Libramont Building Project

Happy New Year 2012

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 11:24:48 GMT

Not a huge amount of news about the building over this holiday period. I wanted to write just to say Happy New Year from all of us here in (and around) Libramont.

The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

All systems go

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:05:26 GMT

A piece of good news to report today. We can go ahead with the installation of the heating and, then, the pouring of the concrete floors. I spoke to Guy the other night and we've got the go ahead from the person who did the energy audit to start on the heating.

François is going to visit the heating engineer and will be signing the contract for the work. If all goes to plan the installation will be started towards the end of November. There are a couple of details to sort out - particularly insulation of the pipes that would normally be placed under the concrete floor, or have the concrete floor poured on top of them...

One idea was to have half of the insulated concrete floor poured, the heating installed, and then have the other half poured but this doesn't look like it's going to work out. So, François will be talking to the engineer about lagging the pipes i.e. insulating them directly whilst he is installing them. We'll see what the response is.

Anyway, it is good to see things moving along. I would imagine that we'll have to wait for the beginning of the new year to get the floors done but even so it means that even as the weather starts to improve (ha ha) working in the building will be much more pleasant.

The Cross

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 10:50:18 GMT

A whole group of us trooped over to the building after the service yesterday. The main reason was to deliver the cross that you see in the picture. The cross has been made by a friend of the church - a wonderful Flemish gentleman called Bruno. He and his wife have been visiting the church during the summer holidays for the last couple of years and we've got to know and love them both.Bruno is a carpenter by trade and wanted to make this cross as a gift to the church. The wood came from the Ardennes and was transported over 250km to his workshop before being brought back yesterday. The cross stands nearly three metres tall. You can't see them too clearly in the photo but there are nails in the cross at the places where they would have been on Jesus' cross. Bruno told me that he had used himself as the measure for where to put the nails. It was, for him, a stark reminder of Jesus taking our place.

Alain has been continuing his work at the church over the last couple of weeks. He has finished the plastering all the way round the hall and, honestly, the quality of the work is exceptional. We have to work out how to fill in the bits at either end of the hall that are above the level of the side walls. Asking Alain to do the plastering means hiring in some scaffolding and, above all, making sure that he is safe working at a height. OK, it's not like working on a skyscraper but even a fall from two or three metres can be bad and would be best avoided!

It's very hard to convey in a photo exactly how smooth the walls are. As we were walking round yesterday admiring the work (yes, we were admiring it!) someone pointed out that before starting the plastering in the church Alain had never really done any plastering. As we say here "Chapeau!".

The final photo is a bit off topic. As many other churches are also doing, we are taking part in the Belgian version of Operation Christmas Child. The church kids spent some time last week decorating a whole pile of boxes and we're going to be filling them up and sending them off in the next month or so. Take a look at the website and see if you can get your church (or any other organisation) involved too. It's quite a small thing, but it makes a difference. The kid holding the box is Oliver, my 2nd kid. Jo, kid 3, didn't want me to use his photo...

The heat is on... almost

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 07:47:32 GMT

No photos from the building project today but I thought I would put up a few images from the town that I live in - Bastogne. Yesterday was "Paris en Ardennes" in the town. Loads and loads of shops were themed "à la Paris". A few of Paris' sights were also recreated. This is the Arc de Triomphe. It looks better from a distance.

The Eiffel tower was in the town hall so wasn't very large. I had to wait a while to get a clear shot of the whole tower. The hall was packed, as was the town itself. Sundays are often very busy in Bastogne but this was exceptional. And, yes the tower itself was straight, the hall was leaning...

Finally, a picture of some pictures that were created by local school children to celebrate the day. There was a lot of similar art in the same hall, some of it very impressive.

After all that, there is some building project news. Last Wednesday the energy audit that we've been waiting for was completed. We haven't yet got the whole report but François talked with the auditor about the best heating system for the building. The answer: radiators. François then went to see the heating engineer and, in principle, if we sign the contract within the next week or so he can start right at the beginning of November. This is great news!

The work continues

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:03:13 GMT

We visited the building yesterday after the church service. Alain has been plastering the main hall and you can see the results in the picture. What you can't quite see is how good the work is. Professional quality, the plaster is so smooth and all of the corners round the windows are sharp. The end wall is a slightly different colour because it is still damp having only been done this past Saturday. Alain, François and Olivier spent the day working on it.

I thought I'd take a shot of the pile of materials sitting in the middle of the hall. In the time that he's been doing the plastering Alain has used 85 bags of plaster. Each bag weighs in at 25kg so, overall, he's put just over 2 tons of plaster on the walls. I was amazed to hear how much has been used. Alain has saved the church somewhere in the region of 5000 Euros by doing all of this work, and that includes the purchase of materials.

There is a leak in the roof over the entry hall and water has been slowly coming into the building. This is the puddle that was on the floor yesterday. The walls in the entry hall are also soaked through. François asked me to take a few photos so that we can send them to the architect who will follow it up with the builder.

We are still awaiting the results of the Energy Audit. Apparently the required visits have been made for information gathering, we're just waiting for the actual report. I'm hoping to meet up with the building committee at the beginning of next week. We'll be deciding which heating system to go with - radiators or under-floor. Once that's decided things could move quite quickly and by the end of the year the heating may be in and the concrete floors poured throughout.

Something New

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:07:47 GMT

Well, it's been a while. Things tend to slow down over the summer here and not much has been happening at the building. Alain and François have been carrying on with the plastering but none of the major work - heating and floors - that we are waiting on have been done.

So, the only news really is a new feature on the website. I've added some stuff that allows you to subscribe to receive an e-mail whenever there is an update on the site. All you need to do is enter your e-mail address in the little box under the main links to other parts of the site. Click the "Subscribe" button and then sit back and wait a few minutes. You'll eventually receive an e-mail entitled "Your subscription at anzoid.com". Inside is a link that you'll need to click to activate the subscription. After that, whenever I add a new post here you'll get an e-mail telling you about the update.

Oh yes, you can unsubscribe at any time either by clicking the "Unsubscribe" link that will appear in every e-mail that gets sent to you or by shouting at me in the comments section.

Smooth and shiny

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:36:46 GMT

For the first time in a while we went over to the building after the service on Sunday morning. Work has been going on largely unseen but the evidence is there for all to see.

Here Christian and Michel are admiring some of the work that has been done. Alain, who's handiwork they are admiring, has been working tirelessly at the site over the preceding weeks. He's been getting handy with the plaster and has more or less finished all of the downstairs of the old building.

These walls are in the classroom at the front of the building. When you run your hand over them they are almost totally smooth. Christian explained to me how Alain is likely to have done it and it's quite an impressive and laborious process that requires quite a bit of effort and a lot of attention de detail.

This is the main hall in the old building. Both Michel and Christian remarked how nicely Alain had done the bits round the windows - no splatters of plaster on the frames.

Whilst we were looking around downstairs the kids sneaked upstairs to have a look. Jo, my youngest son, took this photo of the kitchen that has all been moved upstairs so that the plastering could be done. Good composition and lighting son!

The only down point was finding that there is a leak in the roof. I've got to contact the architect who will then contact the roofer who'll probably make excuses. Alain doesn't think that it is anything too serious but it's just one of those things that you can do without as it makes more work for everybody. C'est la vie!

Moving along swiftly

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:41:26 GMT

We had a building committee meeting last night and decided that it would be good to at least start the meeting at the new building. With the hour change and the fact that we met quite early we were able to have a good look round. This first photo is of the work that has been done by Christian - he has plastered two of the bare, ugly columns in the old building. This is the one in the room that will be the Sunday School classroom. Very smooth.

Last weekend the church youth spent the day working at the building. They did a lot of cleaning up and also built the wall for the kitchen counter. They've done a really good job. Someone, can't quite remember who it was, said they'd send me some photos of the youth at work so that I can put them up here.

Not exactly an artistic photo but I quite liked the look of all the wiring that has been done in what will eventually be the kitchen. These gray corrugated tubes snake all over the building at the moment. Once the concrete floor is poured we will see most of them no more.

In the next week or so the architect is going to be visiting the site along with the different builders that have done for the construction work. They will be looking to see what bits of work need to be finished up or even re-done. They're going to have quite a lot to do but this quite normal. The comment was made that the only building site where everything works perfectly is one where you have the contractors being supervised by an overseer and then you have overseers overseeing the overseers. I guess that would get expensive.

A final look at the hall before we made our way back up to the school for the rest of the meeting. We still had to discuss the finances and how we are planning to move along. Once we have paid for everything that has been done so far, and have also paid for the floors to be done we will have about 27,000 euros in hand. With that money we will make a start on the heating - at least having all the pipes laid so that the concrete floor can be poured.

After that we're going to be getting the insulation done on the old building. It seems that we will be able to get financial help from the regional government for the work. Before that is done though we have to have an Energy Audit. That should be happening in the next few weeks.

Overall things seem to be picking up pace and getting our timings right over the next month or so is going to be quite important. Once the insulation is done and the floors are poured inside everything will look so much more "done". We have calculated that to finish the project we will need to find, roughly, another 50,000 euros. That doesn't feel like too much given how much we've already spent, but we're still wondering how to go about it. If you'd like to help we have a Donations page that gives details of how you can contribute to our project. Thank you.

Sorted out

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:47:23 GMT

Back in December last year in my post called Seasonal Pictures I mentioned that we had discovered that we were owed around 10,000 euros because of a billing error. I'm very pleased to be able to report that we have just received the repayment from the contractor.

We also now know how much we owe the builder. We've been waiting for his final bill for ages and it just never arrived. So we went calling to get the details. Once we've paid him for all his work (including pouring the concrete floors which is yet to be done) we will have enough money left to install the heating and to make a start on the external cladding of the old building.

It looks like things will be moving along quite a lot in the next couple of weeks and months. Exciting times.

The new kitchen

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:51:13 GMT

This is the second post for today. More photos!

We have a kitchen. It's in pieces in one of the downstairs rooms but it is definitely a kitchen, and a very nice one too. Olivier and his wife Rianne found it online and drove to Holland, and back, on Saturday to collect it. They had to drive up there, dismantle the whole kitchen, pack it into a van and then drive it all back to the church. Thank you Olivier and Rianne for doing all of that hard work!

These are the other 'bits'. There is an oven, a fridge and a dish washer. I can't disclose the price paid but it was an amazing deal. Talking with Rianne yesterday, she said that the children of the King are allowed to have good things. Amen! God is generous, he has been generous to us all the way through this project but this is kind of the cherry on the cake.

This is a photo of Olivier and Michel discussing how and where to install the new kitchen. Apparently the whole lot should fit with 1cm to spare. I should have taken video because they were quite animated. I tend to zone out when the talk gets too technical - my French extends to nuts, bolts, glue and concrete. After that I'm pretty much lost, so I leave them to it. Zac, my son, seems to be following along OK though.

He also managed to turn up in another photo. The kid gets around. The ladies having a chat are Naomi, my wife, Monette and then Françoise, Michel's wife. I wasn't close enough to listen in though...

Finally, a photo of "the crowd" outside the building before we all went our separate ways for Sunday lunch. Olivier is doing a good job of hiding himself. I'm in there for a change as someone else was taking the photo - I'm third from the right for those who want to know.

So things are moving along. A year or so ago I mentioned that we thought we might be able to move in by May of this year. That is looking unlikely as there is still a lot to do. However, it would be nice to think that we might be able to take up residency by the end of the year. We shall see.