The renovations have finally been completed and we are in possession of an amazing, beautiful building. It was a lot of hard work and we will likely all need to sleep until 2011, but God has been faithful in seeing us through.
We have also started the work on the outside of the building and I have a few quick pictures of that as well.
I walked in yesterday morning wondering what we might behold in the renovations for that day. I don't think I could have prepared myself for the magnitude of the change that occurred. Take a look!
The wall seperating the foyer from the old auditorium started to come down.
They removed all of the old carpet.
And began prepping for the new carpet.
By early morning the wall was completely gone.
Pastor Dave looking over the renovations.
The carpet is laid in the foyer.
They even started the carpet in the new coffee area.
So I was sitting here in my office yesterday thinking that not a lot was happening in the renovations. I decided to wander over and got a huge surprise...so I decided to share my surprise with you. Enjoy!
They started taking down the wall.
The new walls are now primed and ready for paint.
This is inside the nursery looking at the "sleepers" and "mothers" rooms with the walls painted and T-bar ceiling in place.
Looking the other way to see the progress on the T-bar.
We were able to have our first service in the new building this past Sunday, Easter Sunday, and it was great! We still have a few kinks to work out but things are well on there way. As a result we have started our renovations on our old auditorium to add the new nursery and coffee area. It is very exciting to see things begin to wrap up and to see the end of the project coming quickly.
Here are a few more pictures...
Our front screen going up.
Our back screen and projector(s) ready to go.
Final preparations being made before our first service.
The old stage is gone and the carpet is starting to be pulled up.
This was our temporary hallway through the construction for Sunday morning.
I thought I had better post a couple more photos today as things are changing rapidly. We are almost moved in as the inspectors begin to make their rounds and the sound, lighting and video begin to come together.
Enjoy!
The front screen (specially crated) and the sound monitors have arrived.
And the new stage lights are turned on for the first time.
The new sound board is here also (and being tested...it sure sounds nice).
For our inspections we had to do a mock setup of the new auditorium chairs. Thankfully we had lots of help.
Here I am making sure all of the new aisles adhere to the fire codes.
Well, we are so close we can almost touch it. The final touches are going in and we expect possession later this week. In honour of that I am posting a few more photos of the almost completed building.
I would love to be able to show you pictures of the new lighting trusses and speakers hung from the ceiling but they blend so well that my camera can't take a clear enough picture for you to see them. I guess you will all just have to come and take a look for yourselves when we open the building!
The outside work has commenced.
The new auditorium is almost complete!
Our sound consultants are working on the projection system.
The finishing touches are going in for the new K-1 classroom...
We are now only days away from posession of our new auditorium and with the work being done this week we are tremendously excited. Our sound/audio/media consultant has arrived and started their install, which makes the building look really finished.
Here are a few more pictures...
The carpet install began this week.
The additional chairs for the new auditorium also arrived.
The new lighting trusses also arrived and were installed.
We are now counting down in days until we move into our wonderful new expansion. Construction will continue a little longer with the renovations but we are looking at having our first service in the new facility in less than a month. It is so exciting so I figured I better pass on that excitement with a couple new photos. Enjoy!
Back wall of the new auditorium with the operations booth under construction
Sound, media and lighting booth under construction
View towards the new stage
Finishing up with the main lighting
New stage under construction
New east classrooms waiting for carpet (and paint to dry)
Just a small amount of wire is needed for the new light, sound and media controls
Installation of the sound and media in the classrooms
I just wanted to drop a quick update as to the progress of the building of Phase 2. Everything is progressing really well and we are beginning to see a lot of what things will look like in there final form. I still can't believe we are only weeks away from moving in! God continues to be good and we look forward to the progress still to come.
Here are some more pictures!
The tinted primer is on the walls and the drop ceiling begins to go in.
Putting up the auditorium lights with the painted ceiling.
We are progressing quite quickly now and are less than 2 months to moving in now if everything stays on schedule. We have started making decisions on paint, carpet, stage design, doors, etc. which means we have to be getting close!
It was great to see everyone's response during our break fast service last night, as a lot of people got to see what has been going on first hand and for the first time. Excitement is building and God is doing great things.
Continue to keep us in your prayers as we seem to have more and more meetings and lots of decisions to be made.
Here are some updated pictures...
East auditorium wall (the drywall about to go up)
East hallway and children's classrooms
New east classrooms (we will be able to create 2 rooms with an accordian wall)
New electrical room with installation started
View looking from new auditorium out towards offices
New west classrooms (there will be three on this side)
West side classrooms looking up
View from stage towards back of new auditorium (offices in view)
I thought it was about time for me to update everyone on the building construction. The last time I updated everyone we were in the process of pouring the pad. Now the drywallers, electricians, HVAC guys and everyone else are hard at it putting up the internal walls. It really is coming together with amazing progress (and lots of meetings).
Here are some pictures...
The access to the new hallway (east side).
The access to the new hallway (west side).
The new west classrooms (with no walls) viewed from the foyer.
The new east classrooms (with no walls) viewed from the foyer.
This is from the stage looking to the back of the new auditorium.
And this is from the back wall looking toward the stage.
I know what you are thinking, two blogs in one day, that's not possible! But it is...
I wanted to keep the information in this update separate from the rest because of what it entails.
In July 2009 we celebrated a ground breaking ceremony in advance of the Phase 2 construction. As part of that service we asked everyone to write on a rock (a prayer or scripture or thought) in dedication of the new building. These rocks were then collected and kept until construction began. Some of the rocks went into the foundation itself and some were kept for a little later.
Last Wednesday as part of our weekly prayer time, we gathered as a staff in the new auditorium and placed those remaining rocks in the ground in the location of the new stage. Those prayers and scriptures and thoughts are now permanently sealed into our building as the pad was poured last Friday! We took a couple of pictures of what we did and I now get to share those with you.
Devitt & Forand provided a trench for us in the current location of the stage where we placed the rocks.
It has been almost a month from my last update, so I figured I owed everyone lots of pictures to make up for it. They will follow.
The last 4 weeks have been somewhat normal with progress continuing but not a lot to say. Christmas and the New Year slowed things down but once 2010 hit we saw a large increase in work and progress. Over the last couple of weeks we have seen the outside walls almost finished, the underground work completed, the pad poured and a lot of work completed in preparation of the new roof top heating/air conditioning units.
This week they began to mark the interior walls, the roof top units went up this morning, the roofers are going crazy given the good weather and the drywall was delivered. They have so much stuff going on out there that I can't even keep up...so likely the blog will be updated on a regular basis from now on.
On another great note, we got the development permit for the retaining wall secured. This wall will have to be completed later in the spring as there is now too much snow and frost in the ground to complete it but at least there are no more hurdles with the City.
And here are the much promised pictures...
The north (back) wall almost complete.
The same thing from the inside.
All of the electical conduit for the new electrical room.
This is the existing wall connecting to Phase 1 (stucco gone and almost ready for the new doors to the auditorium).
The construction has now picked up full tilt as they work quickly to try to regain some lost ground due to the cold weather. Today we have had up to five different crews (roofers, framers, mechanical, windows/doors and retaining wall) working at the same time trying to get completed before another round of cold.
The chinook that has rolled through Calgary has really helped, however it has caused some flooding again as the snow begins to melt. We have been informed that we should be water tight by Friday, so at this point it is a minor inconvenience.
God's blessing continues!
I have posted some new photos below...enjoy.
Construction of the walls continues.
Construction on the roofing has also begun.
Apparently yellow is the colour of progress.
The windows started to go in today too!
The roofers going at it.
The retaining wall is under construction as well
The upper curve of the wall can now be seen clearly.
