For those of you following my daughter's Katrina saga....

I have some *VERY* good news.

First, Erin and Greg finished putting on the new roof last weekend (they did
it *BY THEMSELVES*).  They've also finished replacing all the studs inside
the house that were damaged (and while they were at it they rearranged the
floor plan to open the house up by putting a bar between the living room and
kitchen instead of a wall, and taking down the wall that created the hall).

Then they got a nice surprise - they heard last Friday that an out-of-state
branch of their church is sending a "mission team" to help Katrina victims
rebuild.  They arrived today at Erin's house.  The team includes a licensed
electrician and a licensed plumber and they were able to purchase all
materials (including bathtub, sinks and toilets) at out of state at cost
(which will save Erin and Greg a bundle since prices for building supplies
along the gulf coast have sky-rocketed).  This week they will finish
rewiring the entire house, lay all the pipes and plumbing (they enlarged the
bathroom so the placement of the tub was moved), and float the dry wall.
They estimate they will be done with all this by the end of this week.  This
will put them *WAY* ahead of the schedule they'd planned!

After that Erin and Greg will have to apply the wall and ceiling plaster and
paint all walls and ceilings, hang their kitchen cabinets, put down the
flooring (they're going with ceramic tile, I think), and start replacing
essential furniture (beds and table and chairs).  By then the house should
at least be far enough along for them to move back in - they'll just have
trimwork and yardwork after that.

Erin took pictures of the new roof last Saturday and she'll be sending them,
along with pictures of the result of the work they'll be doing this week, in
a week or two and I'll post them as part of the pictorial journal we're
keeping online.