WEDNESDAY, JULY 4:  The north wall has a single  course of 8" concrete blocks 5 rows high extending to the entrance, which is in about the center of the wall A single electrical box has been installed in this wall, to receive an electrical outlet. The outer course of this wall will be brick, since it is exposed.  The west wall has received vertical re-bars extending from the top of the blocks which have been laid for three or four feet, and the wall to this level has been filled with cement.  Along the south wall of the new building (north wall of the existing building) foundations for piers have been poured at intervals of about seven feet.  There has been manual excavation under the electrical service conduits, in preparation for lowering them.  Much of the week has been spent moving muck to allow the site to drain after the afternoon and evening rains which have become more or less routine.
 

FRIDAY, JULY 6 (MORNING):  The power was off Thursday as electricians lowered the conduits entering the existing building.  ERRATA: Earlier it was reported that two of the conduits were "spare."  In reality, each of the four conduits involved contained four conductors, each about 1" in diameter (technically, there are four 500mcm wires in each conduit - that is, the square of the diameter of the copper conductor in the wire is 500x.001 square inches.  In the measurement of wire size, pi is omitted and the area term is "circular mils," the square of the diameter of the round wire.  MCM=thousand circular mils.).  The electricians were able to disconnect the wires in the building, break the conduit apart outside the building,  install additional elbows in the conduit, and install a large junction box backing up to the conduit's entry point.  They then found that the service conductors were a few inches too short to reach the terminals in the service switchgear.  Thus, they were forced to make up junctions in the junction box.
At 2:30 PM, having made up one wire junction, they determined that they did not have enough tape to finish the work Thursday, they packed their toys and left.  At 8:00 AM, Friday, however, two more wires had been mad up and it appears that the power will be restored today.  Anyway, the afternoon rains started at about 3:00 PM, as is evident from the mushy condition of the site this morning.

Other than the electrical work, there was preparation for pouring of the floor of the lower equipment plaza, which is blocked in to floor level.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, ~6:00 PM: The power has been restored. The site is still quite wet, even though there has not been any rain today. The grate frame for the floor drain in the lower equipment plaza has been built. The location of the doors from the new kitchen and the fellowship hall of the new building onto that area have become apparent. Plastic sheeting and rebar have been laid in the floor area or the two equipment plazas to prevent moisture from migrating up through the concrete. The Terminix truck was on the site Thursday; presumably the site has been or will be treated for termites before the floor is poured.

MONDAY, JULY 9 (Picture at left): By 7:45 AM crews were pumping concrete from the delivery truck to the upper equipment plaza; the floors of both equipment plazas were poured.  Dirt was rearranged.

TUESDAY, JULY 10, EARLY MORNING:  Of some concern is what appears to be a steady stream of water into the west side of the front wall excavation.  Whether from a leaking water line or main or a spring, the phenomonum poses a risk of a damp basement, and precautions must be taken to direct the seepage away from the foundation.  A backhoe was being used to expand the excavation, while workers at the base of the wall are digging away.  A porus plastic pipe will be laid in a gravel bed along the base of the wall, and the excavation will be backfilled with gravel and dirt.  The pipe will be extended along the north wall to a point where it is above ground, or diverted to a sorm sewer.

7:30 PM:  The electricians spent the day disconnecting and relocating wiring to the air conditioning equipment in the yard.  All air conditioning equipment is off now, pending completion of installation of new conduits.   Some additional footing has been poured along the wall of the kitchen.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11:  The electricians used a backhoe to pull wires into the conduits for the air conditioners in the front of the building!   Yesterday steel tapes had been pushed through from each end and hooked together.  This was used to pull strings, which were used today to pull ropes, which in turn were used to pull the actual wires.
There were so many crooks and turns in the plastic conduits that it was necessary to use the power equipment at hand to pull the actual wires.  This in spite of commercial lubricants applied.  The large air conditioner at the rear of the building was connected in time for choir practice; the units for the basement and the choir loft are still not connected.  Also accomplished today:  A layer of what appears to be rubber sheeting was glued to the outside of the basement wall at the front (west) side of the building.  This apparantly to help alleviate potential moisture problems.

THURSDAY, JULY 12:  The morning rains dampened the activity.  There appears to be preparation for pouring a concrete beam under the back door of the existing building, extending from corner to corner of that segment of the building; the ground has been cleared, stakes have been put in place, forms are at hand, and there is a grid of rebar in preparation on sawhorses.  It appears that there will be such a concrete beam along the back walls of the existing building where the buildings join.  Also, forms are in place for additional footing at the corner of the existing kitchen wall, extending under the floor of the existing building.  These pourings will tie into the beam.  The electricity has been run to the east basement air conditioner, and to disconnect switches on the front equipment plaza.  The air conditioners at the front have been physically moved to the equipment plaza, and one has been piped up; however, at about 2:30 PM, citing lack of 1 3/8" 45 degree copper elbows, the air conditioning crew packed up and left, promising to return early tomorrow.  This left the site devoid of workers.  The site is very wet, even in late afternoon.

FRIDAY THE 13th, LATE AFTERNOON:  All of the air conditioners are turned on; the two east units are running; the west units are off at the time; however the building seems cool enough.  20 feet of concrete foundation beam has been poured east of the back door of the main building. This will be the support for a fire-wall which will rise to three feet above the roof of the new building.  The beam will extend to all points where the new building joins the old.  Additional support underpinings have been poured at the corner of the kitchen wall.  Also, the building foundation has been undercut in the niche between the boiler room door and the back door of the main building, to receive underpining/beam concrete.

Bad news:  The front basement wall was supposed to be 16", is only 12".  It must be taken down and rebuilt from the foundation up.  According to Charles Ingram, "A dumb mistake."  It cannot be modified, since placement of the steel in the blocks is critical.

Question posed to the air conditioning installer:  Why were the refrigerant lines to the air conditioning units crossed (front lines to back unit, back lines to front unit)?  Answer:  "I don't know."  Although the units look identical, one is a heat pump and the other is not.  To his credit, the installer caught the difference.

MONDAY, JULY 16:  Today about 2/3 of the front basement wall fell to the jackhammers.  First workers cut vertical slots the depth of a saw blade  (about two inches) in the wall from top to bottom at 16 inch intervals, then used an air hammer to break out the blocks.  Rebar rods were left standing.

TUESDAY, JULY 17: The rest of the wall came own and preparations are underway to rebuild it.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 18: The wall has been reduced to a single course; forms have been installed in preparation for pouring a 16" flat base around and above the blocks to provide a solid foundation for the 16" wall. This moves the front wall 4" closer to the street.  Also today rebar gridwork is in place for the foundation beam and underpining at the area of the kitchen door and beginning around the corner in the niche.  No new forms are up here,  however.

THURSDAY, JULY 19, 9:30 PM:  The high pressure sodium area light installed some time ago to illuminate the parking lot, together with the light over the back door of the church provide excellent lighting for nocturnal inspections.  Forms have been installed along the kitchen wall foundation to receive concrete for underpining and the foundation beam.  A three-diminisional grid of re-bar has appeared along the foundation walls.  The construction of these very rigid structures is quite secure; the rebar grid itself would surely hold up a heavy person; there is no motion whatsoever.  (Perhaps remarkable inasmuch as the entire grid is constructed of iron bars formed into various shapes and tied together with banding wire.)

Concrete has been poured over and around the remaining lower course of block in the front basement wall, providing a full sixteen inches of firm footing for the wall to rest upon.

FRIDAY JULY 20, 3:30 PM:  The morning was spent building forms aroung the steel grid of the foundation beam along the walls of the kitchen and boiler room around the corner into the niche.  By 3:00 PM the beams there and along the north kitchen wall had been poured and the workers were securing the worksite against possible rains during the weekend.  This included placing plywood awning type covers in the openings of the boiler room and kitchen doors, as the floor in these areas is now below the level of the beam.  PVC drain pipe was put  onto the downspout outlet from  the roof in the niche, to divert roof water from the building onto the yard of the site.  The only part of the foundation beam  remaining unfinished is the section running from the back door of the church building around the corner into the niche.

DOUBLE HEAD NAIL - FOR CARPENTERS WHO DO NOT WANT TO COMMIT THEMSELVES PERMANENTLY.
USED IN CONSTRUCTING FORMS - UPPER HEAT USED TO REMOVE THE NAIL AFTER THE CONCRETE CURES.

MONDAY,  JULY 23 (LATE AFTERNOON):  First impression might be that nothing has been done; however, forms have appeared around the remaining segment of the foundation beam around the corner from the back door into the niche.  A ditch has been cleared along the front and north walls to receive a drain pipe at the level of the concrete foundation.  This ditch extends all the way to the north entrance.  Taut  strings have appeared inside the building perimeter marking something meaningful to the builders.  The location of additional foundation excavations and a number of squares and rectangles have appeared drawn in powdered cement have appeared on the clay floor.

TUESDAY, JULY 24:  By 3:00 PM footings have been poured for the north wall of the new kitchen, as well as two interior columns near the center of the building, one in line with the kitchen wall, the other directly north of the first.  Conversations between the engineer and the site foreman were of the nature of which plumbing was to be directed to the grease trap, and which need not be.  It might be recalled that one of the shortcomings of the old kitchen was that there was no grease trap, and the drains frequently  became clogged with kitchen grease.  A drive-by early in the day revealed that some workers were at the site at 6:30 AM; the workers generally finish their day at 3:30 in the afternoon, avoiding the oppresively hot Alabama summer afternoon sun.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 25:  The pervious flexible seepage pipe has been extended around the northwest corner of the foundation about 15 feet.  Masons rebuilt the front concrete block basement wall to the previous height, turned the corner and completed to that height to the west wall of the north entrance. This height is six feet above the foundation at the north entrance level.   At that point the foundation is just below sidewalk level.  It drops east of the entrance, as does the interior floor level.  The north interior wall of the new kitchen has a row of blocks laid now, so the dimension of the fellowship hall is now evident.  Electricians have inserted boxes and conduit for recepticles in the walls constructed.  The plumbers should arrive tomorrow.

In response to a query regarding a nearly vertical hairline crack developed in the north wall (as it stood early in the day):  "An expansion crack . . . I will slit the wall with a saw, and the masons will lay the higher courses with an expansion joint there.  There's another [crack] over there [pointing west].  I'll do the same thing there. . . ."  A later visit confirmed that expansion joints had been created at those points.

One is impressed with the attention to precision evident.  The addage "Measure with a micrometer, mark with a crayon, cut with a chainsaw" is not applicable to this construction. A transit is on the site any time there is any forming or pouring, and dimensioning is careful and painstaking, to the point that measurements are done using horizontally level strings, and bubble levels to overcome slope of the ground errors.  This, of course, will make ordering and placement of steel structural members go smoothly, without the use of cutting torches.

FRIDAY, JULY 27, MIDMORNING:  Waterproofing has been applied to about half the underground portion of the front wall; masons have brought the retaining wall in front of the equipment plazas up almost to ground level; probably will reach ground level sometime this morning.  There are signs of plumbers' activity in the site, especially the kitchen area.  Electricians are a no-show this morning; conduits to wall boxes are being extended above masons' work level by general contractor personnel.  Overnight rains have made the site quite gummy.  Water is being pumped from the foundation ditch in front of the west basement wall by an electric pump.

SUNDAY, JULY 29, 10:15 AM: Groundbreaking ceremony

With shovels, left to tight: Paul Wolfe, District Superintendent, Henry Stewart, John Brannon (face hidden), Susan Murphree, Ryan Daugherty, Virginia Spurlock.  Also shown: Jim Colley, far left, Rhae Swisher, with hat.

SUNDAY AFTERNOON:  A walkthrough of the site reveals that there is an additional layer of waterproofing applied to the outside of the foundation walls. This consists of a waffle-board of plastic faced with a black cloth on the outside.  It is glued to the outside of the previously applied sheeting.  Friday's work also included rough-in of the drains for the kitchen.  No fresh-water plumbing is yet in place.

MONDAY, JULY 30:  Windows!  The north wall rose today to the course above the fellowship hall windows.  There are seven windows in the north wall of the fellowship hall.  Symbolism? Probably not.  At about noon preparations were underway to extend the masonery to the northeast corner of the building.  Also, plumbers were drawing lines for ditches within the building.  Other committments by your commentator  prevented a a more comprehensive inspection before dark.

TUESDAY, JULY 31:  By 7:00 AM the masons have discovered a difficulty in the blockwork framing the north door, a deficiency which requires that the half-blocks on the west side be removed and re-laid.  The blocks come loose easily enough, but they contain vertical steel and poured-in concrete.  Door framing is on site for doors onto the equipment plaza from the building.  Electricians are making permanent connections to the air conditioning equipment. Plumbers are marking and digging routes for internal piping.  A couple of courses of block have been laid from the north door to a step-down in the foundation, about half-way to the north-east corner of the building.  Water-proofing is being laid on  the lintels over the windows.

A comment from the job foreman:  "I almost have more people on the job today than I have room for"

7:00 PM:  The north wall of the fellowship hall has reached the second floor level; the front wall is 7 courses shy.  The east extension of the north wall is interupped by foundations for columns at the corner of the stairwell.  Drains have been installed in the kitchen area and lines extend toward the back of the building.  However, the extensions have not been tied into the kitchen stub-outs; they only tie in to what appears to be a vent pipe up the wall between the kitchen and the fellowship hall, and connections from what must be water cooler and appliance drain locations.  The kitchen drains, along with the drains from the old kitchen should be run separately thru a grease trap.  There is not yet any apparent point of connection to the old kitchen drains, which presently extend to what appears to be a temporary connection at the south side of the building near the rear air conditioning units.  Connections have been stubbed out of the kitchen wall at the lower plaza for outdoor faucets, hot and cold.   A door frame stands in the opening from the fellowship hall to the lower plaza.  There is no door from the kitchen to the outside.  The old kitchen door is bricked up half-way.  Conduit stub-ups define the location of the electric panel in the kitchen.  The wall between the fellowship hall and the lower plaza stands at about six feet; the wall between the kitchen and the lower plaza stands at about four feet.    A shallow excavation defines the location of the elevator.