Exterior

This week all exterior brick and mortar is now complete.  The crews have moved into cleaning, applying brick sealer, caulking and painting of the wood trim.  The exterior work is ahead of the original planned schedule.  Currently the scaffolding is targeted to start being removed around August 28th. This process will take several days to complete.  It will be exciting to pull back the curtain to see the months of hard work revealed.  Still to come in the schedule will be finish paint of all trim and doors, restored door hardware, new exterior lights, and restoration of the masonry foundation.  A big item still being worked on is with the handicap ramp.  We are still working with the city to finalize the proposed design and required changes.  We are expecting final approval after the next city meeting on August 19th.

Interior

The amount of work is really picking up on the interior.  Everyday there are multiple trades working around each other to complete their scope of work.  In any one day the site sees electricians, framers, HVAC technicians, plasterers, painters, fire sprinkler installers, AV and organ consultants.  Some areas are now moving into finish work.  The new organ pipe chamber and altar area are nearing completion.  There is still a lot of work to do but the project is on schedule for completion at the end of October.

Walker Hall

The new bathroom/locker room remodel is nearing completion.  With all rough-in work complete, the focus is now on finish surfaces.  This week all of the tile will begin with a targeted completion on Monday. Flooring, painting, and installation of all plumbing fixtures will happen next week.  We are working closely with the City of Orange to approve our occupancy by the time school starts on August 25th.  The only outstanding item will be related to the wheel chair lift.  In consultation with the city, we need to provide to state inspectors the appropriate information they need to sign off on the lift.  But the city will still provide us a temporary occupancy while we wait for the final lift details.

For the fire suppression system, work is well underway with installing the piping, sprinkler heads, and alarm system.  Due to the complexity of this install and need to work around our ministry needs to use Walker Hall, the schedule currently has this work completing mid October.  Our facilities team is working daily with the contractors to be sure our staff knows which areas will be usable and which areas need to be shutdown while the sprinklers are being installed.  We know that there will be interruption at times, but all of us are working together to reduce the impact to as little as possible.

Important Reminder About Safety and Security

To date we have had no accidents or personal injuries in any of the construction areas.  Our contractors are very conscientious about keeping the facilities safe and secure and keeping all workers free from injury.  To ensure this safety standard is kept, all areas inside the construction fences are off limits to outside visitors without prior approval.  We ask that no one enter into any of the construction areas.  We are keenly aware of the desire of all to know what is happening inside, so we encourage you to look at the photos that are updated on our website a couple of times per week.  We are not able to accommodate onsite visits expect for official business by our project and executive leadership teams.  Even those visits must be prearranged and only allowed when the site is safe to enter.  We ask that everyone respect the fences and warning signs.

With school ready to return on August 25th, our sensitivity to safety is even greater.  There will be daily meetings with the contractors to be sure our campus is safe at all times for students and parents.

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RESTORATION BLOG