Last week when the children in the Sky Room walked over to check out the work they noticed
•    “They have a wheelbarrow”
•    “They are tearing off the floor”
•    “They took off the fans.”
•    “They are making a big mess”
•    “It looks like garbage”
•    “The roof is different”
•    “They put cement blocks over there.”
The kids got it right.  Last week, the contractor and his crew continued with demolition. They pulled up the floor tiles to create a stable surface for the new sub floor. The carpenters demolished over 125 linear feet of the eaves to repair dry rot and termite damaged rafter tails along the existing roofline.  So far the contractor has replaced over 100 linear feet of termite damaged rim beams (these are the beams that the roof rests on).  During the process we shored up the building to make sure the roof did not fall down.  
We have also figured out that all the electricity for the entire Church campus comes through the meter on The Early School and we found an unused phone line between our building and the Potters’ Guild.  It’s a bit of a puzzle.  We are trying to make sure that changes we make and the construction process itself does not have a negative impact on the other programs at the Church.  We meet with a committee from the Church each week and they coordinate with the other non-profit groups that use the property to make sure everything is going smoothly.

Thank you to everyone at TES –parents, teachers, and students – for keeping everything going so well.  

Week 3 (June 30 – July 3) was a short week.  The contractor continued working on structural repairs.  This is taking a while because the contractor discovered more termite damaged beams and rafters then we had included in the plans. The contractor will be writing up some change orders on our original contract price as a result.  This is not unexpected.  Our architect warned us that when an old building like ours is taken apart, we could expect to discover more work that needed to be done.  While we are not thrilled to have more work to do, we prepared to fix all the damaged areas we find. Our goal is to fix everything we find that needs fixing. 

This week, our contractor also found evidence of ground termites.  We did not find the mud tunnels that the termites build.  We think the termites enter the building by eating up the inside of the posts under the building.  We have talked with the Church about the need to get a termite inspection right away.  Once the termite inspector comes out, we will find out how best to treat the termites.  We want to make sure that we take the necessary steps to protect our investment in the building renovations.

This week the TES brick fundraising committee has been working hard.  We are finalizing the first order for bricks for the Friendship Path.  We need to get the order in soon so the contractor can install the bricks during construction. You may have noticed the flyer in your parent pocket. Jennifer Thompson did a great job making the flyer.  Thank you to the entire brick fundraising committee: Amy Rice, Lianne Sunn, Mel Keanini, Jennifer Thompson, and Erin Tomlinson.  Ask the committee if you have any questions about the bricks.  Now is the time to order!!  Thank you for your support.

Progress on the roof, floor, floor supports...