It's not all roses

I’ve been re-reading my past blogs and realize that I’ve painted a pretty “rosy” picture of how our Building Project is progressing. Indeed things have been moving ahead quite well, but it hasn’t been all roses. I suppose I should provide a glimpse at some of the inevitable difficulties that we’ve had to grapple with.
Everyone involved feels that we were quite lucky during the excavation of the Jefferson Lawn area. Large hidden rocks were plentiful but nothing we couldn’t handle, except for two. These two rocks are monsters and they rest 6” under finished grade near Classrooms A & B of the Blake Building. So what’s the problem? Our symmetrical landscape plan calls for a tree above each of these rocks. Hmmmm….
I’m learning that pouring concrete can be a tricky business. A large portion of the new flatwork adjacent to the Jefferson Building and the Blake Building was poured weeks ago and nobody was happy with it. Both the color and the finish were wrong. Not horribly wrong but enough so that we did not want this continued throughout the project. So after much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth we rejected the work and demanded that it be removed and re-poured. This won’t cost us anything extra but it will dramatically inconvenience Starr King and The Orca School. It will also cut-off access to the Blake bathrooms for a week. And finally it will delay our project by at least a week. Groan…
No sooner did we resolve the flatwork snafu than another concrete mishap occurred. We had what is known as a “blow-out” while pouring the retaining wall adjacent to the sanctuary. Wet concrete is extremely heavy and sometimes, if the forms are not adequately braced, this weight will cause the forms to bulge outward (aka “blow-out”). So you end up with a giant bulge in the finished concrete wall. There’s nothing to do about this except let it dry then cut out the bulging section and re-pour. Unfortunately our “blow-out” occurred right where we had carefully placed a 3’ tall embossed UU logo. So all of that artwork had to re-fabricated as well. So guess what? Another delay. Rats!
Parish Hall has not been immune to some set-backs. The most serious was the discovery, during a pressure test, that our gas lines were riddled with leaks. It would have been virtually impossible to track-down and repair all of these leaks without creating a slew of new leaks in the process. So the old lines were abandoned and entirely new lines were installed. Of course this once again caused some delay but, worse still, it added $14,000 to the cost of our project. We have a contingency fund to cover these types of surprises but…. Egads!
.Small problems are daily events here and we solve them. Thank goodness the big problems are far less frequent. (We solve those problems too.) To be honest, it’s the problems that make my job and this project so fascinating. It’s not a rose garden. It’s a construction project and I like it that way.

It's becoming real

By the time you read this most of the construction projects that I’m going to describe will be finished and other aspects or our Building Project will have begun. Nonetheless, I simply have to tell you about what’s going on right now. It’s amazing! We are actually realizing what were only dreams and plans. I know this may sound ridiculous but, I can’t go to the bathroom here without grinning from ear to ear as I look at the wonderful tiles and stainless steel and fancy porcelain. Construction is a very satisfying endeavor. You dream up a beautiful new reality and in a short time, BINGO, there it is. I only wish World Peace, Health Care for All and Fair Labor Practices were as easily realized. But, that’s another discussion.

Parish Hall is getting its new coat of paint today. The crew of Pacific Painting Company ascended the scaffolding this morning and began applying Damariscotta Blue (a pale sky blue) to the acoustical ceiling coffers and Lincolnshire Olive (a medium toned olive-brown) to the boxed beams. I’ve been pretty nervous about how this would look over a large area. I shouldn’t have been. It looks fabulous! The walls are two-toned; Linen Sand (a light yellow-tan) above and Bronzed Beige (a deeper bronze-tan) below. With the application of these new colors the large stained-glass window at the end of the hall has suddenly come to life. I can’t wait to see the new library cabinets and the re-finished hardwood in this space.

While all of this designer work is being done inside, a huge concrete pour is under way outside. I’ve never seen such a big concrete pumping device. It sits in the middle of the Jefferson courtyard area with four giant outriggers to keep it steady. This device pumps concrete from a truck on Santa Barbara St almost all the way to the Starr King Playground area where the new terrace walls are being poured. This requires a boom that reaches as high as the top of our tower. It also requires about a dozen strong men directing the concrete into the forms and tamping it tight. It’s all quite impressive. On Monday the forms will be removed and we will get our first glimpse of what our new courtyard will really look like.

So after two years of planning and several months of extensive and invisible infrastructure improvements, our dream is actually becoming real. We can begin to see the finished product, and it’s spectacular!