Paint The Town

Back in April we volunteered to participate in "Paint The Town". The Neighborhood Housing Services put take applications of people who are unable to afford, or physically unable to paint their homes, and then takes volunteers and places them with each homeowner to get their home painted. This was the first year Watermark Landscapes participated, and I must admit, it was a lot more work than I thought it'd be! Not that I didn't know painting a house would be a big task, but I guess I forgot about all the prep that went into it. Remember we volunteered for this in April, and the paint day was June 13th... needless to say, Ryan has been EXTREMELY busy lately, so it was up to me to get it all put together. Luckily my dad helped me a TON.

First we went to the house to spray it off, and scrape off any peeling paint. My dad of course has a client he thought he'd ask to help out... DPC... A painting company! I kind of felt like a cheater at first, but honestly, they were volunteering and wanted to do it. So, by the time we got there, they had already sprayed the house off, and my dad and I were left with the scraping. A week later we went back to do the prime coat, and caulking... This time when talking to the owners, Kelly and Carla, they mentioned something about sod and some bushes that we might put together a bid for them on (considering we were a landscape company). Keep in mind that the past few weeks around here have been CRAZY weather with totally random downpours. Not the best painting weather. But, we managed to finish the prime coat just as it started to sprinkle then pour.

The week heading up to June 13th, I put together the missing supplies that we'd need, and got some donations put together for the owners... The Turf Co (Darwin McKay) donated the sod, and Quiznos gave us a discount on food to feed all our volunteers and delivered it... It was AWESOME.

June 13th! My dad of course got there before I even did, and started right away. DPC (Jim Doufas) decided to volunteer and help us a TON by spraying the body of the house. In the meantime, everyone I thought, plus some showed up! Lyman Belnap (Dad), Ryan, Cathryn Griffin, Dustin Pinther, Mark Johnson, Rebecca Johnson, Eric (her friend), Eric Belnap, Joe Emily Aaron Micheal and Jacob Piscione, and Matthew Ferguson. Seriously, amazing that they all showed up right around 9 am on a Saturday when there were so many other things they could have been doing. We literally finished putting in sod, planting flowers, rose bushes, removing bushes, and PAINTING THE HOUSE about 30 minutes before it started to pour rain.

Thank you SO much everyone... If just one less person showed up to help us, we literally wouldn't have finished in time. It was a great time helping out the community and spending time with people we care about!! Also, thank you Mom and Adria for watching the kids the whole time... Couldn't have done it without you either!