Members of the congregation did the demolition work to prepare for renovations to the kitchen, rest rooms, and the ADA ramp.

“Soft Demolition” on Friday evening, July 21

“The Dust Flies” on Saturday, July 22

Breakfast, Prayer, Instructions, and Stretching
Kitchen
Cleaning and Lunch
Rest Rooms
ADA Ramp

Demolition to Prepare for Summer Renovations

“Soft Demolition” on Friday evening, July 21

A small group gathered on Friday evening to prepare for the real demolition on Saturday.

Fred Benco and Bill Fay do prep work in the kitchen

In the kitchen, appliances were moved into Isenberg Hall, the unused pulley system was removed from the pass through between the kitchen and Isenberg, and other prep work was taken care of.

Fred Benco removes hardware so the partitions can be taken out

In the rest rooms, hardware was removed from the walls so that the partitions could come down.

Bill Fay and Jim Sullivan remove bolts so the ramp railings can be taken off.

The railings were taken off the ramp.

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“The Dust Flies” on Saturday, July 22

A much larger group showed up on Saturday morning for the real work. Project Coordinator Jim Sullivan and his assistants had everything ready to go.

Steven Miller, Randy Castello, and Linda Miller enjoy breakfast while Judie Boutá from the food crew goes to the Board Room to get more food

Jeanette Hanson and her crew came at 7:00 AM to have a delicious breakfast ready when everyone else arrived at 8:00.

Jim Sullivan explains the work to be done and gives safety instructions.

Once everyone had eaten, Pastor Steve Jensen led the group in prayer, and Jim Sullivan outlined the work to be done and went over safety precautions.

Steve Schmidt leads the group in stretching

Then Steve Schmidt led everyone through some stretching to minimize the risk of injuries.

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Kitchen—This work involved removing all of the lower cabinets, taking down one set of upper cabinets for relocation, chipping off the back splash tiles, and grinding the walls to make them smooth.

The doors and hardware were removed from the lower cabinets in the kitchen, and then the screws that held them together were taken out.

Pastor Jensen takes off the drawer pulls. Don Person takes out screws holding the cabinets together.

Steve Miller looks at 50 years of debris behind the cabinets.

The cabinets were then pulled away from the wall (right), disassemble, carted out to the parking lot (below, left), collapsed (below, right), and put in the dumpster.

Randy Christensen hauls cabinets out to the parking lot.

Don Person and Steve Miller collapse some of the cabinets.

Workers check out the original paint after the upper cabinets were taken off the wall.

The upper cabinets by the door were taken down to be reconstructed to fit the space above the resized pass through to Isenberg.

Once the cabinets had all been taken out, the back splash tile was removed with a chipping gun (below, left), and then the walls were smoothed with a grinder (below, right).

Randy Christensen using the chipping guy to remove the back splash tiles

Jim Sullivan in his hazmat suit grinds the walls smooth

When all the work was done, the contrast between the kitchen everyone remembered (below, left) and the stripped down room (below, right) was amazing!

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Cleaning and Lunch—While the demolition work went on, an industrious crew clean and cleaned—the hardware for the cabinets, the old appliances, and the new stainless steel sink and counters—so that everything would be ready for the renovated kitchen.

Mary Jo Estes and Billie Jean Ries clean the new sink

Carolyn Ishikawa and Mary Jo Estes clean one of the new counters

When noon came around, everyone cleaned up at the washing station in the courtyard and then enjoyed a delicious lunch. Most of the workers ate in the air conditioned Board Room for a respite from the heat and humidity

Workers using the washing station in the courtyard

Jeanette Hanson watches over the lunch line

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Rest Rooms—Two teams worked on the rest rooms, each trying to beat the other.

Linda Miller, Selena Schmidt, April Smith, and Dori Palcovich start removing the partition in the women’s rest room

They removed the old partitions...

Randy Castello and and Steve Schmidt take out one of the commodes in the men’s rest room.

...and took out the fixtures.

Then both groups went to work chipping out the floor tiles.

Selena Schmidt chipping tile in the women’s rest room.

Randy Castello chipping tile in the men’s rest room.

Rest room ready for the contractors.

By mid afternoon, everything was ready for the contractors on Monday.

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ADA Ramp—Since the contractors would be using the “temporary” ramp to get equipment and materials to the rest rooms, it was not taken down on Saturday.

When everyone left in late afternoon, the dumpster was full of debris, and the area around the rest rooms and the ramp was cordoned off with caution tape to keep people out.

Caution tape keeping people away from the ramp and rest rooms

Thanks to Actus Lend Lease for letting us use hard hats and other equipment for this project.

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