Rebuilding Together delivers an Extreme Makeover

On April 26, 2008 over 400 volunteers transformed the homes of 6 families in Long Beach.  Richard Fry was one of the recipients of RTLB. Through the generosity of a Lowe's grant and the work and donations from a long list of local companies, their home will be transformed from a fragile structure riddled with debris and in need of disparate repairs into a castle of hope – equipped with safety improvements and refurbished upgrades.

Seven people live in this home struggling with the day to day upkeep, a severely disabled 1 year old and the continuing pressures of economic hard times. These family members share a single bathroom and 3 bedrooms. The senior Fry raised his family on an income generated from the Space Shuttle development work and taking odd jobs around town. He now suffers from poor eyesight, limited mobility due to sever back pain and a failing heart. His wife of 50 years recently passed away.  The family needed new windows, major bathroom and kitchen plumbing repairs, an accessibility ramp, grab bars and hand rails, a new toilet and exterior and interior painting and cleaning.

With heavy hammers and hopeful hearts local volunteers rebuilt the Fry home in the course of a week with the work finishing up in a huge workday involving 60 volunteers, transforming 7 people's lives for years to come!

The Work:
Clark Construction Group's Robb Keene and Chris Pesavento acted as volunteer House Captains to plan, schedule and coordinate all of the major repair work for the site.The kitchen and bath needed full revitalization including reinforcing the floorboards. Demolition was done by Nuprecon who also demolished 8 windows that were in poor condition and unsafe. PCI brought in a crew to replace the windows and repair and plaster the exterior as well as repair the interior drywall. Murray Company tackled the new plumbing in the bathroom including the shower, sink, water closet and hardware as well as installing a new sink in the kitchen. ISEC installed new cabinetry in the bathroom and an extensive amount in the new kitchen. Sasco provided light fixtures throughout. ProSpectra Flooring's team donated and installed vinyl throughout the bathroom, kitchen and carpet flooring in the major living space. Razook Tile tiled the new bathroom.  A new wheelchair ramp was built off of the front porch. Robb and Chris rented a storage van to move all of the house's furniture out while the work was being completed.  The Fry family was housed in a local hotel during the week.

Leading up to National Rebuilding Day on April 26 th , Robb and Chris made sure the heavy work ran on a tight schedule so that by Saturday the 60 expected volunteers could concentrate on the finishes and completing the project by day's end. Their plan ran flawlessly.  And coordinating over $35,000 worth of home repairs in 5 days is no easy task and it wasn't without some unexpected challenges.

On Rebuilding Day, the Clark/McCarthy group teamed up with Boeing's  HiPo S& IS Group (High Potential Space and Intelligence Systems) to collaborate on all the finish work. Kevin Ober and Theresa Huang were Boeing's House Captains and did a great job stepping up on the day to coordinate the work of over 40 Boeing volunteers! At the start of the day there was a long list of tasks to accomplish. But with great direction and teamwork the entire house was painted, the large yard was cleared, the interior was painted, and the furniture moved back in and set up. RM Hasson provided all of the paint for the site and A la Carte Catering provided breakfast and lunch for all of the volunteers.

9 th District Councilmember Val Lerch visited the site and spoke briefly to the group during a scheduled press conference.  As a resident of the neighborhood, he expressed his personal appreciation for the sponsors of the site, the work of Rebuilding Together and all the volunteers. He represented the Mayor of Long Beach and presented a Certificate of Appreciation from the Mayor's office to the program. Thanks to Lowe's grant program Rebuilding Together can reach families in need and bring neighborhoods together to help eachother and elevate their living conditions and their quality of life!