CNSTRCTN VOL. XII, #4 as Promised

Memories, like birds--fleeting.  One must grasp and hold in heart's hands.

The star of our show today is the KITCHEN and what
the hammer hath wrought there.  These things are planned,
really, so we rest assured, and surely stay out of the way!

Moving right along, the view from the doorway gives you the
scope of the project to date.
A few views to make the parts of the area a bit more specific:
What we have below is where the stoves were:

                                             which shows you what you can do with what an air hammer (enlarge the photo and you can see it resting there) .  Is it still called an air hammer?

     What you see at the left probably took a different tool, wouldn't you think?  You're looking at the rubble that used to compose the walk-in cooler and freezer.  The silver sheen you see in the middle of the back wall is the door to the two-year old, or there abouts, walk-in cooler and freezer.  Ah, someone was looking ahead.  Actually, the old units were malfunctioning, or at least leaking, annoyingly often.

One last look around brings us to the corner opposite the door you were viewing from at the beginning of this posting.  People are wondering if the stove hood will stay.  Blogger is betting that it will.

Now, lets step out into the hall for a (maybe) last look at the staircase leading to the basement and an outside door.



A maybe-last-look because it will be torn out and the area covered to create a floor where a new room will be built.  You just never know.

You man never have used these stairs; they take you to the garden and yard maintenance room.  Much earlier, blogger showed you a part of this room where the men had dug a trench for a pipe that had to be laid in the direction of a storage area.  Many such parts of the ground floor are pretty much out of mind to most people since they are out of sight.  Perhaps humble, but absolutely imperative.

So ends Vol. XII and the month of May, hanging on in blogdom as promised.  Au revoir until June.

CNSTRCTN Vol. XII, #3 Exciting Stuff Here

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

Blogger apologizes for forgetting to post last week.  After all, nothing was happening (graduation preceded by cleaning day, preceded by --memory lags behind (oxymoron?).  Anyway, within the next couple of days, blogger will post another to show you another big area of renovation within these walls (what's left of them--no, no; blogger didn't mean that!)

Anyway, this is some of the big stuff since 5/23.  Up on

the 3rd. floor roof, right outside the penthouse, blogger got a few shots to show the progress on the elevator shaft.  First: the doorway from the  shaft to the third floor.  Next: the finishing touches to the top of the shaft.  This is cause for...excitement!  No, the person exit the elevator does not have to make a big leap to the building proper.  A hallway is coming that will go through to the main hall.  This hallway will take up part of 307, and on the second floor, the hallway will take part of 207.

A frequent observer of these procedures notices that at the end of the masons' work they pour--what? concrete or mortar?? into the holes at the tops of the concrete blocks.

  
 Caught in the act.

Now we will move out to the faculty parking lot to see
what's going on there: voila--another one of the mysterious operations (n.b. a welder!)  Whatever are they working on?  It got even more mysterious for blogger as a top was covered with corrugated sheets.  Hmm. This can't be a platform.  Well, no, unless...



 Well, what do you know?  It is a platform of sorts--for a final lid.  That's not the best word, but it sort of fits...sort of.  Blogger is sure there's a good architectural word for it, and maybe she should just think harder.            

And below you are looking with blogger out of one of the bedroom window.  This is a guest room window, and by the time we wish to use that room for a guest, the whole operation on the elevator tower will be completed.  As it is, with the workers coming in at 6:00,  the resident occupiers of the rooms on that side of the building know their drapes closed if they wish to sleep past 6 a.m.!  The men do come up the elevator and cross the roof to the elevator shaft site.

Another item of interest may be what the chapel looks like at present from the doorway into the first mezzanine from the not-yet-completed walkway from the elevator hallway.  One must peek before getting shooed by a workman.

In a few days, as blogger indicated above, she will post again.  Be on the lookout for a Vol. XII, #4.

And so will end the merry month of May.

                                                                     

CNSTRCTN Vol. XII, #2 "Lights (sun), camera (iPad), action!"

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

Where to begin with a very active week?  Let's start with
the kitchen.  It is one of the areas that will be renovated in the
summer, and, in fact, is already under the knife, so to
speak.  The pieces of heavy cooking equipment, i.e. stoves,
are already gone to...Knights of Columbus for their river-side
lodge.  The tables, chairs, and cabinets from the faculty
dining room have also found a new home there.  K of C is
very grateful.  So here's what the kitchen looked like in
midweek when one stove was already gone.  The other photos
here were taken on the same day or one day later.    
You may notice that the sinks are gone, too.  Destination not known to blogger.  The old walk-in was replaced about three or so years ago and the old one has been used for dry storage.  The photo with tables, chairs, and cabinets still in the room, although not in place, gives you an idea of what the room looked like in its prime.  The photo next to it was the salad corner.  Cabinets are gone now.

Now to move to the other end of the building and what has
been developing there.  The focus has been on the elevator
tower and is nearing completion.  Blogger can look out her
bedroom window and see to the side, the concrete saw on
its perch just a few steps up from the level the men are working
on.  It seems that many blocks must be cut in half.  But the noise
that is part of the opening "ceremony" each day is the banging
on the (this is blogger's guess) trough that holds the mortar
from the day before so that fresh mortar can be put in it.  The
sound at 6:15 a.m. is an ungracious alarm for any one trying to
get a few extra winks.  (This photo was taken earlier last week and so does not show how much higher the tower is now.
Probably it will go as high as the roof that this photo was taken from.) The forklift (the orange extension on the left in the photo) has just delivered more blocks or more extenders to raise the scaffolding higher.
                                                               
What does all this look like on the inside?  A few photos tell the story, the first one looking through the former vestibule and the next one is in a closet on the 3 1/2 level.

                                                             
The last photo shows the delivery of the second of two air conditioners for the new library (CLC).  Won't that be nice on a day like today!
That's the story of last week, recorded as this week's story is being rolled out hour by hour.  Stay tuned for the further adventures of (your choice of titles).
Auf wiedersehen.         
                                                             

CONSTRCTN XII, #1 Short Story

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

 Some drilling, some hammering, some laying of concrete blocks, i.e., some noisy--usually mysterious to us on the inside or above--some noiseless which we may be able to observe outside--not so mysterious and therefore more satisfying.   The first photo is a peek to the outside from Mr. Schlosser's computer-stuff closet.  This happened on Saturday of last week and so didn't bother anybody.  We're up on the third mezzanine here.   The hole was boarded over by the end of the day.        
       

In this second and third photos, blogger was looking down from the roof at the scaffolding that is being used to build the elevator tower.  It must go at least two floors higher than it is now in order to reach 3 1/2 level--Mr. Schlosser's closet.  Anything above that, blogger thinks, will be for the elevator workings.
The elevator-stops on the second and third floor will, as has been explained in an earlier blog, require classroom space for the passage to the main hall on the respective floors.  That means the classrooms will be shorter by maybe seven feet (guessing).
The kitchen will be invaded this week by the workmen and maybe blogger can get a photo of a kitchen empty of counter and under-counter items.  Once work is really begun with removing the hard surface stuff-counters, stoves and hoods, sinks, etc., the area will be off-limits to blogger (darn!).

That's all, folks.  Blogger assures you that these few photos don't give the whole picture, but what's a blogger to do?  An oft' repeated lament from her, she is sure--sorry.
Enough then.  Maybe next week can be more revealing for us all.  Hope burns eternal...
Au revoir.