Rebuilding Together

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By Arianne Rapkoch

Story Published: Sep 8, 2007 at 8:44 PM MDT

Story Updated: Sep 8, 2007 at 8:44 PM MDT

BILLINGS - Rebuilding together, a strictly volunteer group, takes an existing home and cleans it up a bit. Board member Joan Norris says, "Heating, electric, scrubbing the floors and whatever needs to be to bring it up to where they can be proud of their home."
They help elderly and disabled homeowners with weatherization to save on that hefty electric bill, and in Joan Halko's home, many things needed attention. Joan says, "It just crumbled because its that compress board so they took that floor out and they're going to replace that. The tile was coming up in places.
It was broken and chipped, and you can see its real old and brittle. The door wouldn't seal properly. The windows were the old style windows. They were hard to open and to keep open." Volunteers also worked on the outside of the house, pulling weeds and fixing the garage.
Joan continues, "When I moved in these were all weeds up to here. The door was busted up when I bought the house, and I was unable to repair it myself, so they're gonna replace the door for me." Rebuilding Together volunteers come from all over Billings, and they work, not just to improve a house, but to improve a life.
Joan Norris says, "They work hard, and they work fast. They seldom stop." Joan Halko says, "It's just a real blessing, and I really appreciate it."

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