It was a dash to the finish, but by Labor Day's midafternoon a squad of volunteers had given some of the Durham Rescue Mission's residents a new place to call home.

At least it looked new.

"I think it's great," resident Roberta Ray said, earlier in the process, while about 25 people from as nearby as Durham and as far off as Florida cleared, cleaned, painted, laid carpet, put things back together and gave out a little pampering along the way.

"I'm excited about having a curtain," Ray said.

The volunteers spent their holiday weekend remodeling the second floor at the Good Samaritan Inn -- the former seedy motel near I-85 that the Rescue Mission has turned into a home for otherwise-homeless women, children and families.

"That's a huge project," said Inn director Lois Cooper. "For a weekend."

The Good Samaritan Inn's extreme makeover was part of a class at the Legacy Center, a leadership-training firm in Morrisville. The assignment was to perform a public-service project within particular limitations. As described at the center's Web site (www.thelegacycenter.com):

* Create an extraordinary project that leaves a tangible legacy.

* You cannot use any of your own money.

* Community members perform over 75 percent of the work.

* Take less than six weeks from inception to completion.

* Take no longer than three days for actual physical work.

"The point is to create something amazing from nothing," said Netta Cohen, who took a Legacy Center course eight years ago and still volunteers on its projects.

The makeover involved moving furniture out of 17 rooms and into the hallway, repainting, ripping out the old carpet and putting down the new, moving furniture back into place, adding homey touches like curtains, pillows and fluffy towels.

While some of the 10-member "leadership team" of students were doing manual labor, others were on the phones and on the town asking for money, material and helping hands to get the job done. Cohen, from Raleigh, said the job would cost between $40,000 and $50,000.

"It's all their doing," said Cooper, the Inn director. "All we did was move the ladies out. They've taken over and just done an awesome job. ...

"They're the ones that found the volunteers, they're the ones that found the donors. ... It's a blessing."

While the work went on, the occupants of those 17 rooms were getting a vacation of sorts -- living in a plusher section of the inn where they had private rooms and televisions.

One wing of the second floor is reserved for women recently moved into the Good Samaritan, "getting a couple of things straightened out," Cooper said. "Some of them need two or three months to settle in."

The other wing, called "Victory Hall," is for those enrolled in the Rescue Mission's year-long program of work, Bible study, counseling and training to get and keep jobs in the outside world.

"This is very nice," said Kimberly Boyd, who moved into the inn three weeks ago from Plymouth, N.C., with her daughters Amanda, 8; Ashanti, 2; and Amaya, three months.

"I needed to learn the Bible," Boyd said. "I want my kids to see that their mother is really doing good and better, and I can really do stuff on my own, with the Lord."

Ray, from Burlington, said she came to the inn after losing her home and having nowhere else to go. It's been a hard adjustment, she said.

"There are a lot of rules," she said. "I don't like being told what to do." But she said that she intends to stay long enough to "get something under my belt that can help" get a job. Meanwhile, she said, "I'm really getting back in touch with the spiritual side of my life. ... That's a plus."

Boyd and Ray were both pleased with the remodeling going on. While the old motel got a cleaning and freshening before the Rescue Mission occupied it in 2005, the wear and tear were obvious, Ray said.

Even so, in many cases, rooms at the Inn were a big improvement, Cooper said.

"Most of them come from battered, abused, really nothing. ... Sleeping in cars, they're -- some of the single women -- sleeping under bridges, sleeping in parks," she said. "I think they find hope here. ... They have somewhere to lay their head and they're safe."

Those working on the project said they were getting their own rewards out of it.

"I had no idea I would be doing this four months ago," said Nick Seligman, an Appalachian State University sophomore. "It's been a complete eye-opening."

Andrew MacRae said he came down for the weekend from Washington.

"It's a good thing to do on the weekends," he said. "We started off very organized, and now we're just busy getting everything done and running around."

By midday Monday, volunteer Nedda Cohen said she still felt she was "in the eye of the storm," but the crew was down to finishing touches like buying new shower curtains.

It was just what the women and children who live at the inn could use, said Cooper.

"Some of them, there really is no one to love them," she said. "Somebody needs to embrace these women and children. [With the makeover] the ladies all just have ... a new beginning."