Church Update, 8/28/22
Posted on August 28, 2022 Posted by John Scalzi 25 Comments
As summer begins to wind down, so too does the first phase of the church renovation. Things done since the last time I checked in here: Railing added to the balcony: Sanctuary floor and chancel finished (the pews, while out, are not in their final positions), new basement-level floors laid, one restroom refurbished and another new one installed. The kitchen is 90% done and there are few other things to be dealt with, including capping a chimney and installing bookshelves into the balcony area. It’s far enough along that we can start thinking about the next phase (furnishing and decorating the place), and that’s a pretty nice place to be.
Would that we would have been there sooner! But welcome to contracting work in 2022, where everything takes longer as the baseline, and to renovating an 80-year-old church, where there’s always something unexpected to deal with, pulling completion dates further into the future. Still, good to be within sight of the finish line for this part.
— JS
Absolutely dying of curiosity about what you’re going to do with this church.
“…always something unexpected to deal with”: my house is 104 years old and I sympathize.
The Dark Church of Scalzi’s Satanic Burritos?
What a wonderful setting for holding readings from your books!
“Today, readings from the book of ‘Old Man’s War.’ Please turn to chapter 1, page 7. ‘I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife’s grave. Then I joined the army. …'”
Seriously though, looks nice. Have you stated what you will do with it? I first thought some sort of office location for your business… but keeping the pews in makes me think this is more of a place to present?
Anyways, good luck. Love seeing the progress here. Thanks for sharing with us.
I truly wish I could put owning a church on my bucket list but an RV takes priority.
Remember Cheop’s Law: No building project is on time or within the budget.
I wanna see the Scathedral’s pipe organ plates with a smoke machine aimed at the intake! I think it would look creepy and cool :)
played*
Beautiful soft, gleaming hardwood floors. It’s a lovely space. You chose well.
Thanks for the update and the picture!
One day I should hope to make the sacred pilgrimage to the Scalzi church, should that I be found virtuous enough for such an honour.
I am a unit owner of a 116 year old condo building. Can confirm: surprises never end. Just one example: we found out lately that one steal beam has rusted away to nothingness.
Most building in my home town are much newer. 1939-45 the RAF and the USAF conducted a major renovation offensive, but they overlooked my building.
One of the fascinating things are: you can read a lot about the social situation back then if you learn to read architectural details. E.g. the (very small) bathroom nowadays was originally the maids chamber. I lived alone where originally you had a family of about 4 people plus service personnel.
Beautiful wood. It’s going to be a very pretty space.
OMG you’re the next science-fiction author that’s going to start a new religion.
Will it be as evil as scientology?
Looks great so far! Assuming that phase 1 included the full “safe and sound” treatment, cautious optimism that (nearly) all unpleasant surprises have revealed themselves is not unreasonable. Anything beyond cautious optimism is merely tempting fate.
I may have missed this in an earlier update, but do you have a strategy for restoring/preserving the organ yet?
I’m still firm in my belief/hope that this becomes a coffee shop/bistro/burrito bar complete with Athena’s baked goods and sandwiches with space for music/readings.
Open Tuesday through Saturday, 8 to 4 most days with extended hours on Saturday.
[Deleted because, at the very least, the failure mode of clever applied to this comment — JS]
Hey Peter, can we maybe skip the antisemitism?
I work at a university library, and we were supposed to have our elevator replaced last year. They started the very first of the year after we came back from winter break. Supposed to take about 3.5 months.
It started working about 7 months later.
Mostly.
Not very reliably, and prone to fits. Turns out the software running it wasn’t universally updated, and it was having problems communicating with the maker’s main servers. Why it didn’t have a central point that could monitor all the systems and see what was up to date and what wasn’t, I don’t know. Silly me, having spent my career in IT for thinking of such things.
It now seems to be working quite nicely.
Except for the display. I think it’s maybe eInk, might be LCD of some sort. It either has a few rows of bad pixels, or something is wrong with the driver electronics behind it.
Total project cost? Over a million bucks.
And it is the only elevator of its type in all of New Mexico.
And the best part?
Apparently it is NOT ADA compliant – the door is a couple of inches too narrow. A million bucks, almost six months beyond the projected end of the project to get it working, we’re still having issues with the tile in the lower lobby, and it isn’t ADA compliant.
Yeah, I know about contractor problems.
Why does a bench become a pew as soon as you put it in a church? And when your church is no longer a church, shouldn’t it become a bench again?
That beautiful wood floor makes me want to put on my dancing shoes. Are the pews movable?
Regarding pjcamp, close above, asking about pews versus benches, as I see it: Benches are less comfortable, being perpendicular to the lines of gravity, while pews may have a nice carved slant.
To add to the “purpose for” brainstorming: Maybe for a big gathering of Toastmasters International. (public speaking organization)
But as it is the Church of St. Scalzi of Burrito, isn’t it
pew-pew-pew-pew-pew?
Sorry not sorry.
[ self-deleting snark about lack of virgins in Ohio to sacrifice to the Burrito Gods ]
you gotta put all these Church Update posts under a “category” so they are easier to find. Get your Whatever minions on this stat!