Saturday, May 14, 2011

Building Materials!


On a recent trip to Seattle to move Jackie and attend my niece's wedding, we visited the World Vision Storehouse in Fife, WA.  As you might know, we are in the middle of a big building project at our YWAM camp.  We are adding bathrooms to four of our cabins this year, which is part of our winterizing project.  Who wants to walk outside to an old, unheated bath/shower house when there's snow on the ground and it's freezing outside (which happens in October around here)??  Hopefully, students and camping groups won't have to do that anymore come this fall!


Our friends at YWAM's Mission Builders International in Montana told us about the Storehouse program at World Vision, so Marty thought we should definitely join up.  They have a HUGE warehouse full of donated building materials and all types of supplies...


...and very organized!


They were in the process of filling a container of disaster relief and building supplies to send to Atlanta, GA, to help with the aftermath of all the tornados.


 But at the other end of the building they have the Essential Supplies section (cleaning, hygiene, office, books, worship CD's, clothing, Sunday School curriculum, etc).  No additional charge to member non-profit organizations who work with families, youth and children in need.  I had fun shopping this section, although we were somewhat limited for space, as you'll see below.


But Steve got to go crazy in the Building Materials Center.  He got faucets, doorknobs, tape, paint rollers, a saw blade and a drywall square here...


...a new washing machine for our office and a large water heater for the camp kitchen here...


...and 3 interior doors here.  Unfortunately, they didn't have the size of windows we needed.  Building materials are charged a modest handling fee, but still a great deal for new merchandise, if they have what you need.


Then it was time to pack everything up.  We'd brought this flatbed trailer all the way from Idaho to take home Steve's dad's Kubota tractor which we bought from his dad's estate.  It will come in handy for all sorts of things at the camp and for snow plowing in the winter. You can see the water heater box behind the tractor and the doors on the right side.  The back of the truck was also full.

At a fuel stop in OR, Steve was checking all the tie-downs and discovered that the strap on the water heater had loosened up.  How thankful we were that it hadn't fallen off the back of the trailer on the interstate and hit someone or wrecked the water heater!!


In Ontario, OR, we stopped here to see if our friend of YWAM Idaho, Joe Recla, who runs this place, had anything we could use.  He had an extra wide door (handicapped accessible) for Cabin 1 and two windows that aren't quite the right size, but maybe we can use them somewhere.  Joe gives us stuff for free if he has it. 


Those items went up on the lumber rack.  Then it was up the mountain back to Cascade.

Oh, and here's some hand tools Steve brought home from his dad's house that he is sorting through today.
We're so thankful God provides in so many ways!