Thursday, June 15, 2017

Blog updated at 10:30 a.m. Friday, June 16, 2017



TEDCO is winding down operations at Sunnyhill. Wednesday was Scott's last day on site, and now Craig is managing sub-contractors and doing odds and ends without his trusted associate. If you walked through the church you'd see pieces of blue tape here and there or drywall compound where divots and scratches have been filled. These are punch list items, and next week should see most of them completed. 

The water company told us that our new two-inch line would be hooked up one night during this past week. It has yet to happen, no doubt affected by the thunderstorms we've been experiencing the past few nights or the leaking water main on Beadling today.

Giffin, which is doing our finish carpentry, will return to install a window seat in the infant and toddler room, benches to cover water pipes in the crying room and in Roy's office, and paneling around the new door-windows in the foyer. They must also finish and seal the railings on the new staircase and attach a few sections of baseboard in the basement classrooms.


Oak wood paneling to match the wood in the foyer should be installed around the window-doors next week. An interesting discovery is that the wood in the foyer is probably chestnut and not oak. The arborist from Bartlett said that when our building was constructed in 1920 the chestnuts were beginning to die and chestnut wood became relatively inexpensive. Perhaps one of our woodworkers could give us a definitive answer - oak or chestnut?
We are still waiting for the replacement doors for the sanctuary and the hallway. The windows in these eight-foot doors are not the proper height above the floor. To be ADA compliant, a person in a wheelchair must be able to see and be seen through the window.



The light fixtures for the sanctuary have finally arrived, and installation should be finished next week. We are still waiting for new exit lights and for the replacement fixtures for the Carol Karl Choir Room. Those may be weeks away. These LED lighting instruments will be focused on the stage. Our dimmer system allows for nine different pre-sets, so the stage lighting can be adjusted to enhance the action on the stage. The stage will also have back-lighting or halo lights as they are sometimes called. Back lighting is important when shooting video to bring the subject out from the background.

These LED pendant lights will provide the majority of the illumination for the sanctuary.

This photo from the stage shows the center section of spotlights. Additional stage spots will be hung stage left and right. The chandeliers have been unwrapped and have had the diffusers installed on the underside, making them look like inverted drums.

From this angle you can see three of many pendant lights that will dot the ceiling.
The black spec near the ceiling that looks like a giant housefly on the rear wall of the sanctuary is a very important device; it's an optical smoke detector. On the opposite wall is a prismatic reflector that spreads the beam across the room so it can detect smoke in any area. Recommended by the Mt. Lebanon Fire Department, this one unit replaces several standard units, which would have been ceiling mounted.


A drum light fixture has also been installed over the new staircase.
Paper towel dispensers have been installed in all the restrooms, and we have added stainless steel Simple-Human trash containers. We are waiting for the soap dispensers to arrive. Once we have them, and they are installed, the bathrooms will be finished.


Our landscaper delivered two truck-loads of topsoil in anticipation of beginning work later next week. He delivered the topsoil on Monday so he wouldn't be driving a triaxle truck across our new parking lot. 

Speaking of the new parking lot, there is good news and bad. Caruso has arrived and has begun excavation. This area has been dug out to accommodate our four new parking spaces. These spaces are located along the southern side of the entrance driveway to the church.

This view toward the church is the same area. In the background you can see the milling machine that will grind off the old parking lot and driveway. The machine can mill to a depth of 12 inches and a swath six feet wide. 

The driveway to the garage is being dug out 10 inches to allow for a thicker asphalt that will withstand the weight of the garbage truck emptying our dumpster. And this is where we ran into trouble.
The soil along the wall and at the base of the driveway was so soft and spongy that when the driveway was removed, the already unstable wall fell over. Fortunately it happened when no one was around, so no one was hurt. To address the poor soil quality, Caruso dug out another 24 inches of dirt and filled it with rock and large gravel.

They also had to stabilize the ground at the top of the driveway.


So how are we going to fix the problem so we can move on with the paving and finish our new home project? We are going to start by removing the remaining wall from the edge of the steps that lead to the dumpster all the way to the top of the driveway. The stairs will remain.
Once the wall is down, Caruso will grade the hill in a 1:2 slope, which is about a 27 degree angle. The dotted lines in this tracing Peg Hart made from our site plan show the elevations. 

This wall has been unstable for years, and it may be serendipitous that it fell when it did without injuring anyone. Removing the remaining wall and grading the hill is the most cost effective solution -- about $2,000 -- to what could have been a very expensive problem. Friday, we are meeting with our landscaper to discuss what to do with the hill once it is graded. If the hill is successfully sloped as planned, it will probably be seeded with grass. A 27 degree hill can be safely mowed with a hand mower, but it will be off limits for the Kubota tractor. If the hill is too steep, we may cover it with very large river rock, or mulch it and plant hill-holding plants. Caruso will add a wedge curb to the edge of the driveway to channel storm water away from the base of the new hill and toward the drain at the bottom of the driveway. We'll report next week in the blog.
The wall is gone and the hillside is rough graded. Charlie Cook shot these photos at about 10 a.m. Friday, June 16.

Another view of the hillside and the driveway being prepared for asphalt.







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