Dozens of volunteers descended Saturday on a house on Graham Street in East Liberty like bees building a hive.
They rebuilt a brick back porch that was ready to collapse. They plastered and repainted walls and helped make the house safe for its owners, 91-year-old Helen Brownlee and her 70-year-old son, William Boyd, Jr.
"I'm very appreciative," Boyd said. "The amount of time it would take for me to do this myself and the amount of funds it would take is mind boggling."
His house was one of 31 rebuilt yesterday by more than 1,000 volunteers from Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh, the local affiliate of a national nonprofit group that nationwide provided repairs to 10,000 homes yesterday.
The Pittsburgh chapter provided $500,000 worth of free repair services yesterday from volunteers and sponsors. From 30 to 40 percent of the volunteers are in the building trades.
The project targets the homes of elderly and low-income people.
"They don't have any maintenance money," said volunteer Luanne Caskey, 49, of Harrison City in Westmoreland County.
For every dollar that a sponsor gives, the organization receives $3.50 in donated services from volunteers, said Cindy Gilch, executive director of the local affiliate. Occupational therapists conduct assessments to determine how to make the homes safer.
"It speaks volumes about individuals in the Pittsburgh area that even when resources are very tough and tight, we still have volunteers that will drive all over the county and use a tank of gas to make this work," she said.
Reed Smith, a Downtown law firm, sponsored Brownlee's and Boyd's home.
Ann Cahouet, sponsor captain and director of community support at the firm, said this work appeals to lawyers, who may wait as long as a decade for one lawsuit to be resolved.
"We can come to a home and work very hard for one day and leave at the end of the day seeing what we accomplished," she said. "Every time we do this, we see the homeowners whose faces light up."
House captain Joe Roche, 28, of Carrick, led a tour of the Graham Street house. Volunteers and the owners' family helped remove 50 years of clutter, including every television set, radio, refrigerator and washer and dryer Brownlee ever owned.
"You couldn't even walk in the basement," Roche said. "There was a 6-inch space to walk from the steps to the washer and dryer."
Uptown, a team of volunteers were working on a 98-year-old row house owned by Tony Ufolla, 70. They removed five layers of linoleum and newspaper from the kitchen floor.
Ufolla lives on Social Security and a small pension. He said he cannot afford the repairs himself.
"After I pay the bills," he said, "I don't have any money left."
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