On our construction project management page, it says the project was due to end on May 6, and that "Project was due yesterday." It's possible that the webpage is not attuned to the ins and outs of finishing off a project, and the way the last several items seem to take the longest, in part because there's more individual attention to each one, and in part because some of them are last on the list for a reason.
But let's ignore the webpage for now. Let's pretend there was instead a project groundhog who came out this week to check on the progress.. and saw his shadow and thus predicted another six weeks or so of work. Possibly more. But all of it good.
Here's what's been going on since the last update.
- The concrete for the North Entrance Ramp is completed. Iron railings are being built and should be installed in the next two weeks. A small amount of brick work will be done to fill in where the blue styrofoam is visible on the north and east sides of the ramp.
- Cline Electric has completed most of their work. A few small items remain to be done. In addition to providing new wiring to the renovated areas they (and Hugh Stoll) have done a magnificent job of cleaning up the rats' nest of wires in the basement. Before and after photos are in the photos.
- Vinyl tile for the hallways and coat room is on the way, along with Kinetex carpet tile for the fellowship hall with installation expected in mid-June.
- Um, about that fellowship hall carpet. When the old carpet is pulled up, some of the old masonite underlayment comes with it, and what remains isn't in great shape. So we're (and by "we," I mean Jim Herr and Sons, Inc.) are going to have to take it out entirely and replace it with new plywood. That will take three or four days, and then it will be another two or three days for the carpet installation. We will do our best to minimize disruption to the regular weekly events in these areas, but some disruption will be unavoidable. This will probably happen in mid June.
- Telephone and Internet service to the church has been switched to Comcast providing significantly improved services for both of these items at a very reasonable monthly cost. A new WiFi network system has been installed that provides an isolated network for the church offices and a CMC-guest WiFi network for anyone using the church building. These networks have also been extended wirelessly to the Dean House where they can be accessed at speeds sufficient to watch high-def YouTube videos. Jack Rutt was the mastermind behind all that.
- Joe and Philip Yoder did an incredible job of cleaning out the rubble of the old basement concrete floor and pouring new concrete. Drywall will be installed in the basement mechanical and storage areas next week. The boiler room walls and ceiling will have a one-hour fire rating status, with two layers of 5/8-inch drywall. Other drywall work down there will create a substantial space for the preschool to store their materials, using the doorway from the northeast Sunday school classroom area.
- All the new HVAC units are now operational. In the next two weeks Excel Heating and Cooling will be completing the programming work needed to control them all from a central computing unit.
- Painting still remains to be completed. It would be great to have a big final effort to get this done by the end of May. So far, a handful of people have volunteered for all our painting, and it would be nice to add to their numbers. Sign up here, now.
- The final order for latches, locks and keys has been received and will be installed next week. This completes our unified lock and key system, bringing much needed order out of the chaos of the previous system.
Pictures follow.
This is the disaster that was our furnace room electrical panel before (and this is even somewhat cleaned up from the mid-2015 version).
This is the extensively revised, current version. Thanks Hugh and thanks, Cline Electric.
Kent and Justin Yoder did the expert forming and concrete work for the North Ramp, which includes burying hot water tubing in it that can be connected to the boiler at some point in the future, when funds are available.
The new ramp. Note how the steps no longer end in traffic–we plan to put a planter or something at the corner of the building to make it even safer. The ramp should only be used carefully, if at all, until the railings are installed.