Dusting Off The Tools

A last minute call went out from Jonny as a skip had been ordered at Dads Lane Community Association. Nobody at the task expecting too much, five of us answered the call and absolutely lifted the day of task owner Steve. Most of the walls in the building eventually had to be taken back to the brick, so we were tasked with collecting the rubble and lining the bottom of the skip with it. Laura and Karin got stuck in straight away removing the large, wooden architraves and skirting boards that were discarded on the floor, while I took buckets of rubble out to the skip in a wheelbarrow. As more of us arrived than he expected, Karin went into full dynamic mode and ensured that we were spread out being as useful as possible in different parts of the building. Along with Annie, we cleared buckets of plaster until the debris was cleared in the small front room. Karin again displayed a relentless aptitude and attitude for this kind of demolition job, grabbing a crowbar to remove a stubborn length of skirting board, which thought it had disguised itself well enough to survive. Then she managed to stop me from focusing on the small details when we were in the business of removing the large detritus. Meanwhile, Tousif and Laura were in the main room using power tools to remove the plaster from the walls and create our next clearing job. We joined them to remove the plaster from the floor and into the skip. At this point Karin had got the taste for power tools and joined Laura on the wall destruction action. I certainly would have like to have stayed for longer, but we had to get off to the midday litter pick, so we left Karin and Laura with crowbar and power tools in hand and big smiles on faces judging by the eyes (as we were all wearing masks) after Steve had given us a big thank you and the three of us left. We are all grateful to be a part of this remarkable project, and we are excited to see how it develops in the months and years ahead.