Cultivating Safer Homes
Our guest blogger is Devin Rutt and he is going to take us on a deep dive into the four Major Home Repair projects from this summer. Devin is the service project intern on support staff this summer and supervised all four projects as his main job focus. Devin spent two prior summers on summer staff as a service project ministry coordinator in 2019 and a service project manager in 2021. He is a student at Middle Tennessee State University studying construction management with an emphasis in land development and residential building.
Cultivating Safer Homes
This summer I have had the privilege to once again live my everyday life atop the Cumberland Plateau alleviating substandard housing in Grundy County. While blessed with the natural beauty of southern pines, waterfalls, and overlooks onto expansive views into the valley below, in 2023 Grundy has found itself considered economically “distressed” by the State of Tennessee and ranks in the bottom 10 percent in the Index Value Rank of all counties in the United States. According to the Housing Assistance Coalition a higher percentage of both homeowners and renters alike in Grundy are “cost burdened” by their homes than the national average. Ever since I started coming to Mountain T.O.P. as a camper in 2016, I have recognized that despite all the exploitation of human and natural resources, combined with the disregard by the vast majority of our society, Appalachia has some of the most genuine, hardworking, and kindest people I have ever met. This summer those amazing characteristics that have stuck with me for the past eight years, including two prior summers on summer staff and this summer on support staff, have been exemplified through my partnership work with the homeowners of Grundy and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Housing Preservation Grant. The four families I have worked with over the past seven weeks have exemplified how to cultivate generosity, passion, rest, care, and belonging with each interaction they have had with myself, other staff members, and the campers I have brought along with me to repair roofs, floors, and bathrooms this summer.
My first week with campers this summer, I took a group out to Mrs. F’s home to replace her roof. She has been working with Mountain T.O.P. for years and is a great exemplification of the importance to meet all four needs. Although we went out specifically to meet the physical need and replace her roof, through conversations with Mrs. F about her past, her family, and how Mountain T.O.P. has given her a hand up not a handout throughout the years, the importance of intentionally meeting the spiritual, social, and emotional needs and not just the physical need was emphasized. It was so cool to see a group of 13 to 17-year-old kids work so hard on the roof laying down underlayment, installing purlins, and putting up brand new black tin, as well as taking turns going inside to sit down and chat with Mrs. F and hear the many stories she has accumulated through life. One night the week this project was worked on when I was hanging around Camp Cumberland Pines listening in on a community sharing time, one of the group members shared that through their time working with Mrs. F, the interactions with her really impacted them and would continue to stick with them as they traveled down into the valley below. This project went so well, and with the group of hard workers led by one of our awesome board members, we finished the entire roof in only two days!
My second week I worked in the home of three former day camp kiddos who are now super funny and really sweet teenagers. When I first was at the H’s house to do prep work for my upcoming project, the three girls followed me around staring at me and didn’t say a single word while I took measurements of the floors. I never thought I would’ve been able to get the girls to talk to me, but luckily as I kept showing up (whether it be with a group of 15 to 19-year-olds or not), they finally opened up to me. The friendship I was able to build with them serves as a constant reminder of why I have had constant early mornings and late nights, as well as the need to meet all of the four needs. Although I took a group in to meet the physical need of fixing holes in bedrooms, hallways, the living room, and the kitchen by putting brand new vinyl plank flooring, the social, emotional, and spiritual needs that were met that week have impacted me more than bedroom floors that no longer have holes in them could ever impact those girls. Their willingness to hop in and help the group work, their willingness to jump in on the inside jokes with the group, and their determination to make people smile throughout the day made the frustrations of working on their home go away. The H’s show us why we do what we do here at Mountain T.O.P. and I will be forever thankful for being able to work with them!
Starting our third week and finishing up our last week with campers was a roof, bathroom renovation, and new living room flooring for a super nice family who has been involved with Mountain T.O.P. for years. Ms. P used to work on our kitchen staff, and her son is a former day camp kid while her daughter is a current day camp kid. They were so fun to interact with, and they even put on their own Mountain T.O.P. name tags on so everyone in the group knew their names. Week three, I had a big group working on major home repair projects all week long, and one of the two groups installed a new tin roof and shower with the help of the awesome Dan Eby. Week six, we came back with another awesome group to put down new flooring in the living room and bathroom, as well as put in a brand-new toilet to keep the P’s new flooring safe from water. The P’s were so appreciative to work with the groups, and as we capped off the project finishing the trim, they came up and gave us baseball cards and a few stuffed animals which left the group with the biggest collective smile I have ever seen.
The biggest project I worked on this summer was rebuilding a huge roof, putting in cabinets, and replacing floors in a bathroom and laundry room for a legendary Mountain T.O.P. family, Mr. and Mrs. M. This project also started our week three and was eventually completed by summer staff. The logs for the original part of their home were cut in 1830, and it has sat in the same spot atop the mountain since 1853. The amazement that was shown through 15-year-olds’ faces when I told them they were standing on 200-year-old lumber was so funny each week I was out working on Mr. and Mrs. M’s home. We started with a group taking off the old tin and shingles that rested beneath and uncovered many holes on both sides of the roof, including a massive structural integrity issue that took up about half of their front porch that spans the entire width of the house. That first week, we also got all waterproof underlayment down to make sure Mr. and Mrs. M stayed dry throughout this rainy summer here in Tennessee. My second week out on site, we put all the tin sheets up on the roof of the house, started in the laundry room and bathroom repairing floors, and built the final cabinets to install in their kitchen. Our third week out working with Mr. and Mrs. M, we finished up trim on the roof of the house, installed the final cabinets, and continued flooring. Our final week, I went out with a group of awesome summer staffers to repair the structure of the porch roof and install the tin over the porch as well. This was so fun to be out with people I have been working with all summer and have a good time helping roof a porch that thousands upon thousands of Mountain T.O.P. campers and staffers have sat under. Throughout the four weeks I worked with Mr. and Mrs. M, I have developed a strong friendship with them, and I am so glad I was able to get close with them, hear their stories, and receive a few pieces of handmade pottery along the way. It was so special to have the opportunity to work on a home that virtually everyone who has been to Mountain T.O.P. has either been to or heard of, and through the late nights worrying about what I was going to find next under the shingles, or the early morning trips to Greeter Lumber to grab materials to continue the project, I am so glad that I am able to say I helped Mr. and Mrs. M out.
Living and working on the mountain this summer has truly been so special to me. Being able to form friendships and work with the homeowners of the Lord’s mountain is something I will look back on for the rest of my life. I love Grundy County so much, and the experiences I have had here and the people that I have met here have molded me more than any other place I have ever been to. In 2024, Grundy’s classification by the State of Tennessee will be improved to “At-Risk”, and if that doesn’t exemplify the amazing work ethic of the people who call this beautiful county home, I’m not sure what does. The people of Grundy County have once again shown me what true happiness and pride is, and I am so glad I was able to learn from them again this summer. I am truly grateful for this internship with Mountain T.O.P., and as the summer winds down with camp closing, late nights watching movies and laughing with friends we won’t see for a while, and a closing circle full of love and one last Mountain T.O.P. Song, I can’t help but be reminiscent of the past few months I have spent in Grundy working with Mountain T.O.P. staff members, campers, and homeowners and all the good that has been done here this summer. I can’t reiterate enough how thankful I am for this place and how much I have grown because of Mountain T.O.P., and I am so glad I was able to fish for people up on the mountain once again.