Week 1 of renovation work on the parish hall at St. Mary's has been completed. The crew got a remarkable amount of work done. The demolition in the basement is complete, revealing a number of structural surprises and challenges which we will deal with in the new construction. There was nothing dangerous, but we found additional floor tile requiring asbestos abatement and pillars where they were not anticipated.
An interesting fact about this project: as construction projects go, there are a remarkable number of women involved in this one. Our architects, Susan Richards Johnson and Julie Arntson, project superintendent Brook Eimers of J.E. Dunn and Stephanie Isaacson, proprietor of New Horizons LLC who did the hazardous materials abatement. One member of the demolition crew is a woman also.
Demolition continues on the ground floor level of the parish hall. The removal of two layers of flooring has revealed the original pine floor installed in 1887. We've also discovered original pine wainscoting on the walls. On the south side it has been badly damaged by water leaking from the roof and a fire in the basement about 40 years ago. On the north side, long stretches of it remain which were hidden under the synthetic brown paneling. The original pine has several layers of paint but we did fine one strip of the original stain and varnish that had managed to escape being painted over.
We had a great coffee hour in the nave on Sunday, April 18. Betty Herndon managed to present our usual generous offering of refreshments on the top of one 8-foot rectangular table. People seemed to stick around longer talking yesterday. The kids love running on the carpet runner on the center aisle and exploring the statuary and furnishings up close.
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