Hey all,
Just a quick update on the beam repair project at the church.
Work has been underway for a couple of weeks now and
progress has been good. As with most repairs to existing
buildings we anticipated a couple of surprises – and we were
not disappointed. We held our breath while we opened up
the floor and several walls and we were pleasantly surprised
that only a few locations hid plumbing pipes and electrical
wiring. The biggest surprise was the heating ducts encased
in concrete beneath the sanctuary floor – ducts which pass
through the exact location of the footings for two of the new
posts. Fortunately all of these issues were easily addressed,
unfortunately it cost more money. The good news however
is that we are still on schedule and reasonably on budget. All
of the footings have been poured, and all of the locations are
open and ready to install the steel posts, which should be
arriving from Idaho next week. Separate crews have been
working on the “post-tensioning system” for the existing
beams and the replacement glulam beam is ready to be
picked up from the lumberyard as soon as the steel brackets
arrive. We will put the beam in at the same time as the steel
posts to minimize the cost of equipment rental. I want to
thank you for all your prayers and encouragement, the job is
going well and we are really happy with the workers and
their work so far. I would like to ask you to continue to
pray; we need about four good weather days to do the outside
work in a couple of weeks – which will be a miracle in
Oregon.
Now, to answer the “big question”. The building should be
ready to move back into around Thanksgiving. All the structural
work should be done but we may need to finish some
minor cosmetic work after we have moved back in.
Thanks again for your patience and prayers – Pastor Shane
