My office is the one originally used by Hank Scott when the church was first built.  This office has what was an outside door. Later the walkway was enclosed and this outside door became an inside door. That changed today. My door is once again an outside door.

Did you catch my subtlety? The outside hall that parallels the church offices is GONE! From the foyer north to the student building, it is GONE! Tomorrow they'll begin on the hall from the foyer south. For the moment we get to keep the foyer (bottleneck--whatever you want to call it).

We've also lost many of our trees. That statement for Lubbock normally would be a sad thing but I think it's a good thing for us. The trees in front of the worship center are not particularly good looking trees and the canopy is too low. They have provided camouflage for our worship center--not really a good thing for a church that desires to be seen. So, removing the trees will highlight our building. (I anticipate folks suddenly realizing there's a church here and wondering how long we've been here.)

So, the news for today--mass destruction. But that's a good thing. Soon the destruction will become construction. Fun times at Bacon Heights.

We've survived another "construction Sunday" and did so with flying colors! All our construction people hit the ground running this morning. As I write this Monday morning the abatement people are finishing their work and will probably be out of here by tomorrow. The construction crew is still in full de-construction mode. This morning more trees came out to make way for new construction, new parking, and, eventually, new landscaping. The screen-wall around the worship center south compressor came down as well. Pending completion of the asbestos, the halls will disappear. I'll let you know as this happens.

Just know we will have access to the worship center at all time, some time it may be a little inconveninet. But, hey, we're "patient and flexible," are we not? YES WE ARE!!!!!

Yesterday we had our first construction meeting and reviewed the progress and planned the work. The view in the Hank Scott Memorial Garden is changing moment-by-moment. The covered walkway connecting the worship center with the student center is GONE! The shrubs and trees are GONE! The covered portico is under attack at this moment and will be GONE in a few hours. The abatement continues at a steady pace but I don't know if they will be finished by the weekend or not.

Bottom line: progress is being made and it's exciting around here.

So much for my goal of blogging daily with updates on the construction. Here it is, the middle of the week and this is my first blog .  Here's an update on the construction progress:

Abatement. The crew worked long hours Monday and Tuesday to "wrap" the area that has been room 10C, print room, library, conference room and Sprouts classroom. Everything that is not containing asbestos is covered in high quality, thick plastic sheeting. Today they began shoveling the insulation from the attic and have or are removing the first layer of carpeting. Once that is done, they kick up the water to contain any dust particles and remove the ceiling sheet rock (because it is covered with texture containing asbestos), old carpeting and any tile under the carpet as well as the glue containing asbestos. They are determined to finish by Friday night, which will save us money if they are successful.

Construction. Well, actually demolition. Last week the fence was erected to secure the construction area, which proved to be a challenge to some Sunday. Yesterday they removed the Hank Scott plaque (don't worry, we have it in the office) and began tearing down the covered walkway connecting the worship center with the student building. They are doing detailed things that won't show much Sunday but things that have to be done before the wrecking ball can swing on the connecting halls.

Financing. We're completing the paperwork required to complete the loan with Lubbock National Bank. We'll not actually began to draw money from them for a few months but we need the paperwork complete before the construction begins "in earnest."

These are exciting days as well as challenging ones. Too often I've had the challenging days, but they were not exciting. I much prefer the ones with the excitement connected.  Happy Wednesday!