December 3 - All Things Are Looking Up

Upstairs Private Quarters - 
I saw a ladder leading up through the opening in the drywall in what will be the kitchen. Overcoming my ladder-phobia, I climbed the rungs. At the top I found Sam hanging drywall in the private quarters nestled in among the trusses. This room and one other are destined to house furnaces I am told. I still wonder if Brent has designs on making these rooms his private offices, but that is yet to be seen.
Once up there, Sam offered to take me on the catwalk to the other office. I accepted the offer. I must admit that it is a nice catwalk, as much as I am able to judge catwalks. For an old guy with a teetering gait the board is a bit narrow. I was also impressed with the already installed lights. A very nice touch.
At the far end of the walk a left turn reveals this view, showing the steps down to the door to the other sky room.

 Sam can be seen on the left at the end of this walkway. The opening in the drywall is visible (the white square cornered thing off to the right of the walk).











There is an opening at the base of the wall overlooking the narthex area that will eventually be used for ducts distributing heated air from the furnaces into other parts of the building. Sam and I both dropped to our bellies to check out the view. Tim was cutting strips of plywood which will be used for attaching siding to the exterior. Sarge Sam saw our smiling faces peering through the hole and with his best boss-like voice questioned our activity. We decided that it was time to retreat down the catwalk to the other office.


Hanging the Sanctuary Ceiling - 
The flat ceiling over the kitchen and narthex areas will later be covered with a drop ceiling so the drywall there need not be perfectly flat. That is, there is some tolerance for less than picture perfect installation. The drywall on the sanctuary ceiling, however, will only be painted, so it is essentially the exposed surface. The bosses think it important that this surface then be flat and smooth, and not a wavy surface. The trusses therefore had to be either shimmed or trimmed if a given truss was out of tolerance. In addition, straight edge boards were temporarily installed along a chalk line to assure perfect alignment of the sheets when they were hung. This seems a little fussy to me. I suggested letting the waves break where they will and paint an ocean-view mural to make them feel at home, but my suggestion was not accepted.

So, Saturday morning was spent trimming and shimming the bottom surfaces of the south side sanctuary trusses. After lunch the drywall installation commenced.
Mark and Sam set the first panel, squared with the trusses and the straight edge board.

This picture shows Brian and Sam on the lift hanging the straight edge boards and the drywall hangers trusting their lives to the basket on the mobile fork lift.
The basket was first fitted with a plywood floor so the drywall holding device could move freely in the basket which meant that there was more tolerance in positioning the fork lift.

Long, lanky Sam folds up while eyeballing the chalk line and positioning the straight edge. Brian, who is less vertically gifted than Sam, stretches while holding the board in place. After the first row of drywall is in place the board is removed, having fulfilled its purpose.

The ingenious drywall sheet holder can flop its bed in most any position. Once the sheet is near the proper position, Troy, the operator in the center cranks the bed up, snugging the sheet against the trusses. The device holds the sheet while Paul and Mark drive the screws in, securing the panel in its permanent home. It was fun to watch them working so efficiently up in the stratosphere. Think about it - two screwy guys and one crank - rocking the ceiling.

While down on the terra firma, Sam supported by a couple of helpers marked the panel and loaded the basket when it came down for more material. Sam also demonstrated his skill with his wireless remote while his son Davin operated the tractor.







And on the Outside - 
While this interesting ceiling work was going on, folks outside were keeping other projects going. Eric and Brandon continued the process of installing the aluminum soffit covers and the fascia.

Once on the lift, they also got in a little sight seeing.

















Behind the building, archaeologists unearthed the porch footings so long ago poured and buried - way last August or so. After a crew dug down to the footings, the holes were expanded so foam panels could be set on top to prevent that nasty frost from getting under the concrete. A box, lined with foam to keep the concrete and rebar from getting too cold in the Minnesota winter, was placed on the foam. Cement dumped into the box finished getting the posts up to ground level. Now, it the urge strikes and the budget allows the porch will be added, possibly even this winter if my understanding is correct. Owen Keskey is in the hole while Jacob Byman, Patrick Keskey, Bob and a mostly hidden Levi threaten to cover him with dirt. Actually at this point they are filling the box and covering the foam panel.
Watching Levi cut the rebar was fun. He could not find the six foot long cheater bar used earlier to get good leverage on the cutter so he instead used his gymnastic skills to operate the cutter. He said he was just heavy enough that with a good two footed leap he could make it work.