Above: Jeff Cott visits with Joe Cofer of Chandler as work begins outside Joe's home Joe and his wife Janice Cofer of Chandler have a reason to be happy; they're the proud owners of a new wheelchair ramp to their home.

Work began Tuesday morning on the Cofer home on Edgar Street as Labor of Love volunteer workers arrived at the Cofer home with their building materials.

Jeff Cott, project manager for this particular project, had a team of four other workers on the job.

Cott said a lot of planning goes into the work for every task.

"We do a survey of potential projects," Cott said. "Once a month, someone goes and surveys 20 to 30 homes."

After the survey, project managers meet to discuss which homes to work on.

The wheelchair ramp isn't the only thing going up at the Cofer house. The five-man team's work load list also includes: A transfer seat for the shower, repairs for the floor in the hall, overlaying the damaged floor in the bath and replacing a pane in the northern window.

A work load like this can take a team around two days to complete, Cott said.

Below: Leroy Willhelm of Athens, Ray Barnes of Murchison and Mike Greenwood of Eustace get to work on the ramp. Nathan Straus photos Joe Cofer said he is happy for the work being done for him.

"It's real tough without the ramp," Cofer said.

Until recently, there had just been concrete steps leading to the house.

"It's definitely a benefit, " Joe added.

Janice Cofer said she heard about what Labor of Love could do for them when her aunt was at work and learned of the organization. She passed the information on to Janice

"The work is going to be a great help for us," Janice said.

Lobar of Love began in 1986 when the Athens Samaritans went to Amarillo to work on a house for Habitat for Humanity.

They returned excited about the prospect of having some type of group to help with housing for the disadvantaged.

With the focus of repairing existing homes instead of building new ones, they organized the Labor of Love.

All members of Labor of Love except for a part-time paid coordinator are volunteers.

The work comes at no cost to the recipients.