Well, at long last work has begun
on the renovation of our church and rectory! The initial work began last week
with gutting of the old church offices on the first floor of the rectory. In a few weeks I hope that scaffolding will go
up in front of the church, and that a covered sidewalk protection will be
constructed in front of the church along Guadalupe Street. Once we know the
stone is on the way the demolition of the current façade can begin.
The old stone will be removed and
disposed of. Most of it is grey and dingy, full of “biological growth”, the
architects' polite term for mold. Besides, we anticipate that much of the stone
will come off in broken pieces, not in complete slabs. So it really won’t be
usable, even if we did clean it.
The stone is the critical item for
the timing. The stone is coming from Florence. I think it is incumbent on me to
take some time off from the parish to travel to Florence and inspect the
quarrying, cutting and manufacture of the stone. I am sure you want me to go to
Florence and check this out. And since Florence is just a little more than an
hour’s drive north of here, about three quarters of the way to Foot Hood, it
should be an easy day trip. I am, of course, referring to Florence, Texas. But
we can still boast, with all honesty, that the new stone on our church comes
all the way from Florence! None of the
fancy suburban parishes have anything on us!
In any case I expect the new face
of our church will be something distinctive, attractive, and something we can
be proud of. I can hardly wait for construction to begin.
However, there is a downside. The
construction will cause dust, disruption and inconvenience. Never having done
this before we do not know exactly when, or how, this inconvenience will occur.
We will just have to take it as it comes, put the best face on it and soldier
through. When it is all over I think we will be glad we did.
God bless!
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