Greetings from the “getting closer but still a ways to go” Union Center Christian School renovation project. Kind of a big title but accurate. It seems that the more we get done, the more jobs pop up, although as we knock off the bigger ones, what remains is just a whole bunch of smaller stuff. The building itself feels more done than a lot of other things that have to get finished to open school in a few short weeks.
In one of my last posts, I had mentioned the flowers and the little garden area we had. Plans have changed and that will be gone shortly if it isn’t already. It was a huge pain to mow around and much of the mowing would have needed a hand mower, the way it was laid out. As soon as we are sure all the work of moving dirt around is finished, we will think about new plants and flowers.
We have had another work day since the last post, in addition to miscellaneous work being done by various people. The big thing was getting the ceiling tiles in. We had to wait until the heating units were mostly installed, and we were also waiting on a local building supply center to decide whether they were going to help us.
That was a big lesson in just doing what needed to be done and wait for God to work on the details. A couple months ago, we contacted a big name local supply enter and believe it or not, the only way we could contact them was by mail. At that point we had time to wait on their decision. As time passed, though, it got closer to the time we needed to put tiles in. We did have a discount offer from another local building store, but wanted to have more than one quote. Finally, we realized that not only was the one company not going to help us, but we were not going to receive the courtesy of them even saying “NO”.
At that point we contacted the other company, and told them we would take their offer. But they only had about half of what we needed! We picked up what they would give us, and they said it would be maybe two weeks to get the rest. I was kind of helping with this project, but was unaware that the chairman wanted to do them ALL on the next work day. So when I realized this, I visited another branch of the same company and left my info, hoping for a call. But the manager was out until 2 days before the work day. Our chairman decided to stop in and see about a quantity discount, and would you believe it, they gave us a slightly bigger discount than the other store! We got our tiles the day before the work day. All kind of unnerving for us, But God DID get us our tiles in time for the work day!
On the day of the great ceiling tile install, there were still a couple heating units being installed just ahead of the tile crews. It was nice weather, not too hot, but some of us had warmer conditions, due to the breeze coming in the windows on the other side of the building! I also confess to getting a jump on the tiles. I was there a few days ahead of the work day and just could not resist putting up a couple to see how they looked.
There was a good turnout for this work day, and a lot of other things got moved ahead. Someone was painting door frames, another person worked on setting up access fobs for the new security locks, and lots of window trim got re-installed. There were several MYF boys there, as well as a few younger ones, and everybody worked. We got pretty much all the tiles up in the rooms. The hallway has to wait for the internet and heating lines to be completed.
The cabinets are almost completed in the rooms, and a fridge that was donated by another charity has been installed. Now we can have really cold water for the work days!
That’s about it for now. Next time I will tell you what I and my wife have been busy with for the school. It’s amazing all the things that have to be done to get a school up and running. When you have a bunch of people with different likes and talents, there is certainly something for everyone to do.
Even though the major work is showing signs of winding down, we still need your help. If you would like to donate your time, please contact us. If you want to help with a donation, you can go on our website, www.uccs.school, there is a Donate button there, or you can contact us for more information. If you would like to make a totally anonymous donation, there is a button on our website to go through the Anabaptist Financial group. You can direct them to send your money to us, and your identity remains private.
