Several Fridays ago I went out to the Church Building to see how things have progressed. I must say I was impressed! The guys have finished the ceilings and should finish putting up the molding in a few weeks. They hope to have the interior completed within a few months. Our prayer is that God will allow us to complete the project this year and let us begin holding services there! We solicit your prayers on our behalf. I have attached a few photos so you can see what’s going on!

First,  let me apologize for not updating the site before now. We are taking a few steps to make sure regular updates appear here. First,  I have created a twitter account, @edistochurch, which you can follow for brief frequent updates.  These updates will also appear in the column to the right of this page. Second, Charlotte Killen, my mother, will also begin posting more frequent updates to the site here along with pictures of the construction.

Now, about the construction:  Work is ongoing and steady.  We are doing lots of interior work.  Our current task involves installing plywood panels for the ceiling in the non-auditorium part of the building (bathrooms, classrooms, kitchen, closets, etc.)  We should complete this task in two to three weeks.  The next task on the list is floor installation  We will begin by installing the relatively easier small linoleum bathroom floors, after which running bathroom plumbing can be installed by the plumber. Following this, we will install the high traffic wood flooring in the auditorium and hallway, followed by appropriate flooring for the kitchen, closets, and classrooms.

After flooring is complete, we will install molding and trim work, and finish interior and exterior painting.

We are blessed to see God’s continued work in this and we are thankful for all of your prayers on our behalf!

This summer has flown by.  Work has proceeded 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 weather proofs the walls using foam and tar paper) 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.