Martha and I have been away this past week. On returning home Sunday evening we were surprised to see more than seven inches of water in our garden rain gauge! That's a lot, and I have not been into church yet to see if we had any water in the basement. For whatever reason, I have yet to see water on the basement floor this summer. Given all the rain this season, I would have expected to see some water intrusion. Perhaps something has changed below grade around our foundation and water hasn't risen to the known entry point about half way up the basement wall. Time will tell.
Last week when I was in Ohio and anticipating a small-ish Thursday Morning Group, my weekly email to the group recommended we cancel our regular Thursday gathering for the week. Much to my surprise, the Thursday folks had a better idea and went ahead with things. We even had some new faces to lend a hand. Thank you Dick and Yvonne Topping and thanks to the regulars who chose to ignore my offering of a day off. You are all the best! "When the going gets tough, the tough get going". Who said that?
Since my last report, Portsmouth Sign Company completed a routine inspection of our new sign on the Spaulding Turnpike side of our property. They found no problems with bulbs, no indications of electrical issues, and no indications of water intrusion. They removed the lifting lugs at the top of the sign per my request and sealed the bolt holes. This should have been done when the sign was initially installed. They found and repaired a damaged (bent) track at the top of the sign which was preventing one of the sign panels from seating properly in its track and could have allowed water entry for some extreme weather conditions such as wind-blown rain or snow. They also observed a grouping of bubbles within the material for one of sign panels. These bubbles do not appear to show up when the sign is lit at night and is likely to be a stable condition that will not worsen with time. At this point, I do not plan to pursue any relief within the warranty provisions. We can continue to monitor the situation in future inspections and pursue warranty provisions if the situation begins to impact functionality.
In my Tidings article for June I provided information of potential projects to be funded from the $15,000 approved for such projects at the last congregational meeting. Projects included:
- Steeple refurbishment
- Staining of the exposed wood trim around the main entry and the soffit area around the outside of the sanctuary
- Replacement of the ceiling fan in the sanctuary
- Repair/replacement of the skylight windows in the sanctuary
- Repair/replacement of up to three exterior fire doors
Since that time, I have been actively seeking bids for item 3, the ceiling fan replacement, but have yet to obtain any acceptable bids. To date, potential bidders have been unrealistically low, did not show up to evaluate the job, or have not replied at all. It is a small, but complex job, and bidders do not seem to be excited by the prospect of working on it. They seem interested at first ... just a fan replacement ... but the fan being 40 feet above the floor and 30 feet above a large hanging chandelier seems to put them off a bit! Wimps!
Regarding item 4, I have decided not to pursue this work at this time. We can work around the issue (spurious closure). The potential vendors to work this job (including Velux, the window manufacturer) have little or no interest in resolving the problem with the existing windows and consider the windows to be beyond their expected useful lifetime. Also, parts for these windows are difficult to find. I am convinced that the problem involves a malfunction in the control unit, and will continue to seek a replacement unit.
Regarding item 5, I requested the Newington Fire Department to come in and check out all of our fire doors. They pointed out to me that the problematical doors were, in fact, not fire doors, but emergency exit doors. Of course, these doors still have to open properly, but the closure requirements were less restrictive than fire doors. I have also had a contractor come in to work on the problem doors so that they can be opened, closed and latched. The fire department does a complete walk-through of the building annually to check on all of the fire safety features. The next walk-through is scheduled for August 24. Unless the fire department has additional issues with our doors, I will conclude we do not need to consider major door repair or replacement at this time.
All that said, it now appears that we only need to pursue items 1, 2, and 3. I am inclined to accept a bid for $7200 to complete items 1 and 2, and will recommend to council that we proceed with this work promptly while the weather remains amenable to outside work. My best guess is that item 3 can be completed for something in the range of $1500-$2000, although I have yet to receive a realistic bid for the work. I will continue seeking bids for this work which can be done later in the year if need be since the work will be done indoors. The total for these three items will be well below the the $15,000 approved.
Dave Mercer, Property Team Leader (pro-tempore)