Peeling back layer after layer

A freshly painted sanctuary ceiling

It dawned on me recently that it's been too long since I updated this blog.  We have been continuing to work on the building in West Conshohocken.  It has needed much more work than we could have guessed.  It seems like every time we peel one layer off, we find 12 underneath, but some big things have happened recently that have been extremely productive.

The ceiling in the sanctuary needed a lot of help, but now it looks as good as new with a fresh coat of paint.  

The upstairs bathroom has been made functional and remodeled with new fixtures.  

New sinks have been installed in the downstairs bathrooms.  

New ceilings have been installed in the side entrance and in the office areas.  

Electrical repairs are in the process of being made, but some are complete and new lights will be going up soon where they're needed.  

Almost all of the wood trim has been rejuvenated with the help of some Danish Oil.  

The logo for the new church has been designed.  

A pipe started leaking and created a big mess, but we were able to repair the damage.  In the end, all it did was force us to rip out some carpet sooner than we were planning on.

We're still bringing work teams down on Thursdays and will continue to do so until everything is ready.  Coming up soon, we'll be hosting a work day (probably on a Saturday).  On that day, we'll be removing all remaining junk, construction debris, and carpeting.  We'll also be giving the building a deep clean in preparation for the carpet installation.  We'd be grateful for your help if you were interested in lending a few hours of your time.  A date will be posted soon.

As always, thanks for your prayers!

Mike, Rich, and John working together on the building.

Applying Danish Oil to all the wood surfaces

New sinks and repaired walls in the downstairs Men's room

This bathroom was non-operational, but now it has a new floor, new sink, working toilet, and will be painted soon.

New ceiling being sanded by Dom

New ceiling in the side entrance

Peter installing a new sink vanity in the Men's Room

Mike installing a new ceiling and a new light at the bottom of the stairs

Andrea risking her life on top of scaffolding so she could paint the trim along the ceiling

We had to rip out wet carpet and soggy carpet padding when the pipe leaked.  No worries.  It was going to be ripped out soon anyway.  This just bumped it up on the list.

You might want to skip this post if you have a weak stomach...

The decomposed skeletal remains of a family of birds

You might want to skip this post if you have a weak stomach.

Several months ago when we began the project to repair the building in West Conshohoken with the goal of starting a new church there soon, we quickly discovered that getting the building ready was going to take a fair amount of work.

Various volunteers have been helping us.  We're also being assisted by Mike, a contractor from Core Creek Community Church.  Mike is in the process of replacing some of the damaged ceilings in the building and came across a little surprise today.

For some time (we're not sure how long, but possibly years), a piece of soffit was missing over the door to the side entrance.  We replaced that missing piece, but during the years when it was missing, it clearly invited birds and other animals to make a home in this part of the building.

As the ceiling was being replaced in the side entrance today, this is what began to rain down...

It looks like birds have been nesting up there for quite a while and some even considered it their final resting place.

I thought I would share this with you because if you ever feel led to get involved in replanting a church, this might be the type of surprise you eventually encounter as well.  Look at how many bags it took to clean up the mess... 

The work you can see and the work you can't...

The main room on the lower level is primed and ready for paint.

We are trying to be somewhat aggressive with the remaining work that needs to be accomplished around the building in West Conshohocken.  Our goal is to have the work finished by the end of 2016 so we can begin the work of planting the church in earnest.  We are trying to carve out one (possibly two) partial days each week to dedicate to this project and that seems to be helping.

Barb, helping us with trim painting

The main room in the lower level is primed and ready for paint.  The back room is partially primed and is ready to be trimmed.

Andrea, trimming some of the areas near the ceiling

We have most of the junk and clutter removed from the building at this point, but there are still a few items that need a new home.  We have three pianos we'd like to give away and some other odds and ends, including Christmas decorations.

John, rolling the primer in the back room on the lower level.  This is the room we loaded up with junk at first when we were trying to bring some sense of order to the building.  Most of the junk is gone now.

What you can't see from these pictures is the work taking place behind the scenes.  Matt Thomas is hard at work getting a sound booth built and figuring out the other logistics of sound and video for the sanctuary.  Mike Ivins is in the process of remodeling the bathrooms and he also coordinated a visit with a carpet installer to take measurements so he can give us a bid.

Will we be finished with the remaining painting by the end of this month?  With the other interior projects be completed by the end of 2016?  I don't know, but we're getting close enough that it seems likely.  Thanks for your prayers!

Some visitors from up north stopped to lend a hand

Matt Macking helping us get cleaned up from some of the work we did earlier in the week.

Typically, we try to carve out one work day each week to work on the building, but this week, we snuck an extra day in.  Late last night, we learned that we would have some extra help.  Matt Macking (the Director of the Pocono Mountain Bible Conference) and Mitchel Raboci drove down to lend a hand.

Mitchel Raboci at work, cleaning up debris

We loaded the organ that was removed from the building onto a truck, did some more painting, cleaned various light fixtures, used the shop vac to clean up debris from other projects, packed more items to donate and did some additional wall repairs.  It was a full afternoon / evening.

The organ was ready to be loaded in the truck.  Let's just say it wasn't a "light" object to try to move.

Our thanks to Matt and Mitchel for their help!  We even provided them with two trophies we found in the midst of the random items the old church left behind.  

Winners!

Organ removal surgery

Dylon climbed into the wall to help us remove the organ speakers

Organs don't seem to be quite as popular as they once were.  We have an organ that we want to pass along to someone else, but they're hard to sell and just as hard to give away for free.  It's like offering someone a tube-TV.  No one seems to want them.

Well, thankfully, we found someone who was willing to offer us a very minimal amount for the organ, so we began the process of removing it and getting the heavy speakers out of the walls.  It wasn't easy, but we got it done.

Matt Thomas helping us remove the organ wiring

We also had the help of Matt Thomas this week.  Matt is going to be the brains behind our new sound system and he began putting together his plan for running cables, creating a sound booth and installing a projector.  He even created this helpful floor print of the sanctuary for us.

There's new evidence that we have not yet chased the raccoon out of the building.  Looks like it's time to take a more aggressive approach.

Paw prints from the resident raccoon

As always, thanks for your prayers!

Guess who we found living in the attic...

The outside of the building looks nice on days like today.  The stucco has been repaired.  The exterior has been painted and the doors are sporting their new color.

As you can tell from the series of pictures we've posted, there has been a lot of work that we've had to do on the building to get it ready to start hosting worship services, Bible studies and other community events.  We're starting to feel like the end is in sight and in the coming weeks, we hope to have all the painting complete so we can have the flooring installed.  (We're waiting to do the flooring last.  That way, we don't have to worry about paint drips.)

This past week, we had a couple groups go to the church and work for several hours.  We were able to load a trailer with more of the junk we purged from the building and the back room where we've been collecting all the clutter is now just about empty.

More junk being purged from the building

Before and after of the back room.  It was piled high with clutter.  Now it's just about empty.

Mike Ivins, a contractor from Core Creek Community Church is helping us with some of the additional repairs that need to be made to the building.  This week, he repaired the vent at the crest of the roof.  It had been bent by animals that were getting into the building, so he fixed it and put a metal screen on it to prevent animals from attempting to enter the attic again.

He also started work to repair some of the damaged ceilings and is fixing the front window areas where we had a damaged stained glass window. 

While Mike was up in the attic working, he came across a creature that has been doing some damage to the building.  We previously thought it was a squirrel that had ripped apart speaker mesh and left a mess in other areas.  It turns out, we have a raccoon living in the attic.  We're giving him an eviction notice.

There has been a raccoon living in the attic.  He wasn't happy about being found.

 That's all that's making news for now.  Thanks again for your prayers.  We're getting much closer to the day when we'll be able to start hosting meetings and other events for the community.

Support from sister churches

We continue to make steady progress on getting the building ready for meetings, gatherings and worship services.  It always seems to take longer than we wish it would, but we keep trucking along.  Still lots of stuff to remove from building (some junk, some sellable on Craigslist).  The good news is that since the weather is cooling off, it's becoming less oppressive to work inside the building.  For the most part, it was rather comfortable in the building today.

We are grateful for the support of area pastors and churches.  This was evident over the past couple weeks.

The Seventh Street Church in Shamokin, PA recently reached out to us to ask how they could help.  We told them we had a need for cleaning supplies and paper products.  I met up with their pastor, Dave Wildoner, last week and he filled my trunk with supplies and told me, "There's more on the way!"  Thank you Seventh Street!

Generous donations from our sister church in Shamokin!

This afternoon, Pastor Kerry Ritts from the Hatboro Community Church brought his paint clothes, grabbed a brush, and painted trim in the room that is going to be the future nursery of the church once the new church is planted.  Thank you Kerry and HCC!

Pastor Kerry Ritts helping us get the nursery room painted

We're grateful for sister churches that value church planting and are stepping up to help.  Keep praying for us as we seek to get the rest of the building concerns addressed quickly so we can move on to Phase 2 of this work.