Sunnyhill New Home

Carl Taylor & Sons Concrete Contracting, Inc. has completed pouring the footings and piers that will support our building. Today, Marsa, Inc. began to lay the concrete block for the new front wall of the basement, which will be about eight feet high, and for the exterior foundation under the slab, which will be less than three feet high.

The new front basement wall will enclose the space for the new stairway and the mechanical room that will house the new furnace, pumps and hot water heater. Because of its height, and for strength, the basement wall will be built using 16”X8”X12” deep (front to back) concrete blocks.The much shorter foundation walls that will support the floor slab and the walls above it will be built with 16”X8”X8” deep concrete blocks. 

The voids in all of the concrete blocks will be filled with concrete – a process called grouting – for increased strength and to make them less permeable to water. In addition, the basement wall will also be waterproofed. All of the foundation work should be completed within three days.

We are also making progress in other areas.The red front door of the church is being reversed so it will open out instead of in – a requirement of the fire code. Because our door frame is one solid piece of oak, the outside of the jamb had to be routed to allow for the thickness of the door and to provide a stop – a job that calls for a skilled carpenter. The door hardware has already been reversed, but recesses for the butt hinges and the latches must also be routed or chiseled into the frame.

Our temporary forced hot air furnace is ready for the cold weather. The roof over the unit has been finished and gas and electric have been connected. Hot air from the furnace is blown into the building via two very large flexible ducts – one through a window into the fellowship hall and the other through a window into the large basement classroom. While the furnace has more than enough output to heat the entire building, getting that heat distributed throughout the building will no doubt require some trial and error until it is worked out.

Today Bartlett finished cutting down the large maple tree in the back yard. While no one wanted to see the tree go, it was directly in the way of the new sewer that will be installed to carry water from our storm water containment unit to the municipal storm sewer. Dennis Sweeney has rescued some of the wood from which he will create beautiful objects. Jen will also use some of the wood for an RE art project. The tree measured 51 inches in diameter at the lowest cut.

Vijay’s beautiful Hibiscus, along with the bulbs of other flowering plants, have been removed from the garden by the front door. We thought the plants would be safe throughout construction, but the design of the new entryway into the church calls for a wider sloping sidewalk and larger steps, which will cover Vijay's flower garden. Until the Hibiscus find a new home at Sunnyhill, they will reside in one section of the RE garden.