100 volunteers gave this guy's house a makeover

After overhearing teens mocking a weathered old house, a man in Oregon started rallying volunteers to help its owner. 

A few days later more than 100 volunteers turned up to give 75-year-old Leonard Bullock’s place a home makeover.

Railroad track engineer Josh Cyganik walks past Leonard Bullock’s house every day and waves to him but in July he overheard two teenage boys say ‘look at this crappy house, they just need to burn it down’.

Cyganik says that hearing the nasty comment and seeing Bullock hang his head afterwards, made him want to take action.

“I was brought up to treat people with respect, respect your elders,” Cyganik told BuzzFeed News. “He didn’t deserve that. I had to do something.”

He spoke to a local store which  agreed to donate paint.

Then Cyganik asked for volunteers to help with painting in a Facebook post that, to his amazement, was shared more than 6500 times.

Once the surprise was organised Cyganik had to ask Bullock if he was OK with it going ahead, marking the first conversation the two had ever had.

Before

“I couldn’t believe the turnout,” Cyganik told today.com. “I stopped counting at 95 because I couldn’t keep up, but it ended up being well over that.”

People had travelled from Texas, Washington and California to help with the painting and the building of a new porch and those who couldn’t make it donated food, water and money to the project.

“I know that will probably be the last coat of paint he sees on the house, so for me to give him that and to be able to see him on the porch smiling with a beautiful backdrop made it all worth it,” Cyganik said.

The two men reportedly still wave to each other and have regular chats.