Waxing is finished, and the altar has been put back where it belongs. The dossal curtain has been cleaned and rehung. Trustees will install carpet or felt pads on the bottoms of the pews to keep them from scratching up the floor. I set the camera on the floor to take this picture.  

The elevator project left us with some extra green folding doors which other pictures show. Notice how the track ends abruptly? It used to go all the way to the end of the wall, and curve around the corner. We now no longer may need that green curtain you see pictured here.  

The floor is being cleaned, sealed, and waxed today. These are the heavy duty, modern buffers. These things would have made life much easier for sailors in the 1970s. Well, come to think of it, what would we have done with all that extra liberty? 

The Heavy Artillery has arrived. Floors will be stripped, sealed, waxed and buffed. This is not your grandfather's buffer. The blue buffer is powered by propane. 

With the installation of the baseboard completed on Monday September 25, we now need to get the floor stripped, sealed, waxed, and buffed. This work will be done this week. Then we can put the basement back together. Those green folding doors will have to be addressed next year due to budget constraints. We are looking at options to present to the congregation. 

Baseboard has been installed throughout the basement. They also fixed loose corners of baseboard installed on the ground and first floor elevator rooms. There is a special adhesive you have to use for bending corners, and it wasn't used by those working on the elevator. So that's been fixed as well. 

The new doors are being painted.  

Spray-painted doors. There was a lot of overspray that will need touchup. 

A closeup of the new tile and treads 

The new treads are being installed today. Just finished the upper steps, and now starting work on the lower. That black strip is the "sandpaper" sort of grip, much like that 3M stuff the trustees taped to the steps a few years ago.  

All tile work was finished on Saturday September 16. The stair treads will be installed starting Monday the 18th. Painters will then come and do their thing, then the baseboard will added. The project is going very well. 

Here is the basement narthex getting ready for tile. Work was just finished on that silver door behind the fan. Obviously the USN pea green will be painted over with the rest of the doors. There were some problems discovered in the paint job in this basement that will have to be addressed by the painter when he returns to do the doors. When the tile laying is finished, the same crew will install the stair treads. 

September 15, 2006. Tiling the main basement is finished except for the utility room to the right, and areas needing special cutting. Next area to get it is beyond those double doors.  

Tile laying as of September 13, 2006. Progress should be pretty rapid on Thursday. Things are really starting to shape up. 

This is where the crew ended for Wednesday September 13. The floor is going to look great. But those folding dividers.....  

Starting to lay the tile.  

We added a handicap drinking fountain. This picture shows it in the process of being installed. The lower fountain is the "Master" with all the cooling equipment, while the upper one is the "Slave". It just draws cold water off the master. 

The basement floor will receive two coats of this sealer. The crew will have both coats done today, September 11, and be ready for tile tomorrow. Yes, today is the fifth anniversary of the Islamic Terror Attacks on our country. 

The elevator is coming in very handy for the work crew, and they have decided wisely to protect it. 

Goodbye to the old floor tiles. These tiles were actually designed for residential use and were only half as thick as the commercial use tiles we are getting. 

The Tile Remover.  

The basement did fail the moisture test, so it will need two coats of sealer applied. Here is the loud machine that rips up the old tiles. It really does the job! They are peeling up with ease. 

We are getting new drinking fountains, one of which will be wheelchair accessable. 

Before we can have new tiles installed, we have to go through this floor moisture text. This is because the basement is "below grade". We haven't had any trouble with these old tiles popping up, so I am sure we'll have no problem with the new. 

The new, as yet unpainted, set of fire-rated double doors leading into the main basement.  

It's too bad the Coventry Fire Department won't let us go without a door here. The Fred Crisp Door Company is taking care of the new basement doors.