I’ve been taking a short blogging sabbatical for the past two weeks and now it’s time to tickle those old keyboard keys and bring you up to date on the happenings around the ODEC construction site, so let’s take a blogging stroll around part of the campus!
Stand with me at the corner of our Old Church and look across at the building that is the new Great Hall and Narthex. Just 9 months have past since the Scott Crumley building machine broke ground on what was our old car park. For much of that time ground between the edge of the graveyard and Witchduck Road has been a no man’s land mired in mud, dust, building material, and general construction debris accessible only to those wearing wellie boots* or sensible constructers’ footwear (unlike your blogger who will never see that missing slip-on shoe again) and constantly crisscrossed by mud-churning heavy plant of the yellow variety. Larry Higgerson and his site team have transformed the area and the no-man’s land is gone! Now we are looking at neat landscaping that abuts the new exposed agate pathways (there I go again, sounding like I know concrete), which is, as some may recall, the same finish as the pre-construction paths. One walkway closely follows the route of the old path that used to run from the Church to the Tucker Hall entrance now with a slight detour to connect with the new porch and entrance at the west end of the Great Hall and then on to connect to the main Narthex doors. Beyond that the new path sweeps along the front of the building past the Day School offices to the Day School entrance where it links with the old path running along the cemetery side of the Church. As we walk this path towards the Day School entrance we pass, on our left, a new concrete patio where folks will be able to sit, contemplate, chat to friends or even use the new outside WiFi to catch up on the goings on at ODEC. Back to our vantage point by the Old Church, looking towards Witchduck Rd we can see order appearing out of construction mayhem. The curbs that delineate the carpark and vehicle entrance are all in place and the surface is all prepared for laying the tarmac. Once again, the landscaping is complete and in many places sporting a straw-net “wig” laced with contractor’s grade grass seed – staying with the straw-net the one laid at the rear is now covered with a fledgling grass lawn that will soon need cutting! Enough of the outside, let's walk the new path once more but this time turn off at the west end entrance to the Great Hall. Inside the Hall the sheet rock is brandishing a new coat of “balanced beige” paint nicely set off by a white ceiling reaching to apex of the roof. To either side of the apex ceiling the suspended ceiling matrix has been installed and as I type “It’s Electric” are busily installing the lighting system. Crossing the Great Hall into the Narthex another ceiling matrix is in place and in the Narthex restrooms floor tiles are laid. From the Narthex we can walk through the double doors and into the Angel’s office (still where it always was) now, like the rest of the corridor and its offices, fitted out with new carpet, freshly painted walls and new lighting. Moseying from the Angel’s office into the corridor to the left we find the first incumbent to reoccupy their refurbished office. Father Bob is back from his various “roaming locations” and now when he says “I’ll be in my office” you’ll know where to find him! Enjoy your weekend, stay safe and stay healthy, David Beach “Rubber Wellies” English vernacular for rubber boots that are known in the UK as wellington boots after the Duke of Wellington of the Battle of Waterloo (18 Jun 1815) fame who is reputed to have developed the knee length leather boot that evolved into the rubber wellington boot (the wellie).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
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
|