The highest heights

On Friday, Warren spent much of the day papering and shingling the south side of the clerestory roof. The following slideshow focuses on that, and moves along quickly. The last few photos from Sue, you'll notice, were taken about two hours later than the main sequence. Warren has worked his way to the peak of the roof.



Meanwhile, down on the ground Vitaly was working on two big new windows in the sanctuary to replace the tinted glass windows that had been in there. Eventually, there will be two more windows like this about where the back wall of the sanctuary has been.



Now, we'll take a little slower walk around the building and see what's going on elsewhere. Warren needs help this week taking down the north wall and part of the roof of the old sanctuary building. There are pictures of that in here.

Window of opportunity

Lots of windows, actually. Warren says that nearly all the windows in the classroom wing, plus the windows in the offices, were installed Tuesday. Here are Sue's photos.



The plywood roof sheathing went on the clerestory Wednesday. That means Warren can start putting the tar paper and shingles on that high roof. He's excited. More of Sue's photos:



Speaking of the clerestory, the big windows in the front of the building over the doors are scheduled to go in Thursday, followed by the upper clerestory windows. That will be a big step. The building will start to warm up a little and dry out.

Most of the classroom wing's interior walls are now framed in.

Meanwhile, Larry has been continuing to work on taking down the north wall of the sanctuary building. And, Warren says he expects the "over-framing" on the sanctuary building to start Thursday. That will create a new roof over the north end of the building that will join up with the center clerestory. Once that's in, further work can take place inside to expand the sanctuary.

Windows arrive

The windows had been delivered on Monday, and installation began. Both these photos are from Sue.

From Delivered

Work on some of the roof was delayed by the snow.

From Delivered

Creative destruction

Several hardy souls converged on the construction site Saturday morning -- some of us a little later than the others -- to speed up demolition of the north wall of the sanctuary building. It is no longer supporting much of anything.

The wall, however, had no intention of going easily. Despite persistent attacks with crowbars and pry bars and hammers and saber saws and sledge hammers, some of it remained at the end of the day. Several of its tormenters had minor wounds to show for their efforts. Earl and Larry D. spent several hours there but aren't represented in the slideshow. Warren spent the day on the roof.

And no matter what anyone says I did manage to hit the broadside of a church window -- after several tries. My target was much smaller than the one the others had.

Trussed way up

Sue was busy taking photos at the construction site from 9:30 to 10:30 or so Wednesday morning, March 4. The crew was lifting the trusses for the clerestory into place. Deb and Paul were there to help supervise.

The initial sequence in the slideshow below shows the first set of trusses being lifted from the ground and set into place on the clerestory walls. Once the trusses are in place, the framing crew removes the harness. Then, there are several photos showing other truss packages being lifted and Warren hooking the harness onto the crane hook.

At the end, packages of several squares of roofing were lifted onto the roof over the offices, kitchen and restrooms for Warren to install.

Sue came back later in the afternoon after the crew had left. Two photos show that already the trusses were installed over the front half of the clerestory -- but not the back half. The last photo shows that Warren had begun already to remove siding from the north side of the sanctuary building.

Getting ready

Warren reports that lots of things were going on at the site on Monday, most of them to get ready to do something else.

The framing team was finishing installation of the rafters over the office area, including bracing and fascia boards. The barge rafter, which is the rafter that runs from the north wall up to the main beam on the outside of the west wall, is nearly the last thing needed before the plywood roof sheathing can go on over the offices. This rafter will help form and support the eave in the front of the offices. As soon as that is done, the framing crew will put plywood all the way up the office walls, too.

Meanwhile, Warren has been helping the city inspector complete and sign off on his examination of the roof in the classroom building. The HVAC contractor laid out the locations of the heating vents in all the buildings and will begin designing the ductwork, including the cold air return. The electrician is now on contract.

Warren, the structural engineer and the framers also consulted on the best way to finish the framing of the upper clerestory. Plans are to lift the trusses, which will stabilize the walls and support the roof, late Tuesday or early Wedensday.

There are two metal poles that support the beams that support the clerestory walls. One is installed and one isn't yet. After the second one is installed, the north wall of the sanctuary building will be ready to come out. Warren started initial demolition of that wall today.

But most of Warren's time over the next few days will be spent putting tar paper and shingles down on the lower roofs as the framing crew gets sheathing on them.

A peak experience

For the last few days of this week, the front and back trusses for the clerestory section have been installed. The rest will be installed next week. Finally, we can really see how tall this building is going to be. Very impressive looking both on the outside and the inside. Here's a quick gallery from Saturday. Warren was trying to get some roofing nailed down on the classroom building when he didn't have to answer questions from visiting photographers.