“Paint the Town,” a communitywide effort to repaint and refurbish 15 houses in LaGrange, ends this weekend, but volunteers are likely to keep working on their houses for another week or more.

Rain delayed a good start for teams earlier this week, and some houses have been especially challenging.

“We will probably be back Monday,” said Charles Milligan, a volunteer with First Baptist Church on Fannin Street.

He and a group of others were busy scraping the paint off a Daniel Street house Friday morning.

Steve Merna, a commercial paint contractor, has volunteered his services for two years on the more “difficult houses,” helping volunteers with issues that come up volunteer painters aren’t used to.

“I just guide them and show them direction,” he said.

Merna is helping with a large Juniper Street house where paint already was flaking badly. The crew finally was ready to prime and paint on Friday afternoon.

Laura Breyfogle, Paint the Town coordinator, says her concern every year is that some groups will start the work during the project week and not finish it. Milligan says there’s no chance of that.

“We’ve invested too much time here. There’s no way we’re leaving it now,” he said.

Homeowner Ida McCamey, who will be 65 next month, is just grateful for the help.

“I’m just not able to do it myself,” said McCamey, who has lived in the house for 25 years. “I just thank God and everyone who has been a part of this, it’s like God sent you all.”

Jennifer Shrader can be reached at jshrader@lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.