Volunteers turn out to help homeowner put things back together

Teruko Birdwell wore sneakers and work gloves Saturday, finally making some repairs to her Shoreline home.

The projects and clutter had overwhelmed her since 2001, when her husband moved out, leaving several unfinished home projects they had started together. For five years, exposed electrical wires have hung precariously at eye level in the basement. Holes in the wall made the house dusty, cold and unsafe for her young daughter, who was not home Saturday. In some places, walls were missing altogether. The bathroom leaked. The yard was overgrown with weeds and piled with trash.

"I wasn't going to do it by myself," she said. "I just wanted a little bit of help."

So working alongside her on Saturday were strangers — about 40 of them — clearing out her gardening shed, raking her yard, painting her kitchen, loading her trash into truck after truck. It was a volunteer project organized through Rebuilding Together Seattle, a nonprofit that arranges home repairs for low-income single parents, seniors and people with disabilities.

Three garbage trucks pulled away from the curb carrying yard waste; five moving trucks hauled off recyclable construction materials; one full garbage truck headed for the dump. In the cleared yard, Birdwell grinned, gasped, couldn't stop crying.

"This is a huge blessing to me," said the single mother of three. "I can't believe this house."

The project was one of three under way in the Seattle area Saturday as part of Rebuilding Together Seattle's fall workday. Birdwell's house was one of the biggest projects the group has taken on. For the past week, volunteer electricians, plumbers, contractors and drywallers were at the house getting it ready for Saturday's transformation.

In the past 14 years, Rebuilding Together Seattle has improved more than 500 homes and community centers. The group has worked on 34 in 2006 alone.

"I think it's personally rewarding for everyone here," said Trina Torkelson, the community outreach coordinator for the group that sponsored the project, Commercial Real Estate Women, or CREW.

Torkelson recruited CREW members and people from other companies to leave their own home projects behind for a weekend and come work on Birdwell's instead. Several brought their husbands. One brought her daughter's soccer team. Another brought her sister-in-law.

"You find a lot of people who have office jobs who are sponsors, and they come out and get their hands dirty, and they're so happy," said Jeanine Riordan, board president for Rebuilding Together Seattle.

Torkelson said CREW would like to return to Birdwell's house next year and help her paint the exterior, put in some landscaping, maybe have the roof replaced.

But Saturday was rewarding on its own. When the volunteers left, the yard was cleaned up. The kitchen and hallway were painted off-white with a green accent wall. Birdwell said she didn't recognize her own house.

"I cannot wait to see my daughter's face," she said.

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com