NEW WORSHIP CENTER UPDATE- #8

Following the inspection on Tuesday (which we passed by the way!!!), Keith spent a good portion of the afternoon meeting with Mike Hammer who is the contractor coordinating and overseeing the construction of the new worship center. How about that name, huh? A contractor with the last name hammer. That's like a judge named Justice or a banker named Bill.

Then the next day they started pouring the footings. For most of the day trucks rumbled in and out of the grounds bringing fresh loads of concrete. I was sad for my two year old, Jack, as he wanted to go out on the porch and watch the concrete trucks go by, but it was a little chilly for him to be out there so he had to be satisfied standing on his tippy-toes and peering out through the window.

These poor guys (the ones with the shovels) were surprised to find that the soil had frozen hard over night. As the concrete pours into the trench their job is to back fill with dirt to keep the concrete from sliding out under the form. The frozen dirt made that job quite a bit harder until the sun softened things up.

I hope this guy likes working by himself. The guys pouring and shoveling were gabbing and laughing the whole time, but this guy just quietly followed along behind them smoothing things out.

Seeing the cement truck in there really gives you a sense of how big the building will be once completed. You could comfortably park several of them within this space, and the peak of the new building will be almost twice as high as the Mt San Jacinto Chapel in the background.

And then everything was quiet... the footings were poured and the crew had gone home. I went up and snapped this picture. The next thing is a retaining wall which will be built to hold back the bank along the eastern side of the building. The blocks were delivered for that yesterday, and they were hoping to start on the wall tomorrow, but the forecast is calling for rain all day so we're not sure what's going to happen. Then, after that, the slab will be poured. Check back in here soon for more updates.