Women’s Shelter Renovation
As some of you know, the
“room at the top of the stairs” plan, has existed in our dreams only
for quite some time now. We learned
a room upstairs could not exist due to height restrictions in current building
codes, but this board and administration are creative enough to find another way
to expand the women’s shelter. The expansion is now a room “downstairs”.
By building a living room
downstairs and changing the current living room to an office, the current office
can then become an additional bedroom, and we can finally make progress on our
expansion promise.
Work on the Women’s
Shelter got underway on Thursday, September 27th with the digging of
a 75 foot ditch from the shelter to the garage out back for the electrical
conduit taking power to the building to power freezers being moved from their
current location in the basement. The
garage has been cleaned out (no small job) and the large storage bins in the
basement dismantled and carried to the garage.
On Saturday the 29th,
Larry Winegar, Stewart Baggett, Mike O’Neill, and Don Thompson, began the real
construction starting with the stairs. All
new treads were built and installed. The following week saw the beginning of the wall studs.
The overhead heating/air conditioning ducts were also enclosed with
studding for supporting the dry wall. Electricians
Charles Barrett and Jim Fischer came in at the end of week two and installed the
conduit to the garage after Jeremy Lively made modifications to the ditch.
Charles and Jim installed the outlet boxes, circuit breakers, and ran
yards of wire throughout the room. Stewart,
Larry, and Don did finally get all the studding and dry wall up.
It has been finished, painted with a primer coat, and work has now begun
to install the suspended ceiling. Carpet
has been selected and work on the basement living room should be completed soon.
We will keep you informed as the work progresses in the basement and upstairs. We thank all of you who have had a role in making this dream come true.
Attached are some photos of the remodel, taken by our own Don Thompson. Stay tuned for updates.
FINISHED PRODUCT
