History & Background
Renovation of our Sanctuary Building restrooms was selected as a high priority capital project at a congregation meeting on February 17, 2019. It competed with other capital project ideas such as an outside deck on the south side of he Sanctuary Building, a new Main Road Sign, replacing the Sanctuary Building carpets and providing some Sanctuary chairs with arm rests for people with mobility limitations. On September 19, 2019, following several meetings with representatives from the Texas Methodist Foundation, we decided that the timing was not right for a large, formal fund-raising project and that we would raise funding by ourselves over a longer time frame. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the entire USA in early 2020 and the idea for this project lay dormant for several months. In-person indoor worship services were suspended by a vote of the Church Council on March 17, 2020. The church office and buildings were also closed. The church embarked on a livestreaming project to fill the void for worship services. The existence of the pandemic suggested that the timing of a renovation project was good, considering that the building was not being used during the suspension.
In the May 2020 Church Council meeting, the council approved a motion from Jane Howard to ask the Trustees to “propose a stretch goal for the ADA bathroom” thus re-launching our effort on this project in the middle of the pandemic. Jane wrote an article entitled, “What Did You Do This Summer” for our monthly Connections newsletter. This launched our fundraising effort for the project. On June 16, 2020 we sent the congregation (100) letters requesting pledges and contributions. By January 2021 we had sufficient funds raised to begin the project. We selected Qual-Con G.C., LLC construction company to perform the work. Barbara King managed the contractor selection and design input from the church.
The scope of the restroom renovation project expanded considerably in mid-February 2021 when an unusual, severe freeze gripped central Texas for about a week from February 15-19, 2021. During this freezing weather the entire Sanctuary building endured a broken copper water pipe in the attic which froze and broke, causing extensive flooding in the entire building. The broken pipe flowed for the better part of two days as the area was in a weather-related lockdown. When the water was finally shut off about midnight on February 18, the entire Sanctuary building had an inch or two of water on all the floors. This necessitated an insurance claim for flood damage accident. Remediation of the floors and the lower two feet of all the interior walls in the entire building was added to the scope of the original restroom renovation project.
Construction began on February 24, 2021 with the Demolition Phase of the project. The “silver lining” of the pipe break and flooding accident was that it completely demolished the ceiling area in the Women’s restroom, saving us that portion of the demolition effort!
The file linked above is a 56MB PDF file which is 1619 pages long. It contains construction photos and a list of internal and external links on the second page to help you navigate to the various phases of the Sanctuary Building Renovation project. You can click on the link to view the PDF file and then click on the various links within the PDF file to view photos and various YouTube videos taken during renovation. You can also download the entire file and view it offline if you wish.
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