To paraphrase  our TEDCO field superintendent, Craig, it's amazing what you can get done when you have good weather. With temperatures in the 50s and 60s and lots of clouds but little rain, outdoor work has taken center stage in our new construction. So many people are working on site -- window installers, electricians, data cabling installers, carpenters, roofers, drywallers and even painters -- that TEDCO had to add a second Porta-John.




With most of the new roof shingled - a few small sections remain to be done - Buccos Roofing has been busy tearing old shingles and underlayment off the roof of our historical building and replacing them with new state-of-the-art underlayment and new shingles. By the end of the week, the roofing should be complete. The top photo reveals the difference between wooden roof decking in the 1920s (horizontal boards) and in 1994 (plywood) when our new addition was added. It's also amazing to see how solid our nearly 100-year old roof remains. 

The crews installing our Pella windows also benefited from the good weather, and most of our windows are in place. This is the north wall of the sanctuary.

This view of the northeast corner of the new addition shows the exterior of a new RE room, which promises to be the brightest room in the building. 

This is an interior view of the new RE room on the northeast corner.












The far left window has yet to be installed in the new Choir/RE room. It has most likely been left out to allow construction materials to be passed through the window as needed. The triangle under the eave, which was once going to house a louvered vent, may, depending upon cost, frame a new triangular window.

This interior view of the new Choir/RE room suggests the effect an additional window might have. The window will be smaller than the current opening, if it is installed. Re-directing the HVAC vent, which was originally scheduled to be installed over the ceiling of the Choir/RE room, has allowed us to raise the ceiling to the peak. The increase in room volume should improve acoustics for the choir, and add drama to the space.










The three-panel window on the left provides natural light to the stairway to the basement. In addition, it allows light to pass through the main hallway and into the infant and toddler room.

If you look through the three-panel window, you can see into the infant and toddler room and through to the backyard.










A bottle of Windex will be a must to keep the windows in the infant and toddler room clean and clear of smudges from children's fingers and parents noses. The room, which is immediately adjacent to the entrance to the sanctuary (seen in the foreground right), will also feature a glass door.







Some of the Pella windows are operable and some are fixed. The small window in the far right of this photo of Roy's office will swing open so Roy can pass Giant Eagle certificates through the window.

This view of the northwest corner of the building shows how bright our new sanctuary will be.










The windows that will form the backdrop for our Sunday services and other events are called "storefront windows" because they are also used for...storefronts. Since these windows face west, an event like a wedding on a sunny afternoon should be spectacular. If you look closely, you can see the sun reflected in one of the panels.







With drama like this, people will be clamoring to sit in the front row. 













An ADA compliant ramp is being installed down stage right.

















Mineral wool is being installed in the rear wall of the sanctuary. In addition to increasing the fire rating of the wall, mineral wool has better sound reduction capability than fiberglass batting. Two layers of 5/8" gypsum wallboard will be added.

Data and audio-visual cables are being installed. By tomorrow, the rough-in should be complete and insulation and drywalling can begin in earnest.

Circuit breaker panels for the new addition will be located in this small room, which has already been taped and painted. This room will also have a 75 degree ship's ladder to the attic. The niche in the rear looks like the perfect place to store folding tables.








Parts of the attic have also been painted so the HVAC crew can begin installing the equipment, which waits under plastic tarps. A drop ceiling and insulation, will be installed just below the paint line. This room will not be heated, but will have insulation to "temper" the space.

A foray to room 22 shows where a new roof rafter was added to allow the new addition to be connected to our historical building. 

The former hallway door on the left and the former closet door on the right now frame windows that will look from the foyer into the new stairwell to the basement. We are hoping to cover the drywall with oak panels to reflect the construction of the window seats in the foyer.

This triangular space, which will be drywalled over in the next two weeks, seems like the perfect place to put a box with messages to some future generation. What do you think? The blog's contribution will be a CD of all the photos and the videos to date.







Vijay's hibiscus were transplanted in the fall to one of Joe Carter's planters. Some of the bulbs that came along for the ride must think that spring is here, thanks to the warm weather.

The big news of the week is that the new addition is officially "dried in" now that the rolled rubber roofing has been installed on the flat roof over the infant-toddler room. The roof actually slopes slightly to the west to allow for runoff. The right side of the photo, north, shows the roof of the new sanctuary. The roof on the left belongs to the old fellowship hall, which has been re-shingled to match the new construction. The roof of our historic building will be completely re-shingled. The four galvanized steel objects sitting on the roof are rails, which will support exterior components of the HVAC system. 

The north side of the new sanctuary has been completely shingled. Tyvek building wrap covers the sheathing and the window openings and creates an envelope to keep in the heat.







The south side of the new sanctuary is about 75 percent shingled. 

A small gable roof is being built over the north exit to the hallway that serves the offices, RE classrooms, choir room and rest rooms.

Now that the building is "dried in," gas heaters can be used to make working through the winter more comfortable. 










Stacks of drywall have been strategically placed throughout the building.  This stack of 5/8" drywall will be hung double thick on both sides of the rear wall of the new sanctuary. Our new building is divided into two fire zones separated by a fire rated wall, which is the rear wall of the sanctuary. In addition to four layers of 5/8" drywall, to achieve the necessary fire rating, the cavity will be filled with mineral wool, which is non-combustible and has a melting temperature in excess of 2,000 degrees. Dividing the building into two zones of less than 5,000 square feet mitigates the need for a very expensive sprinkler system. As an added benefit, mineral wool is much better than fiberglass at reducing sound transmission through the walls. The purple drywall is for use in the restrooms.










Drywall has already been hung on the attic side of the choir room. 












These five-gallon containers of joint compound will soon be put to use.

This framing will form one side of the wall of the hallway that will lead from the new attic to former room 22 and our old attic. 

The four gray conduits in the photo run from the attic, under the floor and come up in the rear right corner of the stage -- aka up stage left to us old theatre folks. The smaller conduits will carry electric power and one of the two large conduits will be used for state-of-the-art Cat6 shielded cable that will transmit data and audio-visual. This conduit will also contain a 14 gauge bare copper ground wire to reduce the likelihood of static affecting the quality of our audio and video. The second large conduit will remain empty for future use and could some day house fiber optic cable or some future state of the art transmission medium.

This photo was taken through the studs that frame the south wall of the administrator's (Roy's) office. Steps to the downstairs will one day fill this area, which was once the infant-toddler room. Beyond the yellow sand bag dam once needed to keep water out of the basement is an area that will become the new RE library with the addition of a wall and several of the new free bookshelves we received through Green Standards. This area once housed the vault, a large closet used by Mushroom as an office and the hallway to the fish-tank room.

Completion of the roofing continues to be affected by the weather. Scheduling the work when weather permits has been challenging between the un-seasonal rain and, now, the seasonal snow. However, progress is being made. The new roof and the old roof have been connected, and holes in the old roof have been filled in. Crews have also made repairs to the profile piece that gives the roof its historic thatched roof appearance.

The roof has been filled in where the Juliet balcony once provided an appealing place for children to peek into the fellowship hall. The stained glass doors that once enclosed the balcony have been stored in the attic for future use.

This section of filled-in roofing was above 

the bay window-doorway that led to the patio on the north side of the fellowship hall.

New shingles have been installed over most
of the front part of the new building. A few sunny days will allow the shingles to heat up, seal and lie flat.











Shingles warming in the sun prior to being nailed in place.











Is this art or just a collection of roofing nail coils waiting to be loaded for use?












An aluminum valley in "musket brown" waiting to be installed. Our gutters and leaders will be the same color.

The rolled rubber roofing on the flat roof above the sanctuary and office-classroom section of the new addition is done, but the flat roof over the infant-toddler room, seen in between the old and new building in this photo, is yet to be done. Until the roofing is in place, keeping the rain out will be difficult, even with the judicious use of plastic sheeting and sandbag dams. 

 Crews are almost finished attaching the ventilated roof insulation panels above the roof decking of the sanctuary. The north facing section, seen in this photo and the next, is complete, and about 25 percent of the south facing section remains to be done. Once completed the roof will be ready for shingling.  Much of the shingling on the sloped portion of the office/classroom is in place.

 Yesterday, members of the construction team walked through the new building with Craig, our TEDCO project manager, and our electrician to review the electrical wiring and determine if we had enough AC outlets and data ports. With most of the wiring installed, it was easy to see where we should add outlets and where we had adequate coverage. We decided to add several outlets along the front and outside walls in the offices.



We also added an outlet and data port to the crying room, which could function as a small meeting room during the week, and  6'-8" high on the new wall between the square archways facing the old fellowship hall. Planning for the future, we may one day install a monitor on the wall with information about church events. It could also be used to show video of events in the sanctuary in real time.

On a previous visit, we marked where the three AC outlet and data port boxes should be placed on the stage. The boxes will be located centered between the stage floor joists and 16" from the front of the stage in the three spaces marked with an orange dot.

During our tour, we also had our first look at the attic where our HVAC and audio-visual console will be installed and which will also provide access to our old attic and our new dormer door to the flat roof over the infant-toddler room. We made the decision to add another fluorescent light fixture to better light the hallway to the old attic and dormer door. We also are looking into adding a support beam to allow heavy items, such as file cabinets and HVAC equipment, to be winched up and down into and out of the attic. 

To the left is the door to what was once the minister's study and functioned more recently as an ad-hoc meeting room. When we re-occupy the building, this area will be off-limits for meetings and office space due to strict fire laws and limited access.

This photo looks out through the new dormer doorway to the flat roof over the infant/toddler room. Stacks of insulation wait to be installed before the rolled rubber roofing can be placed. The roof and walls will be insulated. Crews are already making use of the doorway to reach the roof.

 Materials stored on the roof ready for use prevented a more complete photo of the exterior of the new dormer doorway.