At home I have a list of “things” that need to be done to finish off a litany of projects and “do it yourself” jobs, in each case all the interesting and fun stuff is done but that devil is still hanging around in the detail. For me, that devil is more often than not in the painting, I can re-trim the wood around the garage door with an unbelievable enthusiasm, sadly not matched by my skill level, but painting just never seems to happen, and so it is on the construction site. Like a trail marking the passing of a mighty comet there are little tasks all over the site that mark the passing of some greater effort and those little tasks must be completed before we can say truly state “job done!”
This has indeed been the week of little tasks but although small, I rapidly came to realize how much effort, laced with a good shot of frustration, it takes to get the “trades” back on site to put the finishing touches to some “not quite finished” pieces of work. Scott Crumley has had to employ all his persuasive powers, tact, and at times threats, to maintain the steady drip of trades returning to complete some unfinished work that they call their own. Some are old friends, like the redoubtable Brannon plying his skills with measured control to finish off the odd bit of electrical chicanery. Then there’s the ever welcome “dry walls finishing” ladies making good the hole made in the wall when the door guys came back to move the magnetics, which hold doors open, so they correctly aligned with their counter parts on the actual doors – this little fix was, of course, preceded by a job that aligned the magnets on the doors so one was no longer 4” lower than the other (sounds like my “measuring” level of skill). The plumbers also made a welcome, and somewhat belated, return to the site and have finished off installing hand basins in the new restrooms and water fountains in the Narthex. Sadly, they will have to make a rapid return to fix the new, but nevertheless leaking, spigot outside the Great Hall. There's also been a flurry of activity on the fire alarm front (deep joy), and we are reliably informed by Mr. Thomas McCormick that all is ready for our fire alarm inspection, now scheduled for a week hence. Inside the building those maestros of the audio/video “dark arts” have been busy testing the system in the Great Hall and I can report the screen and blinds go up and down just as they should, but as of yesterday evening 50% of the main speakers seemed to be declining the invitation to make noise (I have the same problem in my old car, right side speakers work left not so good, it’s one of those little jobs I have to finish off!). We have had some wet weather of late, a blessing for the new trees that seem to have an unquenchable thirst, but not so good for the runoff rain water that cascades off the roof system. Longtime readers of this blog should not only be commended for their perseverance but might also care to recall our storm water management system. Three mighty underground bio retention tanks designed to remove nutrients from storm water before releasing it into the Chesapeake Bay’s water catchment area. You may also remember that water from our roof is supposed to flow into those tanks but to date this has been an impossibility because the roof scupper isn’t connected to the storm water management system drain so every time it rains water pools just to the left of the main Narthex doors. Well, my friends, give joy for those water pooling days are done with the connection of the roof scupper to the drainage system via a metal down pipe that one might, if being generous, call of “industrial” design. Moving right along, some readers will have read Father Bob’s report on the kerfuffle about using the Great Hall. So, with a quick paint job next week, Tucker Hall will be pressed back into parish hall duty. In the not-too-distant future that new paint will be complemented with a new carpet, the existing “rag” is rather tired, and with that we will have a seamless flow of carpet design between the Narthex and Tucker Hall. Before I end my waffle, I must commend Antony Beach, the second son of your blogger, who, even as I sit here typing on a Saturday mid-morning, is into his thirteenth hour of configuring the new IT network, having spent a slightly less-than-fulfilling eight hours on Friday tracking down a significant IT network problem caused by the new audio/visual system in the Great Hall. I will not bore you with the details (for one thing I had no idea what he what he was talking about), but suffice to say he managed to isolate the issue by about 4pm on Friday, and as at 1:30pm on Saturday things are starting to look much more promising in the IT network's world! As we approach the end of July, one’s thoughts tend to turn to vacation and so it is with Jo and me. Next week we will be heading out of town for a spell on the open road so no blogs, no pictures, no cryptic comments and no Brit speak for a few weeks. I look forward to picking up the blogging baton at the end of August but in the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy. David Beach
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It is Saturday morning, and with an hour to waste I hopped into the car and took a trip to ODEC. Now it’s not that I don’t spend time in the week malingering on site, but sometimes it’s rather nice to loaf around the empty building to fully absorb what Scott Crumley has delivered. And, truth be told, there’s also a growing realization one can see the light at the end of the “construction tunnel” and it most definitely is not the headlight on one of those “big yellow construction machines” bearing down on me!
This week saw Scott Crumley in classic juggling mode as he chased and berated a myriad of trades that should have been on site to finish a plethora of jobs including plumbing, painting, electrical and HVAC, to name but a few. Although their presence was sorely missed on Monday, by Wednesday it seemed we were hosting a “construction trade fair” with so many different contractors on site. By week’s end most of the external painting was done, plumbing installation in the Great Hall well on it’s way, and Atlantic Heating and Air were “knocking out” the last few jobs that must be done before we start the, rather arduous, series of inspections to be concluded before occupancy. I don’t know if you have ever played with one of those Chinese wooden puzzles? Jo, my wife, always buys some to pop in our Christmas stockings (hours of frustration promised for everyone). The trick to solving the puzzle is always the order in which you do things – try and remove one part before another and the whole puzzles locks up, leading to frustration and a desire to give the puzzle a good whack with a heavy hammer. Well, moving from where we are with the building now to being able to occupy the new spaces is very much akin to doing a Chinese puzzle, but without the heavy hammer. It is all about the the order of doing things, so bearing in mind you are being guided by the construction equivalent of a luddite, let me try to explain. The ceiling tiles must be installed, but that can’t be done until Scott has had a ceiling inspection, and that can’t be done until the final electrical and the final HVAC work has been completed and inspected, a situation made ever so slightly more challenging due to the unexpected non-availability of the main HVAC chap, who did the lion's share of the work in our building. But for our purpose, let’s suppose we have the ceiling inspection “seal of approval” what then? Now, the fire alarm takes center stage for its very own inspection under the ever-watchful eyes of Thomas McCormick, our fire alarm guru. I will not regale you once more with the fire alarm story, suffice to say if I never get the opportunity to be even remotely involved in a fire alarm system installation again…. well……..it will be way too soon! However, with doors suitably numbered, two permanent, dedicated telephone lines installed (and now working) and the door security contractor, having had enough nagging, (I’ve discovered a new talent, “professional contractor nagger” and I’ll be trying to leverage this talent into my fourth career AC – that’s “after construction” – with the proviso I don’t deal with anything even remotely fire alarm related) arrived on site in the form of Randall. Not our regular security door guy, but one who seems to have been just about the only cove from the company who wasn’t on leave since before the July 4th celebrations. So, many thanks to Randall for picking up the thread and “getting ‘er dun.” Bottom line, I think the fire alarm is ready for its inspection, that is, once everything else has been inspected. I feel I’ve harangued enough on the subject of inspections so let me “dwell a pause” on that topic and bring you up to date on the goings on in Tucker Hall. In a nutshell the Hall is currently a bit of a mess! The palladium window is gone and if it were not for the new sheet rock marking out its profile, a bit like those chalk markings you see in any good murder mystery (btw I recommend a Brit crime series called “Paranoid”) you wouldn’t know there ever was a window. Likewise, the new side door leading from Tucker into the Witchduck Rd. entrance to the Narthex has been cut into the wall and at the opposite end of the Hall the double back doors are no more. This is critical progress because, if you haven’t guessed, a successful fire inspection is dependent on the availability of those Narthex/Tucker Hall doors – now this is starting to get repetitive. Of course, although Tucker Hall is in a slightly disheveled state just now, you know that it, too, will soon be put to rights and with that, I will leave you until next time. Stay safe and stay healthy, David Beach I think everyone “lucky” enough to have been working in the buildings over the past many months will have grown accustomed to the sounds of hammers, drills, heaters, and various loud pieces of equipment – to say nothing of the humans – that make up the clamor of a noisy construction site, but this past week was a different kettle of fish altogether!
Mr. Thomas McCormick, the man heading up the installation and commissioning of the new fire alarm system, was in full testing mode. On the one hand a blessing because testing portends getting the system in service but on the other…….?? When the new system “goes off” three things happen; 1) there’s a high pitched “squeaking” sound, which would drive our canine and feline friends crazy 2) there are strobes emitting a brilliant white light that pierces your eyeballs and 3) there’s "the voice!" A flat, digital voice, no doubt a close kin to the voice in a lift* that announces the floor numbers. The fire alarm voice drones out a message telling you to “evacuate the building by the nearest exit – do not use an elevator,” I’m hoping Scott Crumley hasn’t sneaked an elevator into the building and that this is just a generic message! You may be thinking “well, that’s not too bad” and in truth for the first 5 or 6 tests it really isn’t but, and this is a big “but,” after a couple of full days testing it starts to drag on your nerves like finger nails across a blackboard (for that analogy I ask the older readership to explain to our younger parishioners who may have never had the opportunity to “enjoy” the fingernail across a blackboard experience). Although Gretchen appears to be smiling in the above picture in reality she is gritting her teeth as once again the announcement “evacuate the building by the nearest exit – do not use an elevator,” reverberates through the offices. The message “evacuate the building by the nearest exit – do not use an elevator” repeats over-and-over-and-over again in a flat, expressionless voice that for me served to drag up memories of learning multiplication tables in class by rote. It got to the point where I began to think “Miss Plumtree,” Class 4B’s intrepid teacher, would walk through the door and deliver a swift “ruler assisted” whack on the knuckles to a young Beach whose mind had wandered to pastures far away. I digress, the point is our new alarm is working and there’s only a few more things to be done before it’s fully operational, and then we will be one step closer to being able to fully occupy our new spaces. As if to remind us there is still construction work to be done the comforting sound of hammers ripping into walls returned to the site this week. On Wednesday our intrepid Facilities Manager, Matthew Improta, completed his preparations for the demolition work in Tucker Hall. On Thursday the Good Shepherd stained glass was carefully removed (it will be remounted in the Great Hall), and on Friday, Tucker Hall’s palladium window was demolished so one can now saunter directly from the hall into the narthex. Next week the hole, which was the window, will be enclosed with sheet rock and before long all signs of the window will be gone whilst at the opposite end of the hall (the end near the neighbor) the external double doors will be removed, the hole walled up and the enclosed space transformed into kitchen storage, and with that the last major construction activity will be completed. Stay safe and stay healthy, David Beach “Lift” Brit speak for an elevator. With every passing week the building phase of the project draws ever closer to completion and now we are looking forward to the last major piece of construction by connecting the parish hall to the narthex and closing off the hall’s rear doors to create the new storage space for the kitchen, which will sit between the existing chair and tables stores.
The connection between hall and narthex will see the Good Shepherd relocated, more on that in a later blog, and the palladium windows, at the left end of the hall as you enter, removed to be replaced by drywall and a door frame for the doors leading into the main body of the narthex, which were installed on the narthex side some time ago. Those who have visited the construction will no doubt recall Scott Crumley’s delight in surprising visitors by opening those doors from the narthex side to expose what was the parish hall’s external wall and windows. That little game will soon be up! But this is all in the near future so let’s take a quick look back at the happenings in the week gone by. Pride of place for the past week goes to the installation of our new audio/visual (a/v) system in the great hall. Andy and his 3-man team from ONYX have been hard at work mounting the large shades and the new projection screen above the palladium windows. This was quite a feat, the tops of those windows are well above my “high place comfort level” (which in truth is not much more than a very small step ladder) and the equipment is on the chunky side of very heavy. To give you some idea of mass, the mounting brackets for the screen can easily support the weight of man – as Andy proved before attempting to lift and secure the screen in place. We also witnessed a successful projector test and heard the hall reverberate to the rich sounds delivered by the speaker system. There is some further system testing to be done and the interconnection between the hall and the Old Church to be established but the heavy lifting has, quite literally, been done! There’s also been a welter of small jobs completed including re-painting the nursery to give it more “child,” or more accurately “parent,” appeal, as well as the “green wall” in the new studio (this green wall is for video camera trickery rather than some bizarre designer impulse!). Along with the studio and nursery, the parish secretary’s office, so long the domain of Cheryl Sutherland, has been redecorated and new window blinds fitted throughout the rear wing as well as many windows in the “existing” building. The new cabinetry for the narthex restrooms, the coffee bar and altar guild has been installed but it will be several weeks before the display cases, the library shelves and the additional storage for the altar guild are delivered. Some new chairs, courtesy of Bill Waide, have been delivered and a large order placed with a company called MYLITE for the Great Hall’s chairs. Storage equipment for the band’s storeroom has been delivered and as soon as the new carpet has been laid all of our excellent band’s musical instruments and paraphernalia will, at last, have a permanent home! And there’s more: Mother Ashley has been hard at work researching equipment for the new nursery and that too is now in-bound to ODEC. On the downside, progress on commissioning the new fire alarm has been less than “dynamic,” but as I griped enough about this subject in last week’s blog, I’ll leave it there and hope there’s better news to report in next week’s offering. Before I end, I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a, albeit belated, very happy “Fourth of July.” Stay safe and stay healthy, David Beach. |
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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