Things that don't go Boom.

Well, as some of you may have noticed, the 1802
Madison Project caused a little bit of a stir on Madison Avenue last Saturday.  On of our volunteers found a vintage M69 practice mortar round in an upstairs closet.

Must have been a slow Saturday at MPD, because we ended up with Madison shut down for an hour and a total of ten police vehicles.

What Difference a Day Makes!

We had our first volunteer work day at the 1802 Madison Project today, and around 25 people came out to help with some major yardwork and housecleaning!  Before today's labor, the yard looked like this:

Yes, there is a house in there somewhere.  Give me just a minute and I'll prove it to you.  After 7 hours and a whole lot of sweat, this was the result:

The labor started early as Carole King and Paul Rawlinson from Capitol Heights arrived to help tame the yard along S. Madison Terrace.  You'll also see Brett from Jack Ingram Motors:

Brett arrived with tools, equipment, and something we needed a lot of today:

A special thanks to Brett and Jack Ingram for keeping us hydrated!    Folks dropped by throughout the day, and we managed to clear most of front yard.  Below you'll see Leon Darby who put us all to shame with one heckuva work ethic:

Leon was hard at work while Terry Robinson slacked off as usual:

Brett and Paul (sorry, didn't catch your last name) tackle some of the cherry laurels growing below the Magnolia on the East lawn of the house.

Paul contemplates entering the jungle as I cut out some cherry laurels in the background:

Reinforcements arrived in the form of Tim with a second chainsaw:

Okay, so maybe Terry did some work:

Scott Page was monkeying around with the ivy that had taken over the Magnolia in the East yard.

We had a rare sighting of Martin McCaffery (of the Capri Theatre) in the wild.  I think he's like Bigfoot, because we couldn't seem to get a clear picture of him:

The overgrowth was everywhere!  We pulled vines out of trees, out of bushes, and out of the Perry House itself.

At the end of a hard day's work, the old girl's potential is starting to become visible.  Thanks to everyone for coming out!

Volunteer Day Reminder

Next Saturday, May 18th will be our first "Volunteer Day" at the 1802 Madison Project!!  We'll start around 10 AM and work until about 4 PM.  Lunch will be provided and we'll have bottled water available throughout the day.  If you'd like to help out or have any questions please contact Cindy Keeping, our volunteer co-ordinator.  She will be onsite at 10:00 on Saturday and can be reached via e-mail at cindykeepingrealtor[at]gmail[dot]com.
 
Next Saturday we'll be doing the following: 
1.  Clean the kitchen out on the first floor 
2.  Clean out the downstairs bathroom 
3.  Remove boxes, junk from upstairs 
4.  Remove vines from front yard 
5.  Shrub removal 
6.  Rake front yard under magnolias 
7.  Remove carpet on first floor

 
If you'd like to help out with supplies, we could use the following items: 
1.  Trash bags - large and strong 
2.  Brooms and dust pans 
3.  Snow shovel - to remove all the loose fallen plaster from upstairs floor 
4.  12 ft ladder 
5.  Old lamp to leave on at night 
6.  Shop vac 

Please bring any of following for your own use:
Clippers - cut vines & trim shrubs
Shovels - uproot shrubs/small trees
Rakes - to remove leaves under magnolias
Hammer/prybar - carpet removal

If you bring your own tools, we recommend you write your name on any tools you bring on site to cut down any confusion.

Hitting the Streets

Last Saturday, the 1802 Madison Project had a booth at the Street Fair on Dexter Ave.  Thanks to the efforts of our volunteers we raised some much needed funds as well as awareness of the Project.  A special thanks goes out to Robin Birdwell who designed this great poster for use at the Fair and for other promotional purposes:

We'll try to get the poster up in some local shops in the next few weeks.  Thanks for your support!

Picking up Scraps

In addition to some initial clean-up over the weekend, we  removed a good deal of salvageable scrap material that was lying around the Perry House.  All told, we gathered:

10 pounds of brass

35 pounds of extruded aluminum

80 pounds of aluminum cans

14 pounds of lead

7 pounds of mixed aluminum

74 pounds of electric motors

18 pounds of no.1 copper,

12 pounds of no.2 copper

56(!) pounds of insulated copper.

The material was sold to Sabel Steel, and the proceeds will go towards supplies for this weekend’s volunteer event.

Calling all volunteers!

Next Saturday, May 18th will be our first "Volunteer Day" at the 1802 Madison Project!!  We'll start around 10 AM and work until about 4 PM.  Lunch will be provided and we'll have bottled water available throughout the day.  If you'd like to help out or have any questions please contact Cindy Keeping, our volunteer co-ordinator.  She will be onsite at 10:00 on Saturday and can be reached via e-mail at cindykeepingrealtor[at]gmail[dot]com.
 

Next Saturday we'll be doing the following: 

1.  Clean the kitchen out on the first floor 

2.  Clean out the downstairs bathroom 

3.  Remove boxes, junk from upstairs 

4.  Remove vines from front yard 

5.  Shrub removal 

6.  Rake front yard under magnolias 

7.  Remove carpet on first floor

 

If you'd like to help out with supplies, we could use the following items: 

1.  Trash bags - large and strong 

2.  Brooms and dust pans 

3.  Snow shovel - to remove all the loose fallen plaster from upstairs floor 

4.  12 ft ladder 

5.  Old lamp to leave on at night 

6.  Shop vac 

Please bring any of following for your own use:

Clippers - cut vines & trim shrubs

Shovels - uproot shrubs/small trees

Rakes - to remove leaves under magnolias

Hammer/prybar - carpet removal

If you bring your own tools, we recommend you write your name on any tools you bring on site to cut down any confusion.

The Augean Stables

    Yesterday was our first day of work on the 1802 Madison Project and several of the "stakeholders" (Project managers Christy Anderson and Cindy Keeping, investors Rich Anderson, June Jernigan, Karen Pell, Tim Henderson, Mendel Brown and N.D. Seibel) came together for a day of work.  Our plan of action was to clear away brush and wisteria from the porch, clean off the porch, and assess how much flotsam needed to be cleared out of the house.  N.D. wielded his mighty chainsaw to great effect against the cherry laurels and scrub trees that had grown up beneath the magnolia on the east lawn (despite appearances, Mendel is not actually fleeing in terror from the chainsaw wielding maniac behind him).

As the morning progressed, the house began to emerge from beneath its shroud of vegetation.  Tim surveys the progress:

Cindy and Christy cleaned off the cluttered porch and secured some weak spots in the floor (after Christy discovered one-ouch!).  Never one to be put off by adversity, Christy continued sorting and moving salvageable materials from the porch:

     At the end of the day we were left with a clean porch (except for the bags of cans removed from the house for recycling).

     Next Saturday, May 18 will be our first opportunity for volunteers to help out.  Details will be posted tomorrow.  Thanks for checking us out!