Building for Tomorrow!

Late yesterday (Friday) a very large sign was placed on the corner of Westheimer and Bering. The sign has two large street views of the new building and identifies those who are supporting the project: Amegy Bank, Fretz Construction, and Ziegler-Cooper Architects.

Across the top of the sign is our capital campaign theme: Building for Tomorrow! With all of the excitement these past weeks it might be very easy to forget why we are expending such a huge amount of time and effort on this project. If the goal is simply to have a nicer facility I am afraid that we might actually be disappointed. Like all things temporal, over time, the building will begin to wither and fade, like the grass of the field. If the goal is to proclaim the gospel to the very ends of the earth then the Lord will bless our efforts and the new space will serve a special purpose.

Consider this: at the moment Memorial Lutheran School is completely filled with children from eight-weeks to pre-school. The new space will allow us to add nearly forty additional children in these programs. The waiting lists can be turned into more children in our school who are hearing the gospel and are experiencing sins forgiven. Thanks be to God. He does all things well.

The new space will also give our youth (junior and senior high) a special place to call their own. How wonderful to have an inviting space where they want to bring their friends for bible study and fellowship.

Let us not become excited about the building but let us be "doers of the Word" as we use this space to the glory of God and the expanding of the kingdom in Houston. I pray that the Lord will enliven each us to His service.

Plumbing and Parking

Today work is continuing on the new building plumbing and the new front parking lot. The city inspector is expected today to look over the sewer lines before work can continue. The main pipes for the chiller (shown in the picture) are also being buried on the west side of the school building where the chiller yard will be.

On the Westheimer side they are now removing several inches of soil from the entire park area. Because there is no base they will need to carefully prepare the soil for the new parking lot. I understand that they will skim off about 5-6 inches of top soil and then spread lime which will then be covered with several inches of rock. During construction the parking lot will remain a gravel lot so that we do not damage the asphalt finish. Once work is completed on the building the parking lot will be paved.

Underground Work!

All of the piers were poured on Tuesday (including the piers for the chilled water unit and the covered parking lot). Yesterday and today they are working hard to set the water and plumbing for the new building. This has included work to install the piping for the chilled water unit. They are also busy cutting the asphalt pavement in the parking lot (gym lot) as they prepare to install the storm/sewer drainage.

This morning they hit the school water main (again!) and so we will be without water for about an hour as they hook us back up.

Bring on the Concrete

Despite being a bit wet, the concrete trucks have arrived and are in high-gear pouring the piers for the new building. They are using a bit of drying agent to keep from tearing up the dirt work. There is certainly no turning back now!

Architect on Site

As the pier work began, architect Paul Lodholz was on-site to oversee the work. He reported that the deep soil samples looked very good and was going to be strong for the piers and foundation of the new building. Also pictures is Paul's assistant, Gilford Allen, who is helping us throughout the project. A huge thanks to both of them for their own-going over site of our project.

Pouring Piers Today

Today will be busy with the pouring of the new building piers throughout the day. The piers will be drilled and then filled with concrete along with a metal frame inside each pier. Today will be a great day to tune into the web cam to see some work.

All Clear!

Late this afternoon (around 5 PM) the final trees were removed from the campus. I must admit that the front yard of the campus looks extremely different; not bad just different. It is very difficult to picture how everything will look once the parking lot is completed and the new landscaping comes to life. As I stood watching with one of the Fretz workers he said, "It is going to be beautiful when everything is finished." It is hard to see that at the moment but I know that great and glorious things are to come.

There has also been much work to prepare for the installation of the new Westheimer sign. If all goes well the sign may be installed before the end of January. The plan calls for removing the top of the current sign, cleaning the brick, installing new lettering on the brick and placing an electronic sign on top. It will be great to be able to change the sign information with the touch of a button (or a computer key). I pray that the increased curb appeal and inviting look of the campus will be a welcoming invitation to Houstonians.

Another Mess!

Today (Friday) there has been more tree removal along Westheimer for the new parking lot. They are also busy laying out the new building and marking the position of the piers. While it is still too wet to drill they are hopeful to begin this work early next week. If all goes according to plan they will drill and pour the 70+ piers all in one day. Of special note is the removal of four trees that will be used by Jim Keller. Jim is a nationally known artist who specializes is creating wonderful pieces of art from wood. He has a special talent for turning bowls and other such items. Jim has taken these trees and plans to make some special creations that can be purchased by members to support the capital campaign. I certainly look forward to seeing his work; something old turned into something new (that is certainly the way of the gospel).

New Parking

This afternoon (Thursday) work began on the new parking lot that will wrap the front of the sanctuary and will connect the two sides of the campus. This new parking lot is going to be a very helpful addition to the campus.

Of course, the new parking lot means several trees have the be removed around the front and sides of the sanctuary. The removal of trees began this afternoon. By the end of the day they had removed five or six trees from the south/west corner of the campus. While several trees will be removed many of the largest and most significant oaks trees will remain. I would like to think that we are getting the best of both worlds: a new parking lot without sacrificing all of the trees.

More Dirt!

This week has been crazy at the job site. On Sunday you saw a nice fresh layer of dirt on the site of the new construction. On Monday morning another 50+ trucks arrived to continue raising the site.

Early in the week work also continued on the new school entrance/exit. All of that work is now completed and the demolition of the old front walk is complete. The gas line was moved and the last tree on the building site was removed. We also managed to hit the cable line on Wednesday so that the church and school were without Internet access for a day. To date, we have hit just about every line possible (the only exception being the phone line, but I'm sure we will get that one sooner or later).

Because of the rain they are unable to work on the building site today (Thursday). They had planned to drill and pour piers the end of the week but it looks like this work might be delayed. Instead they are planning to remove the remain trees (along Westheimer) in preparation of the new park lot.

God is good and so are the workers. Despite various setbacks and challenges (daily!) everything is moving forward and everyone is working together.

A Flury of Work!

Please don't let my silence these last days be taken for no activity at the work site. The opposite is true. The end of this week has seen work progressing at break-neck speed.

The building site is completely cleared. The base dirt has been cleaned and leveled and new dirt is being delivered and worked. I cannot begin to count how many semi-trucks were in and out doing the removal. I can tell you that we are scheduled for over 100 truck loads of new dirt to be used as the base of the new building. On Sunday (or from the web cam) you can see the stakes with the pink tape marking the layout of the building.

Besides the outside site work for the new building other work has been continuing: finishing off the metal work on the west side of the sanctuary (where the walk-way was disconnected), removing the brick utillity fence near the school office, moving HVAC and electric services on the outside of the school building, and building out the new school entrance and hallway. Again, this has been a very busy week.

Cleaning Up

Today was another day of cleaning up around the site. More concrete was hauled away, especially from around the side of the school. The bulldozer also spent a far amount of time mounding up the dirt that is to be removed.

The biggest problem today was a lack of trucks to carry materials to the dump. It seems that these are the sort of delays one often faces on a large job such as this. If all goes well tomorrow all of the demolition on the north side of the sanctuary will be complete (with the exception of one tree, see below). There is however a large amount of demolition (tree clearing, etc.) that still is coming around the front (the Westheimer side) of the sanctuary in preparation for the new parking lot.

Center Point Energy was also on-site today to make preparation for moving a gas line that is very near a tree that still needs to be removed. Hopefully this work will be done in the next 3-5 days.

Concrete Removal

Today (Monday) was a very busy day at the site. Over the weekend all the new equipment arrived and everything went into high gear early in the morning.

The main task is the removal of the concrete foundations from all four of the removed buildings. Most of the slab has already been jack-hammered and so now the "mean machine" is gently pulling up pieces for removal. The concrete is being loaded into semi-trailers for delivery to a concrete recycling facility. Nice to know that not everything is going into a landfill.

Other work is also progressing. The short south hallway near the library has been walled off during construction. This was done to make sure that this exit, which will be unusable during construction, does not appear as an exit in case of an emergency.

They also began work in the Kindergarten classroom. The new plan calls for a school exit door within the current utility fence (the brick fence near the school office entrance). To access this door a hallway will run across the back of the current Kindergarten classroom. They expect to build that wall and install the exterior door later this week.