The Cedars House Gets a Colorful Make-Over
By Laura Feragen
The interior and exterior first floor of The Cedars House Café recently got a face lift, thanks to a team of skilled volunteers, some of whom were moonlighting from their usual FOW volunteer duties. Leading the revitalization project was FOW’s Structures Crew member and Trail Ambassador Jim Charnock, who owns The Handymen: We Measure Up and spent 21 years as a volunteer and crew leader with Habitat for Humanity. He was assisted by FOW Structures Crew members Fred Stevens (who traveled an hour and a half each way to help) and John Dixon, a retired bridge engineer, along with friend and retired professional house painter Don Estes, and Verland Wayns of the Wissahickon Environmental Center.
After about three-weeks and almost daily rain, the men had given the property a fresh coat of paint, Charnock also cleaned the unsightly algae growing on the building’s stucco, and he and Dixon reinstalled the rail on the handicapped entrance. The outdoor furniture continues to be sanded and polyurethaned for a fresh look. “The only thing we didn’t have to change is our relaxing atmosphere in the lap of nature,” said Jenny Tustin, Cedars House owner who gratefully fed and praised the team for their generous contributions and expert work.