This summer has flown by.  Work has been proceeding on the building.  We had a new well dug and built a new heavy duty pump house out of brick.

This summer, all of our mechanical contractors have passed inspection: Electrical, Plumbing and HVAC duct work.  We needed to sheath the dormers on the rear of the building (sheathing weatherproofs the walls using foam and tar paper) in order to pass an inspection and allow us to add siding.  We built scaffolding to allow us to work safely on the roof.  We have passed the inspection and have begun installing the siding.  Once we finish and dismantle the scaffolding, the air conditioners can be installed and we can begin finishing the interior.

We are thankful for all of your prayers and support!

The HVAC contractor is awaiting an inspection before installing the units.  All of the duct work and wiring has been run for 3 large air conditioners that will be installed on the deck that was completed in December.

The electrician has been installing the wiring and is nearly complete.  He estimated 3 more days of work.

We have been installing the trim on the windows.  The pictures make the work look simple, as the finish trim only shows for wide boards; however, we put a lot of prep into the windows before we install the trim.  Due to the varied thickness of the logs, we must chisel away logs that are too thick, and add shims in places to make the window frame match the width of the wall.

Everyone here is dong well and we often talk about our friends from, well, all over.

Thank you for all of your love and prayers!

I have not updated the site here because it seems as though this year, especially this summer has flown by!  We appreciate all of you who keep up with the progress of the building and we are grateful for your prayers.

We have reached the point of working on interior finish work.  We recently began framing the large triangular windows that are near the ceiling in the auditorium.

The electrical contractor began wiring the building in November.  The air conditioning contractor began preparing the building for installation.  We were forced to take a break from our finish work to build (yet another!) deck measuring 9 by 20 feet.  The deck will hold the eleven tons of air conditioning that the building requires.  Those of you who have visited during the summer understand why all to well.  We built the deck over two weeks so that we would not postpone the air conditioning installation.  We are all taking our holiday vacations over the next few weeks and look forward to getting back to work on the building on January 9th.

Please know that we think fondly of you all.  We hope that all of you get to spend the holidays visiting with loved ones and being encouraged by the Spirit.

We have finished the railings on the decking and the contractor has done the early grading on the parking lot.  After the other heavy construction (septic tank and well digging) are done, he will do the final grading and place the parking bumpers.  We chose to lay shell sand for the parking lot.  Shell sand is inexpensive here at the beach, stands up well to traffic and drys quickly after rain.

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!

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 sight!
My wife has taken lots of pictures and I will upload them soon. Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement.

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.

We are still working on the building.  We have completed the fire escape and handicap access decking and are now working on the hand rails for these.  There is not much other news to report.  I hope to have some more pictures up very soon.

I wanted to take a moment to check in and tell you what we have been doing since my last post in July. Shortly after the roof was finished, we began the task of building the handicap access ramp and fire escape system.

This was very interesting work! Each post that supports the decking had to be attached to a cross tie that was buried either three feet deep, or as deep as the hard clay/rock layer, whichever is shallowest. I was going to give you a count of how many holes we dug and how many posts we planted, but I lost count long ago! Most of the 6×6 posts are eight feet long, but the four posts used to support the highest decks were 24 feet long. Those long posts were lifted in place with the assistance of a rope from the window/doorway above.

The good news is that the final post was planted in place on Friday and we should finish the decking on December 1. We are very happy to see all of that digging come to an end!

I apologize for not checking in sooner, but not much else has been happening.

This week the roofers finished installing the roof.