ELGIN — As layers of paint came off the windows at 467 Division St., details on the historic home that had been hidden for decades stood out once again.
Those layers of paint over the home's window sills and doorways was no challenge for the Elgin-based Chicago Bandits softball teammates volunteering with the Northern Fox Valley Habitat for Humanity to restore the home this week.
Bandits left fielder Nicole Trimboli and two of her teammates were working to get the picture window frame stripped back down to the bare wood using paint stripper, a sander and plenty of elbow grease.
They were the second wave of volunteers from the team to tackle the 1890s home this week, working on the window and door frames to get the house ready for its new owners.
Their volunteer work started with a conversation at the Swizzle Inn last summer, said Trimboli, when a lady from Habitat overheard them talking about upcoming community service projects. "We do some community service stuff, like blood drives and at the (Gail Borden Public) library, but we had never done anything as a team for community service," Trimboli said.
For most of the women on the team, home restoration work was a new experience. Stacy May, however, had some idea of what the team was getting into. She and her husband had lived in a Louisville, Ky., home for two years while they flipped the house for resale.
"It isn't exactly what I did, because that house wasn't really historic," May said. But she found stripping the old paint off the woodwork a good learning experience. "I really enjoy it. I have always wanted to have a place with a few projects, and it sounded like a lot of fun to me."
The team had just come off of a seven-game stint. "It is nice to do something different," with their day off, Trimboli said.
Some from the team didn't know what they were getting into, however. Tim Miller, an intern with the team's community relations department, thought he'd come video tape the team working for a promotional piece. He was asked to get to work, too.
"I handed in the movie camera for a hard hat," Miller said.
Other team members, tested paint samples on the home's restored wooden siding.
Although just a one-day project for the Bandits, teammate Ashley Carlson said she hopes the team can volunteer for Habitat for Humanity in the future. "It would be cool to do when we are in town. And it would be cool to come back and see how the house has changed in three months."
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