Back again (do I hear a collective groan?) after a happy, if somewhat wet, week touring in our RV. So returning to ODEC I was excited to see what’s been going on since I last walked the hallowed and muddy ground of our construction site.
Let me start with the rear wing, the biggest room is still full of furniture and fittings collected from the offices and the office corridor as the precursor to our renovation work. For the most part the rear wing is finished, true there is still some glass to be installed, restrooms to finish and IT and fire alarm systems to be commissioned but that aside it’s done! The walkthrough between the rear wing and the main building is still under construction but construction on the old library is mostly done and now waiting for painting and carpet. Before the project is completed this room will be resurrected as a small, permanent studio and enjoy ducted HVAC instead of those old, in wall units that used to crank and wheeze away like an old steam engine. The office and admin corridor renovation are also mostly completed. There’s new lighting, new carpets, new paint and a new printer/copy/fax and IT closet that will take the bird’s nest of a wiring installation out from the corner of the administrator’s office where it has been such a style icon for so many years! There is also the green shoots of new office furniture starting to appear in the refurbished office spaces so once the new IT network is up and running, and the favored items of furniture returned from the back wing, the regular inhabitants will be able to return from Tucker Hall, the Historic Church organ loft, home and wherever else renovation works dispersed the community! The Narthex and Great Hall have enjoyed a quiet week both poised, as they are, between the end of the main construction and fitting out the inside. Yes, walls are built, roofs are on, brickwork is laid, the heating and air-cooling system is installed and where possible insulation is fitted. This temporary pause is very much a brief lull before the next building storm that will see dry wall installation, painting, ceilings, lighting, and A/V system installations. And what perfect, God sent timing with the building nigh on empty the Great Hall could be cleared, brushed out and setup as a fallback location in the event the 1000 hrs Palm Sunday outdoor service was washed out. And now, for the first time in many weeks I can also turn my flying, fickle, blogging figure of fate onto the outside with the impending return of Higgerson to dig out the final underground bio system tank for the storm water treatment system (this will sit between the Great Hall and N. Witchduck Rd). Once the tank is completed Higgerson will turn their earth moving attentions on to completing the road traffic infrastructure (curbing, carparks, vehicle entrances), footpaths and the landscaping. So if, as the Flanders and Swann song goes, you are keen on glorious mud you must hurry down to the ODEC hollow to wallow, perhaps for one last time, in glorious mud for soon the site will be mud-less (and perhaps that long missing shoe will reappear?). Stay safe and stay healthy! David.
1 Comment
Mal Higgins
3/31/2021 08:16:58 am
Well, David, for a quiet week, your account of the developments in place already is thorough. The room in the new admin wing with its cache of furniture reminds me of a thrift shop.
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AuthorDavid Beach is our Building Project Manager, and has been an active part of our parish family for more than a decade. He is retired from NATO and the British Army and is a joy and blessing to all of us. Archives
July 2021
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