The college group from the Central congregation in Johnson City, Tennessee, visited the first week of May. They helped us completed several of the hand rails that we are building. I have added some pictures of these. Also included are pictures of the new vents that we installed in April.
Things are progressing normally. As always, we appreciate all of your interest and prayers!
Click here to view the new pictures.
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I have uploaded some new photos. Click here to view.
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It is inexcusable that I have not posted an update for more than six months! I do apologize and have no excuse other than to say that I was doing something I was good at: procrastinating.
A lot has happened since my last update:
Toward the end of summer, we put our perpetual task of making handrails on hold. In anticipation of installing our doors and windows, we completed preparations for these. This included finishing the exterior siding on the three rear dormers that would house two windows and the door to the fire escape. Once the windows and doors were ordered, the installer gave us specifications for the rough openings (the holes where the windows and doors were to go). We took several weeks to adjust the openings that had been built (the plans were incorrect in several cases.)
Over the Christmas holidays, our windows and doors arrived and were installed. The effects were dramatic. What had looked like a shell now looks like a real building!
From the time that the windows and doors were installed, we have been sealing the large gaps formed by the roof and rafters resting on the walls. In about three weeks, the building will be sealed to the elements, with the exception of some small areas that need to be caulked or puttied. We are making preparations to arrange for plumbing, electrical and HVAC contractors to do their work. We are still a long way from being granted a certificate of occupation by the county, but these are huge milestones nonetheless.
This past Friday, rain drove us inside where we removed some heavy scaffolding that had been placed on the rafters. It is amazing to look up and see the ceiling…what a beautiful site!
My wife has taken lots of pictures and I will upload them soon. Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement.
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My brother-in-law Kevin Henegar took about a gazillion photos and I have tried to put them online here, but they are of such detail that they take up too much space. When I spoke to Kevin a while ago, he said I could post the link to his gallery and the password.
The photo gallery is at http://henegar.phanfare.com/album/333629. The password is ‘gracemine.’
I know all of you have been waiting on news from the congregation here in Edisto… I apologize for taking so long. In this case, no news is good news. We have been steadily working on the building here, adding to the handrails. Last week (the first week in July) we worked with the youth from the Central congregation in Johnson City, Tennessee, who made their fourth visit. This year they were joined by some members of the Jefferson Avenue congregation in Cookeville, Tennessee. The nearly fifty folks worked in some hot, humid weather to clear brush from the lot (nearly completely so) and stain and seal the building. I hope to post many pictures in the next few days.
During our work last week, we discovered that one of the original support posts that we installed to hold up the front porch gable was badly decomposed. The post was slightly damaged when we installed it a few years ago, but due to the cost involved (the post is an irregular cut of heavy lumber) we chose to use it anyway. Now that we are much more experienced we were able to fashion a new post out of one of the extra logs left over from construction of the walls of the building. Using jacks, we were able to remove the damaged post and replace it with a healthy one. We have jumped one of the hurdles of long-term construction projects: maintenance on prior work. We sometimes wonder if Noah encountered similar circumstances! Next week we will return to our task of building handrails.