Plattsburg UCC Kitchen/Fellowship Area Remodel
Week 3 - March 13, 2011 (see Gallery for Pix)
The result of this week’s activity has the Trustees considering a name change for the church. Instead of “Plattsburg U.C.C.” meaning Plattsburg United Church of Christ, it has been proposed it stand for Plattsburg United Church of “Concrete”!!
The biggest surprise for this week was finding that the electrical service box by the parking lot entrance, which is to be replaced with a larger one so we have adequate electric power for the new kitchen, had 2 feet of concrete poured beneath it and the concrete completely encased the conduit line with the main electric feed lines inside it. Since the lines had to be exposed to install the new box, the electrician went to work with his hammer drill (think mini jack hammer). All was going well until he accidently struck and pierced the conduit thus hitting a live electric line with his hammer drill. The resulting sparks and burn marks were the only damage except the need to repair the line & conduit. He worked several hours and found it necessary to go purchase a special tool to cut the damaged conduit in order to restore power to the church.
Here is the progress report for the week:
- Countryside builders began work on Monday as scheduled and have most of the framing and some of the dry wall installed on the new areas of the project.
- The Trustees, with help from Jason Rittenhouse, constructed a new wall along the East side of the Teenager’s Sunday school room.
- The electrician has most of the wiring run for all the new lights, receptacles, microwaves, etc.
- The plumbers continued to work on installation of new water and drain lines. They are about ready to install the gas line from the outside into the kitchen area for the new ranges.
- The block mason has closed in the three windows on the West wall that will now have upper cabinets on them and has begun to install the new glass block windows. He also blocked in the old “vent fan/wasp nest cavity” in the South wall.
- Don Dyer spent most of two days doing pre-painting trim work in the Fellowship area. This set the stage for our Friday night “party”.
- Seventeen people gathered Friday evening and the result was the painting of virtually the entire fellowship area and the parking lot entrance area. It was amazing how much was accomplished. It actually left very little to do on Saturday A.M. A good time was had and lots of left over Lenten Service cookies were consumed!
Please note this request for help. We need people willing to give time and effort to the project this coming week. It is the congregation’s responsibility to paint everything in the newly constructed “kitchen area” this coming Friday @ 6:00 P.M. We plan to paint the walls, ceiling, woodwork, and just about anything else except the lights and door knobs. We also must clean up all the trash and items in both the kitchen and fellowship areas left from construction so the flooring company can begin work on our new floor the following Monday. Lots of hands will make light work and add to the enjoyment.
One final note. Please respond to the pledge request sent to you by the “Campaign 165 Committee” as generously as your budget allows. We need to have a financial plan to retire this debt as soon as possible.
Week 4 - March 20, 2011 (see Gallery for Pix)
If Moses had belonged to Plattsburg Church, he would have written the Ten Commandments on tablets of concrete and when he threw them down in anger, they would not have broken!! If Noah were a member, the ark would never have floated!!!
Much progress was made this week, but, as usual, there were some unexpected situations and some of them involved concrete.
Here is the progress report for the week:
- The electrician began the process of replacing the primary breaker box and service lines into the church. What was anticipated as a 1 to 2 day job took 5 full days and is not yet totally complete. As always, concrete played a role with the discovery that the existing box not only had concrete at its base, but had areas all around it made of poured concrete.
- We tore up the carpet at the parking lot entrance with hopes that there would be a few inches of space under the floor boards that would accommodate new electrical conduit. What we found was a cavity 8 feet long by 4 feet wide with a depth of 6 feet!!
- The bad news, when we tore up the carpet, was that the floor boards under the carpet were severely rotted because rain and snow was coming in under the threshold of the door. The only way to correct the problem was the cut a 12 inch wide channel in the existing entrance concrete and install a grated drain system to intercept the water. That meant cutting through the concrete and digging out the channel.
- We set the thermostat on the furnace up on Monday night in order to speed drying of the new plaster and dry wall joint compound, only to walk in Tuesday morning to find the furnace had failed and required a service call to get it operational again.
- Country side Builders completed work on the walls, and a group of 12 people painted the entire kitchen and serving area on Friday evening.
- Work to install the new windows was completed.
- Bringing the new gas line into the kitchen to operate the new ranges was completed except for final hook up and inspection.
- Because of water damage over the years, many areas of the existing walls have been repaired or replaced. Credit Jason Rittenhouse for most of that work. With the new paint, the entire area looks significantly better.
The work is on schedule according to the original timeline. We were expecting the flooring company to begin work on Monday, but because we poured new concrete over the new drainage system two weeks ago, the decision has been made to delay the flooring process another week to allow for a longer curing time of the concrete, thus reducing possibility of problems with the epoxy surface we plan to install. This will not affect the final completion date since we built in two weeks for just such situations.
A FINAL NOTE: Please respond to the pledge request sent to you by the “Campaign 165 Committee” as generously as your budget allows. We need to have a financial plan to retire this debt as soon as possible.