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!