Thursday, August 30

Jerusalem has the Wailing Wall where people of many faiths go to pray or leave small written messages with prayers on them.








Not to be outdone, as of last Sunday, we now have the Celebration & Memory Wall!!!




















All morning, people of all ages came to see the lower level of the new building and to leave a message on the concrete wall. This wall will be in a storage area and willl not be covered with sheetrock. Those who are young now hopefully will be here in the years ahead as they grow older and will take their children down to see their writtings. It was just one part of a great Rally Day!



And in the process, we just may have recruited a future architect, engineer or contractor!

Our thanks to the Allen Organ Company for keeping us up to date on the progress of our new organ!

 

On the upper level, the front portion of the balcony seating risers is being formed, and the balcony is being prepped for a concrete pour next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "crown" of the roof is being covered more and more with sheathing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The middle level  (worship area and lobby commons) is very busy right now. Vertical studs are going up everywhere defining walls as rooms take shape. Structural, plumbing, electrical and HVAC crews are bringing materials in daily, and the space is a beehive of activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This may be merely symbolic, but this guy is installing and framing in the main door leading to the worship space. Through this door, worshippers, wedding parties, baptisms, funerals, confirmands...........

 

 

Well, it's symbolically special to some of us!

 

 

 

 

 

 

WATCH YOUR STEP THROUGH HERE! Beneath you, beside you, above you!!!

 

Exciting stuff on all levels! On the lower level, the grand staircases are starting to shape up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in the youth assembly room in the lower level, the forms for the concrete pour to create the raised stage are being installed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you excited yet????? Did you realize that we are 7 months completed in a project estimated to take 15 months????



Thursday, August 23

It is good to pause and give thanks and celebrate. So last Friday, August 17, Edifice Construction sponsored lunch for the construction workers and church staff and leaders. The setting was the new worship space. And a good time was had by all!!! Many thanks, Edifice!

A couple of new things......

.......Bricks!

........Heating and air conditioning equipment.


What is peeking out from under the black plastic tarp is HVAC ductwork.

........And the boxes hanging from the ceiling with blue plastic on them are parts of the heating and air conditioning system.

This is a little different look at the interior of the worship space. This photo was taken at night. No, those are not permanent lights! They are temporary construction lights in the ceiling.

Work has being going on for several weeks in preparation to pouring the concrete floors in the lower level. A portion of the floor has been poured, but rain keeps disrupting the process. If luck holds out, however, this Saturday, August 25, a major concrete pour will happen, and a portion of the floor from the back wall to the front of the building will be poured. Just in time for Rally Day!

This photo was take on top of the roof looking through the skylight opening into the main first floor lobby. The areas covered in white have been prepared for the concrete pour for the floor.

Hopefully you have heard that the ceiling in the worship space will be wood. The panels in this picture are samples of the color and style of the wood ceiling.

















Work continued on the edges of the roof  over the lobby.

 

 

 

Thursday, August 16

Remember the groundbreaking way back in the middle of January? One of the pieces of that event was the presentation of many, many seashells from the children's Sunday school classes. These shells were part of a discussion in Sunday school about baptism, and a shell is a symbol of baptism. The kids decorated the shells, and the shells were brought to the outside worship service. The shells have been in safe storage until now, and they have been brought out for a very special purpose.

This week, workers began pouring the concrete floors on the lower level. The first section is directly under the chancel of the worship space. So directly under the area where the altar table will sit as indicated by the cross in the diagram below, a special container was buried before the concrete was poured.


















The children's shells, a small chalice and a large Bible were placed in a container, and the container was sealed.

The purpose of this exercise was to ensure that our new worship space was seated symbolically upon Word and Sacrament. The Bible is the Word, and the chalice represents communion and the shells represent baptism.

When the concrete has dried, the staff will gather to say a prayer of blessing over this spot. 

And now back to more secular things! Some of the lower level is still drying out from the recent rains, so more of the concrete floors in the lower level may have to wait until next week.

 

You saw the stairs in the worship space going up to the balcony last week. The handrails are now in place. They are not ready for use quite yet; the concrete still has to be poured to fill in the stair treads.

 

The upper level of the balcony has taken more shape and form this week. The upper level has three rows of pews. The lower level has two rows, but work on the lower level has not started yet.

 

On the roof deck, sheet metal decking, spacers and wood subsurface panels are filling in over the aluminum trusswork around the outer edges of the roof over the main lobby.

And even higher up, insulation panels and wood support panels are filling in over the framework of the steeple base.

You know the water meter box near the street at the front of your property? The one for our new building is just a little bigger than yours!

A visitor to our church told a cute story this week. He explained to his granddaughter that a new building in the South Park area was getting blue insulation panels installed, and that was the building's underwear. This was in reponse to the granddaughter's question about what was going on at the South Park building under construction. The gentlemen lives near our church, and as he was driving up Providence Road this week with his granddaughter, she exclaimed loudly as they went past our new building, "Look, Grandpa, that's building is getting new underwear also!"

So the our building continues to get new "underwear"!



August 9, 2012

Well, we do need the rain, but.....


The rains during the past week have been a nuisance but have not hindered critical operations on the constructon site.

We received pictures late last week from the Allen Organ factory in Pennsylvania showing pictures of our "baby". Their work is progressing along very well.

















Work continues on filling in spaces with vertical aluminum studs all around the building. On the exterior, more and more of the surface is being covered with the blue insulation panels. Bricks are not that far off in the schedule!

And speaking of bricks, some of our brick disappeared! On the end of the Ministry Center building upstairs and downstairs, the bricks have been removed as work begins to tie the two buildings together.











In the lower level, gravel is going down over the dirt. IF the rain will hold off long enough, the schedule calls for a concrete pour next week to form the floors.



The risers for the rows of seats are being formed in the balcony.

HINT, HINT, HINT!  Do these suggest anything???

The exciting answer to the hint is STAIRS! Yes, we are in the process of installing stairs to the balcony. One side is well in process, and the materials are sitting on the other side awaiting installation. A week from now both stairs should be in place but not fully usable until the concrete is poured in the stair treads.

  The workers are busy on that high scaffolding around the steeple base installing vertical studs in preparaton for installation of the "skin" around the steeple base.



 An audio/visual/lighting control console will be in the front middle of the balcony. And if  you don't think that we are not going to be high tech, just look at the number of conduits wrapping around the front edge of the balcony. These conduits will carry wiring to all sections of the worship space to control lights, sound, projectors and window blinds.

Work is busy all over the site!