning to evacuate the town, but many of these people were caught without flood insurance and have lost everything. One homeowner was grateful for the help so that his wife didn't have to carry out all of their sentimental belongings covered in toxic sludge. It was a hard day, but good to meet the people of Oakville and great to work with Nate and Brett.

RYM Colorado Conference

This week, June 9-13, I am up in Estes Park at the 2008 Reformed Youth Ministries Colorado Conference. It is an honor to be asked to be part of this week. I am co-teaching an elective class titled Incarnational Ministry with Michael Matthews (a pastor at St. Patricks in Greeley). We will be discussing why Jesus calls us to be ministers of mercy to people in need around us, how to discover what our gifts are and then practical ways we can use those gifts in service.

There are approximately 260 youth and leaders here from Arkansas, Mississippi,
Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Colorado. Yesterday and today, I am leading two sessions of mountain biking, that's 5 hours a day total! We'll see if this 32 year old can still challenge these high schoolers to a good ride . . .

(Reformed Youth Ministries is our denomination's ministry to junior high and highschoolers. For more information, visit http://www.rymonline.org/)

RUF Tulsa

RUF Tulsa came to spend five days working and camping in Brush, Colorado. They are an amazing group of people! I enjoyed my time with them immensely and, thanks to their energy, we really accomplished a large amount a work in a short amount of time. We camped on our client's land and did property cleanup, build a porch, installed new windows and painted the entire house, all in 4 days! Thank you to the RUF Tulsa group, their leader John Knorr, his wife Denise and family for their amazing service. Our clients were touched and encouraged by you all. It's a joy to know you and please come back!

May 10 Work Day at North College Mobile Park

Thanks to Roland Tremble, Scott Lowe, Morway family, Eric James, Brittany Winkler, Stauffers, Jake Bailey and Wes Womack.

FYI-Eric and Scott proceeded to put another 4 times the amount of branches in the truck (see above picture) while Roland and Josh removed 6 layers of leaky roofing from the shed.

Ollie Roloff shows up on the job occasionally, and really gets thongs done!

After an announcement I made at Grace Church one Sunday about a deadline crunch on the PS-S job for an occupancy inspection, eight people showed up the following monday to work. Some are pictured above--the Stope Family, Libby Kueneke, Jason Campbell, and of course Oliver. Thank you all for giving your time

day and night!

Project Self-Sufficiency Office Remodel Finished

We are finally done and the staff has moved in! Thanks to all the volunteers for their amazing work. It has been an honor to work with this group of people dedicated to serving the single mothers in our community.

Special thanks to Savant Homes for partnering with us and making it possible to do this project. Thanks also to Children's Mercantile for donating the waiting area toys and games.

What a blessing to witness such a community effort!

Restoration CSU Work Day

Top Pic: Lunch Break-A big thanks to Chipotle for another mess of delicious burritos. They are a continual donor of meals to our volunteers.

Left: Matt Bostrom and Jeff Odell got good and dirty blowing insulation into walls to make the offices as a sound proof as possible for privacy issues. These two guys spent MANY hours on this job.

Right: Josh Roloff unclogging the vacuum after insulation clean up!

New Tires

Nicole's uncle, Bill Yohe, visited us Christmas and during the process of me (Josh) trying to tow his car out a snow drift with too much effort, due to bald tires, he decided to do someting about it. Knowing our budget, and new tires not being a high priority though MUCH needed, he started talking to people and churches he knew in Iowa and Texas. Within two weeks, he raised all the money for four new much safer and more effective. So, much thanks to Bill and those who donated. You are all beautiful souls!

Framing day with Coldwell Banker agents

All the framing went up at the PS-S office in one day, thanks to Steve Balmer and the Coldwell Banker crew.

Demo day at Project Self-Sufficiency Office

Well, we made a royal mess today. Thanks to help from Matt Bostrom and Brady Kilgallen, we have all the carpet removed and are ready to start framing at the Project Self-Sufficiency office. Framing will begin on Friday. We have a good crew from Coldwell Banker to help frame, but we still need volunteers for drywall and mudding next week. Thanks to all who have and will participate.

Notice: Project Self-Sufficiency Start Date Change

Start date for demo work at Project Self-Sufficiency has changed. Due to extenuating circumstances, we did not start on Friday, January 25th, but will begin work on Monday the 28th. We are remodeling a 2500 square foot office space (see previous post for details). We need volunteers to donate labor including: demolition, framing, drywall, painting. Contact Josh at 219-7280, or info@restorationnowfc.org if you can help with this new project.

Northern Colorado AIDS Project (NCAP) Office Remodel

RN hit the ground running in 2008. We’ve had the privilege to work with clients of the Northern Colorado AIDS Project (NCAP) over the past few years. NCAP’s physical office here in old town Fort Collins had layout issues that made it difficult to serve their clients well. For years, their staff has crammed into a small break room/ kitchen for their meetings and confidential client conferences, while down the hall two oversized waiting areas went virtually unused. Over a week’s time, 9 people turned the waiting areas into a large private meeting room. From demolition stage on a Friday afternoon until carpet went in the following Friday, I, as leader of the project, and NCAP’s staff were blown away and encouraged by the efforts of Gavin Batty, Jon VanDyke, Ryan Jenkins, Libby Kueneke, Steve, Braden and Dawson Balmer, and Josh Edwards. I began this project totally unaware of the volunteer efforts that would materialize over the week. It was exciting to watch the people of Grace Church come behind RN and sacrifice their time for the needs of this community. Because of this volunteer labor and Home Depot donations for new tools, we made a $4,300 project cost just under $1,000 for materials. The staff at NCAP is so kind and appreciative of our labors and we look forward to partnering in future projects.

Project Self-Sufficiency Office Remodel:

Restoration is currently in the planning stages of another office remodel. Project Self-Sufficiency (PS-S) is an agency that works with single mother’s in the Ft. Collins/ Loveland area. They have not had their own office in Ft. Collins and currently share space with the Housing Authority. In a joint effort with Alan Strope/ Savant Homes, we will be remodeling a new office space to suit their currents needs, such as private rooms for client consultation. We just received word that the permits cleared and we will begin demolition this Friday (Jan 25). Consider joining us in this project and help us build a new relationship with PS-S. If we can provide free labor for the entire project we will save PS-S over $20, 000 on this remodel, which is obviously better spent on their clients! Please contact Josh to volunteer time or see our current needs list (below) to donate specific tools.

Winterizing Projects:
In between and during projects we are also: planning for the future of RestorationNow, winterizing homes, following up, caring for, and visiting people from past projects. There are always more people we can help. If you are interested in being a part of these projects, or if you know of anyone in need that we can help, please contact us.

Peace, Josh Roloff

Things RN needs:

Compound Miter Saw-Portable Contractor Model
18v Cordless Drills
½ inch Corded Drill
8 Foot Level

3 new truck tires (funds have been donated for 1 of the 4)
Storage Space—after April we need an indoor secure space to store our growing inventory of building supplies