Sunnyhill New Home

The blog will be updated later today. In anticipation of the upcoming Annual Meeting, we plan to do a photographic walk-through showing the progress of each of the rooms in the new addition.

Until those photos are added, enjoy the photos of the big dig.

On Monday, April 17, the big dig began. The deeper trench on the right is for the new 2-inch water line. The higher bench on the left is for the 3-inch gas line.

Thanks to Craig from TEDCO, crews went out of their way to avoid damaging some of our flora, which includes a beautiful peony. We did lose one small decorative tree.

Once across the parking lot, the trenches diverged. The trench to the right will carry the new water line and two electric conduits, which enter the basement in the polka dot room. The white plastic pipe is for water. The two grey "pipes" are electrical conduit. The gas line has been covered and cannot be seen in the photo. If you enlarge the photo by clicking, you can see an old, abandoned iron gas line in the side of the trench below the coil of plastic pipe.

The orange pipe in this photo is our current gas line. It will be abandoned. The larger diameter white and black pipe is from our downspouts. It was damaged during the excavation and has been repaired. The smaller gray pipe is electric conduit that carries the power lines to our parking lot lights.

The trench carrying the gas line has been partially filled in. The walk to the temporary entrance has been destroyed. Fortunately, it was made from concrete pads rescued from the back yard before demolition. The walk builder (also the blogger) is weeping over the destruction of his hard work. Hopefully gravel will replace the walk until it is no longer needed. 

Our new gas meter will sit on top of the gray flange. The gas line will enter the building through the hole in the lower right. Landscaping will hide the new very large meter without blocking access to it by the gas company.

The white dot is the hole where the gas line will come through the wall. When the new service is in place, this old meter will be removed. The current meter is under the stairs that lead from the kitchen to the basement.

Looking east you can see the two "stub ups" for the conduits that will one day, we hope, carry power to a new electronic sign or for lighting for our existing signage. The yellow tape sits above the gas line as a warning to anyone excavating the area in the future. The yellow coil is wire that is buried along with the warning tape and is used to track the line using special equipment.

Looking further east toward the road the crock that will hold our water meter is visible. The crock is about 4-feet deep.

A top down view of the crock.

The parking lot and driveway have been filled in. The pipes have been cushioned with a bed of sand above and below and the remainder of the trench is back-filled with gravel.

These are the piles of sand and gravel, just delivered, that are being used to back fill the trench.

The dirt excavated from the trench that isn't needed for back-fill will be used as fill dirt in other areas around the church that need to be filled before grading can occur. Once the trench is filled, we will be able to use the parking lot again. We hope the lot will be available by the end of the day on Friday so the choir has a place to park on Sunday.

Come back later for a photo tour of the new addition.