April 12 - Building Walls, Hanging Ducts and Clearing the Yard

More Walls Rising -
The interior space is being divided with partition walls giving each area its appropriate space allotment. The front corners of the sanctuary will each own its own room. Andy, Bob and Steve were the designated wall builders on Saturday.

Andy on the left, and Bob on the right rose to the occasion. While Andy climbed the stairs, Bob rode the elevator. The scissor lift looked like so much fun I asked the operator if he allowed sight seers. He did and so I got a few pictures from the high spot of my day.

 Sam is in the doorway at the far end of the room.

Andy and Steve are making long boards into short ones in the carpentry shop.



Andy pauses to use his newly built wall segment for an arm rest. Unfortunately a tall ladder is required to use this new feature so it will not be popular, especially with us older folks.

The space beyond Andy is being made into a room which will hold organ speakers.


























By the end of the day, the room, shown here over Andy's head,  was nearing completion with floor joists in place.

I was not the only sight gawker to ride the lift for sight seeing purposes. Bob's daughters Gwen and Sasha accompanied Bob in order to inspect Dad's high level work. They did not mention any substandard workmanship.








A Carpenter Becomes a Ductor -
Sam demonstrated his versatility by spending the day as a ductor, cutting lengths, cutting openings, adding arms and legs to the main trunk, then hanging the assembly from the ceiling.

Pete joined in the fun. Here he shows the finished product from the hanger strap fabrication department. It seems that the long hanger straps had all been either put to use or converted to short straps. Pete made a long strap from two short ones.

He then attached it to the ceiling ....

Pete and Sam combined their energies and got the entire assembly to defy gravity. Another successful operation by the ductor.

Cutting sheet metal ducts with either a saw or snips leaves burrs and sharp, protruding ragged edges. Here Pete uses a portable grinder to make sparks and smooth the edge of the duct.

After it is all nice and smooth, he and Sam collaborate to add a reducer. Pete's son Gabe inspects the operation to make sure the quality of the workmanship is satisfactory.
















Meanwhile on the Outside ...
The landscaping folks are expected soon to begin grading for the parking lot. That means that all the scrap lumber must be converted to ash and the two containers that have served as construction sheds must be removed from the site.

The scrap lumber conversion went on as scheduled. With the recent, and current, rains there is no risk of a grass fire so burning progressed through the day. Youngsters eagerly hauled the fuel and fed the flames.

Moving the containers, however, was more interesting. The smaller, green container was dispatched rather easily. Here it is shown being secured to the mobile fork lift with chains.

The trusty forklift then dragged it away. The container demonstrated a fair amount of resistance, but as the track shows, the fork lift prevailed.


The larger, blue box in the background proved to be a more stubborn competitor.

 First the forklift nudges it sideways so the big tractor can get a straight line pull on it.

The tractor pulls mightily but only digs furrows with the 
drive wheels. 

Like the ductors inside, the two machines join forces, with the tractor pulling and the forklift pushing, but still to no avail. The big blue box won't budge.

A new approach. Forklift chained to the box, tractor chained to forklift. Now, operators, add the fuel and let the combined forces move the beastly, blue box. 

Try as they might, the box held fast. It seems that all there is to show for the effort is some overturned soil. One of the guys asked if this is the place where the holding pond goes, so that this might be a good start on the excavation. 

As of this moment, the container is winning. Maybe we need to name the container, Babe the Blue Box and call in Paul Bunyon to move it for us. Stay tuned to see the how this stalemate is resolved. 

April 8 - Cleanup Outside, Walls and Pew Evaluation Inside

Cleanup Outside - 
Sam announced at the crew-chief's meeting this week that with the mild weather and likely nearby lifting of the road restrictions, the excavators may arrive week after next and begin the outside landscraping and landscaping work. That sounds like another major, visible step forward. Of course it also means that the winter's accumulation of scrap material and other debris must be cleaned up. Further, the container that was used as a tool shed must now depart the premises.

Some of the younger workers built recreational-sized fires to make scrap lumber disappear. A watchful attendant sprays the dry grass to make sure the fires can't attack dry grass on a windy day.
Naturally the dumpster fills rapidly with many hands finding miscellaneous junk accumulated through the winter.

Sam employs the trusty mobile fork lift as a size large trash compactor. The operation reminded me of an elephant I once saw in a zoo, thrusting its trunk out and rearing up on its back legs. The device seemed to do a reasonably competent job of trash smashing as the heap on top sunk down visibly.









Dirt piles have a magical, magnetic draw for children. After a morning of picking up trash, the workers assembled on the dirt piles behind the building.

I noticed Kevin's car parked outside the church earlier in the week. It appears to have had an unfortunate encounter with some solid object. What caught my attention was the repair job on the cut. I saw a similarity with the sewing job on one of my sons many years ago. It seems his forehead met a rapidly moving golf club and required a stitch job.

Building Interior Walls Over a  Polished Floor - 

Before this week, I had not seen the project for about six weeks. Marilee and I headed south to avoid the winter that apparently did not show up. Two days after I left, the concrete floor was poured and then polished. This photo shows a patch of the finished, polished floor adjacent to an unfinished section. It looks pretty good to me. It is much easier to walk about inside now than it was when I was here earlier.
And walls have sprouted up here ant there around the interior.

 

Eric and Kevin are collaborating on wall building with metal studs. I am impressed. They use a level.

Then some folks come along and trim the metal openings with good old fashioned wood.

Eric installs a wood framing piece while Mark and Spencer check on the quality of the work.
This interior work is necessary and important. It, however, lacks the showiness, drama and panache of say, swinging trusses into place over foam walls. By contrast, this interior work looks slow. and without much flare. Still, to have a completed church, all the work must be done. So, showy or not, let us forge onward.

The newly framed in kitchen has its first food service event on Saturday. Allison brought pizza for lunch and it was served in the kitchen

Seating for the meal remains a bit sketchy, however.











Other Signs of Progress - 
A couple of rooms are actually getting their finishing touches.

Brent is hanging plywood paneling in this room near the front entry. The plywood is the finished wall surface. For the near future the room will be the new tool crib, now that the container in the yard must leave. The tools that were in the container will temporarily housed here.

And back in the mechanical room on the back wall of the building, Spencer is painting the walls. It does not get much more finished that this.

Pews - 

Sam returned from his Finland trip with measurements from the pews in the Oulu RY. A prototype was built and is now being tested.














 Volunteers lined to test the concept pew.
Eric found it relaxing.

 Phil makes it look comfortable.

Mark and Eric peer off in wonderment.

Brent studies the matter rather seriously.

All the while Sam records the results and makes modifications

One suggestion, apparently, was for a smoother surface so Jacob (do I have the name right?) sands off the rough spots.















Several iterations have already been user tested. No doubt there will be still more to come.

April 1 - Interior Walls

This chronicler wasn't able to make it to the church site until nearly quitting time on Saturday this week.  So - it was quite a surprise to see so many interior walls already in place, almost like they grew there overnight.  Remember the how the floor was so faithfully watered?  I wonder... 

When you walk in the front entrance, you see the familiar fire wall that makes up the back wall of the sanctuary on the right.  On the left is the new wall separating the narthex from the cafeteria.

At the far end of the narthex, the mother's room is on the right.

Inside the mother's room, looking into the sanctuary.

A view from the women's restroom.  The plumbing on the floor will be inside the future wall that separates the women's room (on the left) from the men's room (where the ladders are).  In the back is a doorway from the men's room to a mechanical room.

 Looking into the utility room off the SE corner of the cafeteria.

Looking into the coat room from the narthex, with the utility room in the back.

Inside the office / service director's room, looking into the sanctuary.

Just inside the exterior kitchen door.  On the left is a small bathroom, on the right is the pantry.

From the same location as the picture above, here's the reason why the ducts were installed before the interior walls -- the walls were framed around the ducts.

Looking toward the sanctuary from the kitchen.

It wasn't all interior work this week.  Some stoops outside were formed up for concrete; this one is the south exterior door leading to the sanctuary.

A reliable source has informed this blog that the original, official Chronicler will be returning for the next blog entry, refreshed and perky, from his southern vacation.  Welcome home!