Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta

Building Project Manager's Journal - 2004

by Dave Hildebrand

June 12-30

The rest of June was spent with John Dyck doing the paint touch-up, Dick Neufeld installing the laminate floor and John painting the vault floor. At this stage the construction portion is complete except for some minor touches and I am turning the site over to one of my fellow Facility Committee Members, Henry Goertzen. Henry is much more knowledgably about the archives material and will be able to put the stuff where it should go. This will be my last report and I want to congratulate the Society for the splendid effort and on our new facility.

June 21-26

The repair work around the window is completed and the second coat of paint is finished in the main room. Dick Neufeld has come forward to head up the flooring effort and with continued volunteer support, I'm sure the work will sail right along.

After consulting with Trinity Construction, it is apparent that the electrician will not finish for some time. We can go ahead with the flooring and secure our space as the locks are installed. Dick Neufeld is ready to start at 10:00 A.M. on the 21st. Art Siemens is going to try to come as well. We can probably use 1 or 2 other. Irene Klassen gave a hand on Monday!

June 7-12

The painting is finished except some minor touch up. John Dyck will complete the paint job and the left-over paint will be canned and stored for future touch-ups. Dick Neufeld is ready to start on the laminate flooring as soon as the other subtrades are finished in our space. Trinity Construction is ready to start their work on our old location and have asked us to move as soon as possible.

May 31- June 5

John Dyck and Dick Klippenstein applied most of the second coat of wall paint. Dick Neufeld moved the floor covering material into the new vault and the exterior window is installed. May 17-21

The glass is installed in the interior widows and door. The flooring is delivered, stored in the wrong place, but it's delivered. That's about all that happened this week.

May 10-14

The sprinkler guy fixed the line in the vault/prep. room areas and his water lines are finished. The sheet metal guy still has some work to do and the electrician has a bit of work to do to provide the rough-in for the intercom, an outlet for 110 volt and one for a data outlet at the reception desk area and the wiring for the humid and thermostats. Either the electrician or the sprinkler guy will have to wire in the sensors at the sprinkler heads and then all the wiring should be roughed in.

Henry Goertzen and Dick Neufeld cleaned the grunge off of the trusses and overhead pipes and ducts and Henry finished sanding the drywall touch-up and generally cleaned the place up.

Our regular meeting on the 15th was pretty comfortable as a result of the clean-up. The flooring is scheduled to be delivered early next week and it will be stored in the (new) vault where it will be acclimatized until it's installed.

May 7

At this point all the walls have one coat of paint, the doors and trim have the finish coat of paint and we have to wait for the sprinkler guy to do some pipe work and the sheet metal guy to do some duct work before we can apply the finish coat of paint on the walls.

May 6

Harry Staufer called from Tofield to tell us that his team would not make it to our site this weekend. He had planned to bring a couple of workers to help with the flooring and as we won't be ready, it's just as well. Harry hopes to visit the site on the May 22 weekend.

Henry worked on filling, sanding and putting the finish coat of paint on the doors and trim. John and Dick worked at finishing the 1st coat of paint on the vault and the prep. room. The lights make the space look more finished.

May 5

We are running out of work that can be done and are taking the day off (with no reduction in pay). This will also accommodate the electrician as he wants to install the lights.

May 4

Henry kept on working with the filling and sanding and John Dyck and Dick Klippenstein got a good start on the first coat of paint on the vault and prep. room walls.

May 3

Henry Goertzen finished the first coat of paint in the fiddly top part of the walls in the main room and he did touch-up filling and sanding.

May 1

John Dyck headed up the painting crew. Colin Neufeldt and Herman Neufeld came down from Edmonton and spent the day helping out. John and Herman skipped over the walls with pole sanders, Colin got up on the scaffold and did the upper 4 to 5 feet of the walls, then Herman went onto using oil paint on the metal doors and trim while John used the roller on the lower portion of the walls. In between her duties in the office, Judii Rempel came in and worked on the trim with Herman. At the end of the day the 1st coat was on the metal and on the walls of the main room (over 50% of the total 1st coat). During the next week John plans to keep on sanding and painting and Henry has vowed to keep at it until the walls are filled and sanded.

The place is starting to look real good. It's big!!

April 30

Henry kept on taping and Gerhardt Bartel came in and sanded the main room and got it ready for paint. The contractor caulked the top edge of the drywall with a fireproof caulking thus completing the fire rating of the wall section. The tin bashers were in and got most of the HVAC ducting installed and removed most of their left over material. The floor was swept and we were ready for paint.

April 29

Henry made good progress with the taping and was appreciative of the excellent advice that Dave, the foreman of the drywall contractor, gave him about taping. Henry is such an enthusiast, he remarked that it would be real interesting to work with some of these tradesmen for a while and get to learn the tricks of the trade.

April 28

Henry was back from BC and at days end over 50% of the taping was done

April 24-27

With the boarding completed and Henry (the taper) Goertzen off to British Columbia, the site was going to be at a standstill for a while, however Harold Friesen (the contractor) came in and when we started up again on the 28th, the doors were hung and taping and filling had been started.

April 19-23

This week Henry Goertzen and John Dyck finished boarding and Henry got started on tape and filling. We are at the point where next week (Apr 26-30) will see the walls ready for paint and if other trades don’t hold us back we will paint next weekend.

Henry is confident he can do the tape and fill the joints, but could use some help during the week with filling the screw holes and sanding.

April 17

Henry kept on working with the trim pieces, the man is a DYNAMO and he just keeps on working. We spent some time cleaning up the area and had our first meeting in the new MHSA facility. We also recruited a workforce of Henry (of course), Gerhard Bartel, Dick Neufeld, a friend Henry is going to ask to join us and anyone else who wants to turn out, to finish the boarding on the 19th. We will rent the hoist again and if we get the board up, Henry will probably start seriously filling and taping next week.

April 15-16

Henry Goerzen was at it again, fitting the fiddly little pieces at the ceiling and doing some filling. Ben Geddert stopped by for a while and Judii and Irene worked in the old vault.

April 14

Gerhard Bartel stopped by the site but nothing was going on and he has offered to come out on the 19th to help us finish boarding.

April 13

Our plans to gang up on the rest of the drywall didn't work out. Unfortunately John Dyck had to attend a sick brother in Manitoba and we cancelled work until later in the week.

April 12

Henry plans to do some filling and maybe some more small pieces, but on April 13, if we can get some more volunteers out, we want to rent the hoist again and hopefully finish the boarding.

April 10

Henry was joined by Dave Pankratz and by the end of the day they had put up all the sheets that were practical for 2 men and it brought our progress to about 60% of the board installed.

April 7 & 8

Henry kept on going by himself and was able to do a lot of small pieces and patching around the beams and pipes, but putting up more sheets was out of the question with only 1 man.

April 6

Henry and John were at it again and they were joined by Abe Hildebrand and Dick Klippenstein. We also rented a drywall hoist and were able to place sheets on the 3rd row with it. Having the extra hands made the work much nicer and we had the extra bonus of stopping for lunch with the store staff in their lunchroom.

April 5

Henry Goertzen and John Dyck kept on boarding and for just 2 guys, made real good progress.

Last Updated 14 Jul 2004

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