In the parking lot beside his home on Fifth Avenue, Uptown, yesterday, Logan Ramey Jr. sat in a canvas chair with a cup holder in the armrest. Stuff from his basement filled three Dumpsters, one against the wall of his home, which was a grocery store more than 47 years ago, its sign still intact.

It's the home he and his wife Dorothy have shared for 47 years, and yesterday was the first transformation in their tenure. "It's going to be a new house when they get finished," he said. His eyes practically twinkled. "New inside, old outside."

Old is Rebuilding Together's milieu -- old people in old houses, an epidemic combination in Pittsburgh. Every last Saturday in April, Rebuilding Together's 200 affiliates nationwide assemble volunteers for a day-long home improvement blitz for elderly owners of homes they live in. Residents qualify if they take in less than $1,300 a month and are up to date on tax and utility payments, said Cindy Gilch, executive director of Rebuilding Together Pittsburgh.

"Every year we get over 400 applications [for 30 slots] and deliver one-half million dollars worth of free repairs, renovations and modifications," she said. "We do anything from the roof to the foundations. We're not like 'Extreme Home Makeover', but the second best thing."

Some people's homes are too-far gone to approve for service, she said. "Every year, we discover senior citizens who do not have heat or hot water. One home owner in Uptown didn't have a furnace for 25 years, just little space heaters and she's confined to a wheelchair. Another woman in Polish Hill hasn't had hot water for years because she can't afford it."

In Allegheny County, 1,000 volunteers fixed leaking roofs, installed shower stalls, washers, dryers, toilets, ceiling fans, windows and doors, tore off layers of wallpaper, painted, replaced insulation, laid flooring and carpet and put grab bars and other supports for the handicapped in bathrooms.

The most home repairs in any one place were six in Polish Hill and four in the part of the Hill the city calls the Bluff and some residents call Uptown.

Pittsburgh is the eighth largest affiliate and a model because of the number of union tradesmen who volunteer, said David Lyle, the house captain of a crew in Polish Hill. A 16-year volunteer, he's a union carpenter whose son is, too. They worked with seven other family members and significant others.

The event attracted several affiliated groups.

Luanne Caskey of Murraysville rounded up 18 congregants of her church, and Joy Cottrell of Monroeville brought seven people from her family. Both groups worked at Tony Ufolla's home on Jumonville Street, where his roof had been leaking badly and his only toilet was in the basement.

His parents bought the house when he was 9, in 1950, and he has lived there since.

"I just get a small pension and Social Security," he said. "Once I pay taxes and the gas bill, I am squeezed."

His house got an extreme makeover. Workers replaced a water-damaged ceiling, and the roof, gave him new windows, painted each room, installed new appliances, flooring, a ceiling fan and carpet.

The Rameys got a new kitchen floor, a new stove, a new furnace, updated wiring to support a new washer and dryer, plumbing upstairs and grab handles in the bathroom, "a little bit of everything," said Mr. Ramey, a retired employee of the city.

A little bit of everything had amassed in the basement, too.

"So much had collected that it was a fire hazard," said Kathy Slencak, a volunteer whose employer, Centimark, a Canonsburg roofing company, paid for the cost of remodeling the Rameys' house.

Terry Doloughty, president of the Polish Hill Civic Association, said residents filled seven sign-up sheets to receive donated house paint. Those whose homes weren't on the rebuilding list got paint and supplies if they had their own volunteers. "Lots of nieces, nephews and grandchildren here today," he said.

Margaret Geyer and Frank Wolota had a paint crew in the kitchen and a bedroom of their Pulawski Way cottage. Workers outside replaced an awning roof, installed new cellar doors, new windows and a new sidewalk.

"I found out about this when I went to sign up for a rent rebate at the civic association," said Ms. Geyer. "It was like a stroke of heaven."