We are reaching the one year anniversary of our capital campaign and members will be receiving a letter shortly with financial and construction updates. We have already received 62% of the $473,746 pledged--thank you! If you made a multi-year pledge, we thank you in advance for your continued payments over the final 2 years of the campaign.

• Our church was built in 1922 and your yearly pledges help us not only staff the building and run programs, but maintain the structure that let's us live out our mission. Current priorities in Facilities' multi-year plan include an aging A/C system and lighting technology that will be defunct by 2012-13. Many other issues are also being addressed. Thank you for your pledges.

• New flooring will be placed in the main Children's Center room and the Dining Room starting the week of March 21. The process should take a few weeks. The trim will come after April 1st.
• The windows in the tower will replaced within the next 3-4 weeks, as a planned part of the Restore & Renew Campaign.
• Spring means time for repairs. Facilities is preparing to repair guttering, kitchen roofing and stairs.

• New flooring will be placed in the main Children's Center room and the Dining Room starting the week of March 21.
• The Dining Room wall by the windows will be built out to cover the ongoing water seepage from the ground.
• the new gutters that came down in the ice storm have been replaced at no cost
• Facilities is aware of and addressing the pebble stair issues and the movement of the center section of the front stairs
• IF YOU HAVE A KEY FOR the Kingsland Ave. door, it will work again after this next Monday or Tuesday, when the door will be re-keyed to match our keys.

When we repainted the Dining Room last week (check it out if you haven't been down there--although it will look even better when the new flooring is in), in order to have even paint coverage, we had to paint over the "cross mosaic" that was on the north wall of the Dining Room. The mosaic was painted by Jan Hawks, Kitty Kirk, Kim Merritt, Megan Merritt and Do Kirk. They painted the mosaic to enliven the space for worship when we moved our services downstairs during the pipe organ renovation. For the five years that the mosaic was in the Dining Room we were blessed by its presence. And all who worshiped there will continue to be blessed by the artistic generosity of the Kirk/Hawks/Merritt family!

New flooring will be placed in the main Children's Center room and the Dining Room in March. The schedule will be shared once materials have acclimated to the rooms. And the Dining Room wall by the windows will be built out to cover the ongoing water seepage from the ground.

In anticipation of the re-flooring of the Dining Room in a few weeks, we have painted the room a warm "Divine White," using some money from our memorial funds to beautify the space. This was approved by Session. The central stairwell and areas near the two lower elevator landings was also painted.

The elevator and the gathering area project passed all inspections this morning (1/5) --we can start using it on Sunday.

And, before you give me the list--yes, we know there are still little things to finish! Installing baseboards in the bathrooms, covering white trim in the doorways, touching up paint in a few places. And furniture will help in the Gathering space. Still, check out the transformation this Sunday when Christine Chen has the inaugural ride she won at the raffle and then on the 16th, Elevator Dedication Sunday. A huge thanks to Mark O'Bryan, Don Twellman, Reed Evans and Bob Little, who provided wisdom and guidance throughout the process.

The gathering area walls are painted, the flooring will be laid upstairs starting the 27th, and the cab will be finished for a Jan. 4th inspection. All work is due to be finished by the end of the first week of January. Stay tuned for the date of our elevator dedication.

The elevator platform is moving between floors and contractors are preparing to paint walls and lay flooring upstairs next week. Otis will complete the elevator by the 24th and all work is due to be finished by the end of the first week of January.

Visit our construction photo album.

Want to know more about McGrath: our exceptional contracting company?

By the end of the year we will be a congregation that has a more accessible, safer, and more welcoming building.The good news: we're moving closer to our goal every day and are financially on target.

We have come across very few structural surprises, have a strong working relationship with our contractors, and have been pleased with the cost savings in many parts of the project.In fact, McGrath is estimating:

• that we will save at least $21,000 out of the $57,000 contracted for tower work,
• elevator electrical upgrade costs will probably be about $2,200 less than budgeted,
• and the boiler is in and about $1,100 under budget.

This list doesn't even include the fact that our current flooring bid-if we are able to complete that part of the project-is now between $12,400 and $27,000 under the original $52,000 price originally shared with the congregation (depending on how much square footage we choose to cover).Given these savings, and a current pledged amount of $466,476, we are actually about only $40,000 below the amount needed to complete ALL aspects of our campaign.

The demolition went smoothly.The pit was blessedly empty of leaking oil/hydraulic fluid and our savings thus far easily covered the re-routing of a pipe unexpectedly found in the pit.The steel rebar is now in and the shaft foundation concrete is being poured in phases this week.Rebuilding has begun!The asbestos remediation will be finished next Monday and window work on the tower (the final part of the tower project) will be scheduled soon.