CNSTRCTN Vol. VIII, # 5 Mostly Quiet on the Panda Front

Memories, like birds, fleeting--they must be grasped and held in heart's hands.

You may recall reading about the front loader coming to the old outside door of the new Collaborative Learning Center.  Here's what that looks like.  An alternative to taking out the trash?





Here's the faithful clean-up person about to finish the task of removing the wall between the president's office and the adjoining classroom.  You're also seeing the reflection of the wall across the hall because blogger had to take this photo through the new glass window into the new CLC area.  Another interesting photo appeared when said blogger tried to take a photo of the said clean-up person breaking down that wall a few weeks ago.  The effect is a double exposure--sort of dreamlike. Notice you can't make out the sledge hammer he was using, but you can see how much of the wall he had broken down by that time.
Looking at the far end of the outer CLC, reveals the windows of the area inside that you've been looking at.  Way inside that outer shell you may be able to see the doorway you've been reading about.  All this is said for the benefit of readers not too familiar with the original before the renovations began.  Blogger anticipates many totally surprised readers as they tour the new areas at the dedication.  So much for clarity     .

Moving east to the chapel site,  the workmen must be hibernating or
are at another site, so we've decided to show you some of the progress last made.  Looking closely at the first photo, you can sort of (maybe, perhaps) make out that the openings at the far end are two (actually three, but stuff is in the way) and that they go almost to the floor of the nascent chapel.  If you can at least
surmise what is meant, you now know where the three windows of the erstwhile chapel will be placed.  Blogger anticipates a wow effect.


And finally an interesting shot (sorry; you are subject to blogger's offbeat--her mother said) sense of "neat".  You're viewing the north wall
from the other end.






So that's it for this last lap of January.  The end of the week will bring the month of presidents and hearts, Ash Wednesday and Lent, and slightly curtailed duration.  A whirlwind month, if you will.  Hang on, and definitely hang on the the tales told here (please!).

CNSTRCTN Vol. VIII, #4 CLEARING THE WAY

Memories like birds, fleeting--they must be grasped and held in heart's hands.

  

So what we have here looks somewhat familiar to you now, doesn't it?  In the second photo, however, we see the workman drilling at the base of the door frame (enlarge the photo so you can see what he's doing).  In the third photo you are taking your last look at the wall between the principal's old office and the classroom next to it...

...because, voila,
 it's all down.  The man you see in the second photo went at it with a sledge hammer and did the deed.  This took him a few days because of all the things the wall was holding or supporting.  The rubble will be cleared when there is a front loader to remove it after it is carted to the outside door, probably by the same man.  He's the only workman blogger saw inside the building last week.  The front loader can still be brought to the outside door because there is still the large opening in the new north wall of the CRC extension.  Follow?

There was a little action in the chapel extension, but blogger wasn't able to photograph it.  If this coming week is nicer to construction workers than the last few weeks have been, we will probably see more action at the chapel end.

A slow week, to be sure, but that is to be expected occasionally.  There are great hopes for the next few months with regard to the extensions of both the CRC and the chapel.  We shall see if they are to be realized.  Stay tuned.

CNSTRCTN, Vol.VIII, #3 More Definition Enticing

Memories like birds, fleeting--one must grasp and hold in heart's hand.

All three photos this time will center of the new CLC since that's where the action has been.  The first gives a sweeping picture of what stage the center is in currently.  All the walls are gone except the one between the president's old office and the old classroom.  For those familiar with the old lavatory, you may remember that there was a door, kept locked, across from the last toilet.  That led into a very short passageway into the president's office (originally the snack lounge). The space was used for storage.  Notice on the left side of the first photo, the last remnant of that passageway.

 

The second photo shows most of the same area but from the foyer end.  Recognizable is the side door which is now within the new enclosed extension of the CLC.  Yes, the outside wall that you see must come down eventually.  The third photo shows the last wall to come down inside the building.  It is the one between the president's office and the class room.  It is the tan wall that you see toward the right in the second photo.  Enlarging that photo more will help you to see how the defunct lavatory with its tile walls,  and the president's office with painted walls figure into the future finished space.
The men have been working at this dismantling before and after classes this past week.  One morning the girls could see the man drilling just inside the new window that opens onto the foyer.  The one photo that blogger missed because she didn't have her iPad with her was one that would have shown a front loader right up against the current outside door.  This view was also through the foyer window into the CLC area.  Neat shot missed.

Ah, but there will be others captured.  Stay tuned.

CONSTCTN Vol. VIII, #2 Something Old, and Something New

  Here's what the cafeteria looked like when the plastic tarps were down and we were able to see the stripped floor, i.e. the concrete.  The line down the middle has been painted to match the rest of the concrete, and the floor will remain this way.  Perhaps not esthetic, but practical.  So that's the old.

Another big development on the first floor was the removal
of the plastic tarp in the foyer to reveal that end of the CLC.
More photos will follow as more and more moves are
completed and photographed.  Can you visualize the area in
this photo?






At the other end of the building, in the old library, the work continues in shoring up the ceiling for the next big move in that area.  In the first photo you can see a workman welding one of the several posts, all of which were up by the end of last week.  In the second photo you see how these posts have grasped the beams that support the fourth floor (fortuitous!).  The next shot gives an idea of how these posts are lifted and how the rest of the posts are in waiting for their turns.

   

Today, in the absence of students (no school because of weather predictions), the men were able to break down part of the wall between the old lavatory and the president's old office.  Noisy, as you can imagine, but the men were taking advantage of an opportunity.  No photo available yet, in hopes that your curiosity will draw you back to #3 of Vol. VIII.  We hope it does.

CNSTRCTN Vol. VIII #1, DESPITE THE COLD...

Memories, like birds, fleeting--they must be grasped and held in heart's hands.

Before the holidays the work on a few fronts went on with great urgency.  Work inside with less pressure from the cold, was the completion of the emptying out of the area for the Collaborative Learning Center (CLC) on the first floor right off the foyer.  Here's a look at the area in a some shots of the newest area created within the forenamed (if that's not confusing).
  Recall that what you are viewing was once the lavatory right inside the side door by the drink and candy machines, the utility cupboard, and one office just off the foyer.  More photos of this whole area will follow, of course.

We move outside now to the bone chilling job of installing the new driveway and parking lot LED lights.  Not exactly step-by-step procedure in these photographs, but blogger hopes you get some idea.  One of the first things for the workmen to do was, of course, disconnect wiring and remove some of the posts.  One of the next arduous tasks, especially in the cold, was the digging out of the old bases (lay-speak) of the old installations--about four ft. long--and then deepening the holes for the new bases, about eight ft. long.  You see them in the long photo on the back of a truck.   A photo of a hole-seemed appropriate in here somewhere.  Then you see the workmen in a sort of the fuzzy--photo (taken through a window, then cropped), installing a new pole.  In this photo you can see a few bases (blogger regrets the word, but doesn't know what else to call them.  Why didn't she ask?)  What she did learn, however, is that the wiring goes up through the drum and attached to the lamp post.  That makes sense.  With LEDs all over the place, we will be seen by a passing satellite.

 

                

Let's move inside.  It's cold out here.  One shot of a new development in the first floor hall outside of old room 112. The lockers have been removed and the remaining back wall has an opening because a display case was in that room (a reminder of the fact that in the beginning of this building's story, that room was the bookstore).  In this final photo, the frame for a window that will look into the CLC is in place.

In closing blogger wishes all the valiant readers of this blog a very blessed New Year.  May it bring you ever closer to God's warm and loving heart.