It's high time for a new post! But before you get to read about progress, you need to read this first:

We will begin demolition on the undercroft kitchen on Saturday, June 5, after the Community Meal - starting at 1 p.m. or so. Come grubby and expect to leave grubbier! We need as much help as possible to make this a quick-as-possible process. Refreshments will be served.

There have been some big changes lately, and other less visible work is moving along as well. In fact, we need two blogs to get all the pictures in. The pictures you see here (in no particular order, (because I can't figure out exactly how to order them the way I want!) you see the following:

There is new carpet in the west (front) hospitality area. It is lighter in the center with a darker border. Eventually we'll have seating areas, a small space for selling tickets, fair trade items and displaying brochures, and a display space for library items. Within the next couple of weeks we will be choosing window coverings for the three large west windows in this space.

The little kitchen has generated lots of interest and there are frequent inspections of the progress! The floor tile is an issue here as well (see next post), but all the cabinets are in place and countertop is installed. We will be having the visible cabinet surfaces painted. We weren't planning on this but they look pretty dingy against all new surroundings! The dishwasher and coffee maker are here and will be installed soon. Those will be very convenient for both Sunday morning coffee and receptions in our new space. The coffee maker is "plumbed in" so we will no longer have to drag it to the sink and fill it. It will brew a great deal of coffee when we need it. The dishwasher does a load of dishes in about two minutes, making short work of those Sunday morning coffee cups and sanitizing them as well.

See the next post for more....

(Continued from the last post....)

You see two views of the combined Chapel Lounge and East Assembly Room with the doors that can be closed to divide them. This area has a new carpet with brick red and tan tones, chosen to compliment the wood wainscoting and the mosaic, as well as tie the color tones of the sanctuary and narthex into the education wing. One picture is taken from the hallway side doors of the Chapel Lounge looking toward the East Assembly Room and the other photo looks the opposite way. Window coverings will also also been chosen soon for this space.

The pastor's desk has arrived and if s/he gets tired, there is enough space on top for a nap. It's pictured in the pastor's office, but we want to make it clear that the pastor will not have to sit on the ladder. We will wait for the new pastor's input before buying a new desk chair. People have preferences about these things, you know.

You have a view here of the receptionist office furniture being installed. The photo is a little misleading. The built in furniture will be black. The desk will be oriented so that the receptionist can see down the stairs and at least partially screen people who ring the doorbell. Sliding windows will be installed in this space.

You see that the water fountain has been installed. Below the fountain you can make out some broken tile. There has been a problem with tile installation - the tiles have simply refused to stick with the conventional glues that have been tried. No one is sure what the problem is. But the contractors have experimented with different things and hopefully they will be able to solve this soon.

It's coming together and should be finished within the next month or so. I'll keep you posted.

The Heisley Honorary Fountain

Before Pastor Heisley left Mount Olive for New York City, he participated in nearly every building committee meeting - more than a years' worth of meetings. He gave us many creative ideas and held up for us our ministry of hospitality. He also, as most of you know, has a great sense of whimsy. He loved the idea of a water fountain backed by colorful blue tiles. So we now have the Rev. Dr. William Heisley Honorary Water Fountain - or at least we have the tile back of the fountain. It does look like cool blue water, doesn't it? It will work well with the blue, green and neutral tiles on the floor when they're installed. Just another way to welcome guests to MO.

A Kitchen Decision!

At our meeting this week, the Building Committee - with the blessing of the Vestry - decided to move forward with the renovation of the Undercroft Kitchen, a project near and dear to the hearts of many at Mount Olive. The intrepid kitchen users at MO turn out great meals, both for the congregation and for the community, but they do so in less than ideal working conditions. We aren't able to afford an expansion of the kitchen or all new appliances. But we will be rearranging things to make better use of the available space. Currently the food prep area shares space with the dishwasher area, which means that "clean" and "dirty" can mix, not a good situation for maintaining food hygiene. You can see the proximity of these two spaces in the picture at the top. So the dishwashing area will be moved to the smaller room off to the side of the kitchen (the room with the small windows), and what is now the dishwashing area will be converted to prep tables and storage space. This should also make for better traffic flow, as dirty dishes can be taken directly to the dishwashing area without having to pass through the kitchen. The freezers and refrigerator that are in the small room will be moved into the larger kitchen, in space vacated by the sink and countertop at the rear of the room.

We expect that work on the kitchen could commence within the next month, and that means that we'll need all of the help we can get to pack up and empty the kitchen, and take down cabinets. Watch for more information about volunteer days in the Olive Branch.