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.

CNSTRCTN, VOL. VII, # 4, WALLS UP, WALLS DOWN

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

What a week!  Starting with what the workmen could do with
the students still in the building for three days, we find a few in
the library at the receiving end of the posts which were delivered
from the chapel roof.  First, of course, those posts (lay-speak)
had to be delivered to the chapel roof as you see on the right.  On the inside, once the passing-in process began, it looked like this:

While that was going on at east end of the building, and after
the students were gone, things began happening on the first floor.  First, lockers were removed yet                                                      
again, out of another section for a new window or door for the new Collaborative Learning Center.


Now for the really dramatic and, needless to say, loud drilling and hammering (think busting) began in the area of the old lavatory.
  
The first photo was taken just outside the outside door on the side of the building.  (That doorway is now under the roof of the soon to be extended CLC.)  The second photo is from the next day or so from the area of the old president's office (i.e. the old office, not the president--she's doing quite youthfully in her new office down the hall).
The final photo for the issue shows the chapel area as the walls were beginning to rise at the beginning of the week.  More was accomplished in the course of the week there. As that was commencing, the men from Michel's were continuing the trenching around the building, laying the wiring for the new LED lights that will surround us (farewell, starry nights).  That work continues as this is being typed, but out in the theatre parking lot area.  When blogger crossed the parking lot a few hours ago, (this is the day after Christmas) there were at least four big shovels (tractor type--lay speak), several trucks, and over a dozen men waiting for the ditching to commence in that area so the installation could begin.  With temperatures in the lower 20s--no fun.

And so the story goes on.  Soon, maybe today--this one never knows for sure--work will begin on the removal of the flooring in the cafeteria.  The floor will then receive a permanent painting.  Much more will happen in that area eventually.  Stay tuned.
May your ending of 2017 be a blessed one with enduring thoughts of a God-made-Man ever among us!

CNSTRCTN, VOL. VII #3 Mysterious Developments

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


The week was cold which probably accounts for much
less action outdoors on the construction site.  There
seems to have been some action indoors, but so far,
blogger hasn't had access to it.  A workman was actually seen by blogger in the foyer.  Maybe she should have taken a photo of that since it is so rare with all of the outdoor activity going on.
So what are you looking at here?  Obviously, you're looking at the north wall in the library without carpet and shelves.  The photo was left large (in blog terms) so blogger hopes you can see the trough against the wall.  Blogger still can't imagine what is going on exactly, but she was told that there will be a repetition of the pillars in the chapel next to the outside wall, and that the pillars in the library will line up with them.  It still seems a strange way to this lay observer to go about putting in a supporting beam where she thinks it ought to go.  It remind her of the old Lucille Ball film when she becomes the secretary to a construction team that is bent on skimming off the funds (or something--memory fails of a film viewed over 60 years ago).  At any rate, Lucy visits the construction site after hours and sees that the spaces marked off with sticks are much too small for this residential construction, so she changes all of them to accommodate a family.  As blogger recalls, she ends up converting the boss (a young good-looking actor) to seeing it her way and to integrity.  Of course, they fall in love in the process.  Blogger has no intention of changing anything here since she doesn't know what's going on here.

Stay tuned to the further adventures of Clueless.  Have a blessed conclusion to this Advent season.

CNSTRCTN, VOL. VII , #2 How to Build Support

Memories, like birds, fleeting--one must grasp and hold with heart's hands.

Yes, support is needed for the load bearing of the outside wall of the library.  Blogger was forced to do some thinking about this before the fog cleared.  To wit...
recall the step poured in chapel that was so puzzling.  This past week the workmen began bolting a number of poles onto that step.  As of today, there are about a dozen such poles all the way across the span.  Somehow, the supporting beam will be placed atop these poles and fixed in place (with much welding, no doubt).  At the point that all that is accomplished, the poles will be removed and also the step.  Amazing!  Must more be done inside that space (chapel) before they move to the next big step?  We shall see.









Looking outside of the chapel windows, one can see the concrete blocks getting ready for the first installment of a wall--what one may think will be the next big step.  We'll see which wall will go up first since three walls must be erected as compared with the two walls in the CLC.  While each area of construction presents its own challenges, blogger thinks the chapel extension will win the contest.

The week has been full, probably much fuller than these photos show.  Today, Friday, with the students gone, the men were sledge hammering down a wall in the old lavatory.  Blogger was afraid to go in since the men (or man) wasn't expecting an observer (and it may not have been all that safe for this "lay" person).  Maybe the coming week will yield a few photos of that activity.

Have a good week, and rest up for the next installment of CNSTRCTN.























Meanwhile, up in the library, things have moved quickly as the schedule for work up there has been moved up.  Mrs. Benkert mobilized her team of willing helpers and a huge amount of work has been accomplished by the time of this posting.  Mrs. B. can be seen on the left in the first shot.

  

The west wall of the room and the south wall are now lined with the boxes that mercifully became available as the the fruit sale fruit was picked up.  Praise the Lord and pass the empty box!

CNSTRCTN, VOL. VII, # 1, Collaborative Learning Center (aka Library) Advances

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

Where to start?  How about going from top down at the CLC?  Okay; here are the men working on the final insulation layer (white) and the subsequent tarpping (lay speak) (black).  As you can see, the skylights are already in place with the fitting of the tarp coming next since they must fit it around the skylights.A better photo of the process would show how they measure to cut.  As they do for carpet laying???
But carpets are thicker than this tarp, so perhaps you know how that goes.  Anyway, by the end of the week the job was accomplished.  Is that IT for the roof?  Blogger doesn't know, so we all shall see.  The skylights look smart, don't they.
Now lets go down on the soccer field side of the CLC to see what's been accomplished there.  The men have been quite busy, as you will see in this series of pics, starting from the left, moving across the side and ending on the right.  First is the man at the pile of bricks (many bricks!),                     

then the brick-layers at work

All of this is, of course, very encouraging.  



The top of the chapel extension is moving along also, sort of at the stage you've seen in other postings--corrugated roof with skylight already installed.  The next step will be the white insulation slabs, but currently they are still down at the CLC area.  Perhaps tomorrow, Monday, will see them fork-lifted off the roof adjacent to the CLC and moved down to the chapel end.  At any rate, you are witness to the next dramatic move in the saga of NDA RNVTNS/CNSTRCTN, VOL. VII, #2.  Join us again, at the end of this first week of December, 2017.  (Where did the year go?)

     



     

CNSTRCTN VOL. VI, #5 Front and Back (or One Side and the Other)

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

By way of review, here's what the elevator well (?)
looks like now post-drill.  Of course, the cylindrical item in the middle is the hole with a cover over it--that hole that required the magic drill.  The ladder gives some perspective as to depth of the well.

Now let's go to the other side of the building to see what was happening there on Wednesday.



What, another crane?  Yes, this time delivering a new generator to  accommodate the expansions of the last several years (we have another older generator).  Here it's being lifted off the flatbed truck that delivered it.  You should have seen all the maneuvers these large vehicles had to go through in order to position themselves correctly, especially the crane driver.  It was like watching a masterful dodge-ems or a dance of the titans of the road.

                                                                     

Here the generator is on a skid waiting for the final check and adjustments before it could be placed on the concrete platform that has been waiting for it for months.  Blogger missed the final move because her iPad ran too low.  As it was, the whole maneuver up to this point took at least a half an hour, and blogger must have an ungloved hand to take the photos.  It was quite cold that morning, so both the iPad and the handler were ready to come in.

Back to the other side:
Yes, bricks at last, stacked so neatly.  But you must look closely to see them behind the scaffolding in the second photo. Look at the bottom of the photo and you'll see the bricked portion of the new wall of the library.  Behind the fence-like barrier you can see all the bricks sitting on their sides (waiting to be grabbed?) and the concrete wall the bricks are covering, above the waiting bricks.
One more shot to help clarify.   Just below the ladder, close to the middle of the photo, you can see the extent of the bricklaying.  Enlarge the photo and you may be able to make it out (it is there!).
Well, it's obvious that the men made the best of the time the Thanksgiving holidays gave them.  The bricklayers were here on Friday.  If you're lost, it's okay.  Things will become clearer as we move ahead.

This is life on a small construction site, but stay with us.  Greater and more exciting things are on the horizon.