Has it stopped raining yet?

Rain, rain . . . Which is better hot and humid or cooler and rainy? At least our guests cannot complain that we don't have a swimming pool or maybe it's a fishing hole? (See picture one.) Work progresses some on the siding, but it is not finished yet. The landscapers (later) will have fun digging in the mud. Meanwhile, work progresses on the interior. Picture two shows work on one of the bathroom floors (there are two) in the community room. Picture three shows painted walls in the community room and all of the cabinets that will be installed in the community room building -- some are for the kitchen, some for the pantry, some for the office. The next blog should show them installed. As the count down to an August move-in to the community building continues, volunteers are sorting through linens and kitchen items, saving some items for the apartments, donating some items to charities and discarding some that are no longer usable. Approximately 100 loads of laundry have been done so far as we wash and bag linens. (Thanks, volunteers!) Contact the apartments at 713.790.9120 and leave a message if you are interested in helping with the moving preparations or the move. Work will be done between now and November.

Community Room Views

Here are some views of the new community room and office. Notice that the sheetrock has all been floated. In picture one, the photographer is standing in the community room, looking north. Through the windows you can see Building A (soon to be demolished). There is a little foyer, visible in the left of the picture. To the left of the foyer is the office; to the right is the entrance door. In picture two, you are standing in the foyer, looking left into the office. There will be a sliding window in the opening. One volunteer will sit at a desk facing this opening. In the back of the office, you see the office closet. In picture three, the photographer is standing in the east end of the community room. Looking up, you can see the pipes for the sprinkler system. They will be covered by a suspended ceiling. The doorway on the left is to the kitchen as is the pass-through opening just to the right of the door. Looking a further to the right, you see the hallway which will access the media room (VHS and DVD library, games), two restrooms, storage, fire sprinkler equipment and the office. Just below the temporary light in the hallway, you can see the office door. Also further to the right, you can barely see the office window opening. Picture four is taken from the kitchen, looking through the doorway and pass-through opening into the community room. Picture five shows the closet with the fire sprinkler equipment. The door to the left is to one of the restrooms. The last picture shows the porte-cochere outside the community room. Guests will be able to exit the shuttle or their cars under cover. It is anticipated that the mail boxes will be located in this area. The four-pane window above the blue dumpster is in the foyer. The two-pane window is in the office. The schedule is coming along with occupancy of the office in mid-to-late August and demolition of Building A around September 1. Any remaining guests in Building A will be relocated into Building C or D, if possible. All furniture and other items from Building A (including many of the contents from previously demolished Building B which have been stored in apartment four) will be stored in the community room until the apartments are ready for occupancy, now scheduled for October.

Blogger goes for a visit!

On July 3, the blog writer finally got to visit the new apartments. She donned hard hat and old shoes (it is very muddy with the recent rains) to prepare for her tour. Her tour included several apartments and the new community room. The first picture shows the "view" from outside the front door of one of the first floor apartments. The rooms are all framed in and there are stacks of sheetrock waiting to be hung. Once they start hanging it, they can do a floor in a day! Some new features that are not in the current apartments include stove and bath exhaust fans that vent to the outside, fire sprinkler systems, a built-in desk and an L-shaped kitchen counter with a window over the kitchen sink that looks out on to the courtyard. The second picture shows the interior of the community room. The green board on the bottom is "waterproof sheetrock", the kind that is used in showers behind the tile. So if we happen to have a flood, we'll be protected on the bottom! Also, if we happen to have a hurricane, tremendous winds would have to hit to do building damage as all four stories are tied to the foundation via solid steel bars in the walls. You can see the pipes for the sprinkler system in the ceiling. There will be a suspended ceiling (ceiling tiles) that will cover up those pipes. You will notice that in the community room, there are no center poles. What a joy it will be to have dinners and meetings there without that center pole that was in the old building! The community building kitchen is quite large and there is a large pantry as well. There are two bathrooms and also a large media room for our VHS and DVD collections. All in all, the project is coming along nicely!