Sunnyhill New Home

With two weeks to go before our first service in our new home, a lot is being done and there is a lot more to be done.

Outside, landscaping is finally underway. 

The lawn areas in the front and rear of our property are almost ready for grass seed. Some old shrubs and trees have been removed from the front to allow a better view of our building from the street and to provide a better growth environment for the oak that will now be the centerpiece of our front yard. We've also regraded part of the front lawn to eliminate the hill and create a gradual slope. This will allow us to one day put a walkway across the lawn from the street to the church -- Eagle project anyone?

The planting beds directly in front of the church have been dug up to create looser soil that will encourage deep roots. The area is problematic. During construction, gravel and construction debris collected and the soil was compacted by heavy equipment. In addition, part of the planting bed was once part of our old parking lot. Now that the soil is dug up, some of the larger rocks will be removed, top soil will be added and the area will be planted. (The topsoil may have been delivered on Saturday.)

Crew members from Steelblades Landscaping are tamping the base for our new wall along the driveway.

Geotechnical fabric and gravel have been added. This wall will be built on top and the hillside will be planted with Carpet Juniper to stabilize the earth.

The south end of the parking lot has been cleared, covered with geotechnical fabric and river rock the size of baseballs and golf balls. The area has been difficult to maintain due to the run-off of salt from the driveway during the winter. The river rock is an attractive, low maintenance landscaping material. River rock has also been placed around the perimeter of the new building to create a buffer between the lawn and the stucco to prevent accidental damage to the stucco when the lawn is being mowed.

Moving inside, the remainder of Rev. Jim's office furniture arrived and was assembled. Since this photo was taken, he has moved into his new office and could be heard practicing a guitar piece for an upcoming service.

The new light fixtures for the Karl Choir Room arrived and have been installed. They are a huge improvement over the old fixtures and provide even light throughout the room. The lighting problem was discussed in an earlier blog, but here is a quick recap. In the original design, the choir room had a flat ceiling just above the middle single window. Exhaust and intake ducts for the HVAC system were to be routed above the ceiling and through a grill in the front of the building. The HVAC engineers decided it would be better to run the ducts directly up through the roof, and we agreed. With the ducts re-routed, we were able to change the ceiling from flat to cathedral and add a dramatic window at the top. What we didn't remember was that the lights were designed to reflect off a flat ceiling to light the room. The result was a dark room with odd shadows along the ceiling. We had no choice but to change the lights, and assume the cost. The original lights have been boxed and placed in the attic. If anyone would be willing to advertise the fixtures on eBay, we can provide the specifications and photos of the lights in place. (Contact John Armstrong for the details.) They are worth between $2,000 and $3,000 -- money that could be returned to our church coffers.

Storage space is always in demand, and we were able to steal a corner in the mechanical room to put some shelves. So far we have supplies for the new bathrooms stored on the shelves, but we expect some kitchen items to occupy the other unit. The fire marshal says we can use this space just as long as we keep it contained.

The north supplies closet is primarily being used for table storage, but we have managed to find room for other items, like the cushions for the meditation group. 

We were having some trouble with noise from the return air vents of HVAC system in the new sanctuary -- it was loud. What we could hear was fan noise from the giant air handler in the attic. The unit was not installed exactly where specified, which was the primary cause of the problem. To fix the noise, HVAC technicians removed the ducts from the return air vent, re-oriented them to create more bends, added insulation inside the ducts and incorporated the device seen in this picture known in the trade as acoustical turning vanes. These actions solved the problem. 

In this view of the acoustical turning vanes, you can see that the quilts have been returned to the fellowship hall. Gloria Snyder had cleaned and stored them, and she and Scott Smith arranged and rehung them. I apologize for not having a photo, but it can be a surprise on our first day back. They will be something comfortably familiar.

In the sanctuary, the 75 inch Smart-TV monitors arrived and have been installed. Charlie and Pam Cook have already tested them with the PowerPoint presentation they have put together for their 50th wedding anniversary celebration on August 19 to which the entire congregation has been invited. An upcoming photo provides a better view of the monitors in place.

And now for the exciting news...

Our new chairs arrived and a large group showed up to unpack and count them. 

This past Thursday, John Armstrong, Madi Senneway and Charlie Cook lined them up with military precision using string and measuring tapes. The first day in church will probably be the last day they will be arranged with such precision. We will try to develop a process to align the chairs that isn't so time consuming but will still be neat. 

The chairs have been set up in a chevron pattern with the rows set parallel to the angled portion of the stage. This pattern should require less head turning during services and other functions.

There are 10 rows of chairs of varying length -- the longest containing 11 chairs. The first row is set six feet from the stage to allow room for legs, seeing-eye dogs and for people to cross in front. The center aisle is five feet wide to comply with code. The side aisles vary, but at the narrowest point are three feet six inches. We've allow about two and a half inches between chairs -- we eyeballed this -- for a total of approximately 24 inches per person, which is considered comfortable. 

Most of the rooms in the new wing have furniture and are ready for use. They will require cleaning before our first event, and we may have to enlist a detail of people with vacuum cleaners and dust rags to get us ready. We will probably schedule a final cleaning for Friday, August 18. Check the Beat on the Wednesday before. We want the building to shine.

While the new building is essentially finished, our historic building is still under construction using volunteer labor -- mostly retirees. We can do more than just babysit the grand kids.

Every room in the building has new flooring except for the dining room and the kitchen. The kitchen is fine, but the dining room floor did not look so good - especially after the room had been painted. Thanks to a generous donation by a member of the congregation, we were able to do something about the floor. We started by removing the electrical box in the center of the floor...

...and having it professionally patched. Patching the floor was not as easy as you might think. The floor is one-half inch thick quarter-sawn oak. Most flooring today is three-quarter inch. So, the floor guy (this is what they call themselves) had to plane down a piece of thicker flooring so it would fit. Then the floor was sanded...

...and here it is with its first coat of polyurethane. It will get two more coats and be ready to be walked on by Wednesday afternoon. When the floor is dry, Bill Cook is coming back to touch up where the baseboard was damaged and to paint the other side of the louvered doors. We are probably going to add an area rug under the dining room table, we just have to be sure it isn't a tripping hazard. Peg Hart, who has managed the entire building project from inception and is the blogger's hero, and Scott Smith, who heads up the art committee, have have the task of finding the right rug within our budget. What will an architect and a sculptor agree on? Stay tuned. 

The former fish-room, now the polka dot room has been getting a lot of attention. Michael Hennesy built a wall to cover the new plumbing and a multitude of other sins. Since this photo was taken the wall has been primed and is waiting for Claire Pullen to paint a mural. Also, since this photo was taken, Michael installed new LED light fixtures.

Ed Tomlinson, Mike and I are also trying to clean up the bathroom -- we'd welcome more help. We've removed all the ancient electrical equipment from the walls...

...and we are replacing the ceiling and the ceiling light.

And we will be tiling the bathroom floor with porcelain tile donated by the Senneway family who had some beautiful tile left over from their kitchen renovation. Instead of using it as 12 inch by 24 inch tiles, we will probably cut it into 12 inch squares to better fit in the 18 square foot space. 

Before reading the explanation of this photo, look to the right of the picture and you will see a beautifully repainted radiator. Judy Kelly spent four days cleaning, prepping and painting all the radiators in the basement classrooms. They look so much better. And now what's going on with the big guy, and he is big, in the blue shirt with the jackhammer. During the last three heavy rains, we've been getting a lot of water in the polka dot room. On each occasion we've vacuumed out about three and a half gallons of water or more. We never had this problem before. We think the water in the basement is the result of the new trench that was dug to install our new water supply and to run conduits for our new sign. The trench was back filled with gravel, which is standard procedure to prevent sinking. We believe we inadvertently created an exterior French drain that drained to the footer of the basement wall. After much discussion, the best and most cost effective solution was an internal French drain with a sump pump.

On Friday morning just before 7 a.m., a crew arrived and installed and interior French drain with a sump pump which will be hidden behind Michael's' wall with Claire's mural. The crew was amazingly fast. They were gone by 8:30. Everything was hauled in and out in five-gallon buckets. The crew worked hard and fast. 

The polka dot room may not be ready by Sunday, August 20, but it will be ready when we begin full RE.