Lots of plates are spinning now, which is very exciting! In case you are just jumping in, our church bought a 96 year old building with an awesome history and an even more awesome amount of neglect. It’s been a crazy journey watching this mountain move! We are still waiting for our big TI permit to be approved by the county, so there are still things we can’t do, but with the roof on Building A all sealed up, it allows us to begin to do so many of the more minor, but important projects on our list.
In the last month, we have taken advantage of the sunny days to get some of the landscaping hurdles out of the way. Just removing the garbage and yard debris from the property seems like it has been a full time job. It was a jungle out there with way too many places to hide! We have made a good dent in the war against ivy and blackberries. We also built a small retaining wall in front of the world’s largest waterfall (it’s the big blue monstrosity in the background). We also started taming down the ugliness on the waterfall with some paint and TLC. We have a few hundred more steps to conquer that madness, but trust me…it will eventually look great. We continue to chop down bushes and shrubs around the building. We will be putting more in, but everything had been neglected for so long that saving them was too difficult.
We also got the storage area roof all sealed up, which allowed us to pack our belongings there to open up the space for the upcoming construction and paint. That was a huge thing out of the way which will make everything much smoother. You can see in the first picture the piles of trash that turned into a beautiful roof!
We also stripped off the old rotten wood lining the roof around the front building. The roof guys have a new cap to put on the top edges that will be done soon. We are also currently figuring out a plan for the front awning, which is a large structure. A contractor was out there to dig into it to see what our best options are going forward. It was previously made of wood, which was significantly more rotten than we first thought, so it’s got to be repaired and sided with a more appealing look…at least that’s our current plan. Contractors and engineers have to make sure that’s the best idea before we move forward! Either way, we will be saying goodbye to the 70’s Mexican Restaurant feel and going with a clean, simple façade instead.
We sure appreciate each one of you who show up to help with whatever is on the list. It looks really horrible right now, but we are close to pressure washing and painting the front building, which will help so much! We literally have someone stop every time we are there to tell us how glad they are that we are fixing it up. People are excited that we care about their community…first the aesthetics and then the rest of the needs around us! Together we can redeem this corner and then watch Jesus redeem lives in His church!
Things we need:
- An old fence that someone is tearing down. We have an art project we are doing and we need lots of reclaimed wood. It can’t be rotted, but old is fine!
- A cat with a scoop that can dig out some stumps we have. Anybody have access to one of those?
We will continue to keep you updated, but if you are interested in being a part of our volunteer crew, we post opportunities on our Going Home Facebook page. Just click the link and we’ll get you added! Good days are ahead!!!