This week we have heard from our Project Manager, Drew, from Seaver Construction about a schedule for starting the renovation of Ripley Chapel. We now expect construction will begin by Monday, May 27. That date is about a month later than the late April start we had hoped for. The superintendent Seaver plans to assign to our project has gotten bogged down in his current project and won’t be freed up for Ripley until that date. Once they start the construction the contract stipulates an 8 week duration.
Meanwhile your Ripley Chapel Working Group continues to prepare the way for the start by taking care of a number of tasks such as deciding on the exact flooring product we will use and a design for the medallion which is a circular stone inlay that will be placed in the middle of the floor and will act as a focus point for many of the activities in our new space. We continue to be excited about the combination of the new window overlooking Wedge Pond and the new flooring and how it should transform the feeling of this new, and yet familiar, space.
We are almost done “clearing the decks” for the renovation. The old piano and Allen organ have been hauled away. And we are sorting through the last of the odds and ends, tossing that which has no value and holding on to a few items such as the altar cross which have been present in that room for as long as… well, no one really knows.
These “weekly” updates have not been that regular since we are in a lull waiting for the command to “take your places”. Then the starter’s gun will be fired and we will set off at a brisk pace to get to that finish line this summer. Our goal is to finish well and to avoid any Heartbreak Hills along the way. (Sorry, but it is April and the metaphor was just too tempting to avoid.)
Your Ripley Chapel Working Group: Bruce Alexander (project leader), Laurie Roby, Carolyn Plosky, Rev. Will Burhans, Rev. Judy Arnold, and Jane Ring Frank.