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October 2 - Meetings, Grading and Pews

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Another Status Meeting in the Church - A week ago Sunday the second status update meeting was held at the church. While there were some assembled pews, they were all in the sanctuary, and not in the dining hall where the meeting convened. So, everyone that wanted to sit had to bring their own chair. In the picture, Bob is standing but not because he failed to bring a chair. He wanted attention so he stood up in the front to give his status update. After Sam reported on the finances discussion ensued about whether or not to increase our self imposed debt ceiling. While the church could be 'completed' without the increase, some desired items like an epoxy sealed kitchen floor would have to be deferred. The congregation agreed to up the debt limit. Sam stated that the bank is fine with the new debt ceiling. Sam also said the projection stand in the picture is only temporary. With the current projected spending, we will still not have a completed kitchen so the eagle-eyed shoppers ...
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February 11 - Prepping the Floor

Aiming for the Big Pour -
It seems like once The Blue Duct was safely interred and the dirt leveled, the next step should be to pour the concrete. But not so. First  the dirt needs poly covering followed by two inch think foam pads.







Then some nuisance things like locating outlets that will be in the floor must be attended. Sam and TIm decide where the junction box needs to reside. Once the location is finalized, it must be fed by conduits which are cut into the foam pads.


Then orange heat tubing is stapled to the foam pads. We need to keep The Blue Duct comfortable in the winter. Brian lays out the tubing while Pete secures the tubing to the foam with staples. Adrian follows behind with more staples to make sure the orange tubing can not escape or change its location.
Pete and Brian finish locking the tubing sections into the manifold. The larger white tubes in front are the hot water supply tubes that will carry hot water from and back to the boiler.













Then with the sanctuary decorated with festive orange overlaying a baby blue foam pads, I am thinking that it now must be time to bring on the concrete. Again, not so.












Remember the size large concrete footings keeping the laminated posts up and the roof down? They need to be covered with a woven rebar mat that extends well beyond the footing perimeter. The poured floor will then add still more weight to the roof-holding-down capability of the footings.




Now we are nearly ready to add the concrete. Just one more detail. We need to add some wire fencing to hold the concrete together. Dan and Kevin roll out the fencing.


The picture below shows Pete getting into the act also.When their work was done, they had made a mesh of the sanctuary.














Randy takes care of one final detail in prepping for the concrete pour which is scheduled for Friday. A form with a foam barrier is set in the big doorway. Now, if the weather is favorable, the special edition Friday crew will work with the concrete contractor to pour the floor. One more significant milestone in the project.


Milestone on the Outside -
With all the emphasis on the floor prep inside, the mild winter weather allowed for significant progress on the outside of the building. A milestone of sorts was achieved Saturday when the first piece of actually, factually siding was nailed in place. Tom and Ben are shown building the outside corner for the siding. Once the corner is in place, the first piece of lap siding is hung. There are about 8,250 square feet of wall to be covered. Each board of lap siding will cover about 9.3 square feet. So, one board down and 884 to go. The purists will complain that not all of the wall surface will be covered with lap siding since the front and back bump-outs will have sheet goods applied, but this is a detail. I am sticking with 884 to go.



















Bob, on an earlier, colder day, was hanging trim on the windows. By Saturday I think all the window trim was in place.
















 Bob had his boys secured in the lift bucket. I thought at first that he was using the bucket to keep the boys under control, but it turns out that they were helping him measure and record measurements for trimming the various openings for vents and the like.



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