The Lord Builds

The entrance ramp project has been completed and the Stucco is nearly done as well.  Not much to say about it, other than the fact that all of our contractors are doing some great work for us. Here are some pictures of the finished ramp and the stucco progress:

The concrete pad for the garbage cans is smoothed out.

The finished project, drying.

The crew works on the Glenhurst entrance concrete. This is the replacement for the existing section that was demolished because of the tripping hazard.

The finished concrete work, as seen from inside the church.

The finished project from outside the church. Notice the new ramp on the far side of the brick column.

A closeup up the new wheelchair accessible ramp. There will be railings installed on the side of the ramp nearest the brick column, wrapping around the column.

A wide shot of the front of the worship center stucco repair. The two brighter columns are complete. The remaining await a final coat of stucco.

A close-up of the stucco work.

The small tripping hazard outside the “main” Glenhurst entrance is now a very large tripping hazard.  Demolition of existing concrete and walkways is almost complete and pouring the new entrance will commence shortly.  The work is being done by Buffalo Sealing and Striping.  Check it out:

The view from the precipice. One more step, and it's into the pit we go.

A little farther back from the demo work. The demolished section closest to us, outside the brick column, is where the new ramp will be going.

Don't go out the Glenhurst doors quite yet... That first step is a doozy!

Also being done by the same company is a pad for the garbage totes.  The ground gets all muddy and gross (so I’m told!), so we’re fixing that while we’ve got them here:

This is where we keep all the garbage totes. They are conveniently located outside the kitchen and Pastor Chuck's office.

I enjoy being a part of the Renovations Team.  And here’s why: The team is the right group of people with the right talents, brought together by God.  It’s so fun to see how God uses everyone’s unique SHAPE to accomplish His purpose.

To see this in action, here’s what happened with the concrete repair at the Glenhurst entrance.

Idea 1

Our original idea was to simply destroy the three existing concrete sections outside the door and re-pour them with a very slight slope to remove the small step at the doors, thus eliminating the tripping hazard.

After floating the idea around, however, we heard feedback from some congregation members about the need for ramp access to the doors.  The only wheelchair accessible point is down the drive near the kitchen.  This is fine if you know it’s there because you just drop-off there instead of under the overhang.  But for guests, it can be frustrating to get out of the car only to discover the ramp is 20 feet away.  That led to:

Idea 2

Go with our original plan, but also include a ramp just inside the brick column.  As we explored that, however, we felt it would crowd the entrance too much, not to mention detracting from the aesthetics of the entrance.  That led to:

Idea 3

Move the ramp outside the brick column.  A single straight ramp up with railings on both sides would be sufficient.  Randy went to work and made the following picture of what that might look like:

Glenhurst Entrance Ramp (Artist Depiction)

We weren’t satisfied, however.  That led to:

Idea 4

We have enough space to put three feet of flat concrete (enough for a future sidewalk) before hitting the first ramp to take you up 3.5″.  This leads to a 5′ x 5′ landing, which is the required space for turning a wheelchair.  A 90 degree turn right and you go up the final 2″ to the level of the doors.

This solution looks much the same as the picture above, but it allows us to get rid of the outside railing, which ultimately looks much cleaner.  Here’s what the final plans look like:

Architect's Drawings for Glenhurst Entrance

Work will begin and end in early August.