Catalyst Castle

It's been a little while since we finished this project, but I've been lazy about writing for this blog so I'm just now getting around to posting a few more pictures of the (nearly) completed project. These were all taken on the last day I was there. We received and helped set up the chairs that day.

I thought I'd share some more pictures from the Kingdom Hall remodel in Crescent City. Here's a shot of the auditorium with all of the demolition done. That's drywall stacked on the left side of the picture. One of our responsibilities in receiving was to count the drywall and make sure we received enough.


Last weekend the RBC set up the cook tent and began providing cooked meals for the volunteers. We've had some good stuff, and they do a good job keeping the lines moving fast.


Last weekend the stucco crew began work on the exterior of the building.


The tile crew also did their job last weekend. You can't see the tile here because it's covered to prevent damage, but it covers the entire lobby floor as well as the restrooms.


Here is the only structural change they're making to the building. They've added a wall in the area where the literature counters used to be. I think this is to seperate that area from the main auditorium, but I don't know for sure if it will still be where the literature counter is or not.


That's it for now. I'm looking forward to going back this weekend. It sounds like the painters will be doing a lot of work on Friday. I'm not sure what else is scheduled, but I'm sure it will be exciting.

Last week we started work on a major remodel of the Kingdom Hall in Crescent City, Florida. Here’s some “before” shots of the exterior:




And moving inside, here's the lobby:




The library:


The auditorium:





The literature counter is right off the main auditorium:


Here's the conference room:


A shot of the men's room:


Here's where I'll be working mostly. These are the containers where we store materials for the project. This time we have a tent just outside the main container, though the trees on this property provide plenty of shade as it is.




Here is the computer cart Jeremy built for us. It has a pull-out drawer for a laptop, a printer/scanner for printing purchase orders and scanning ship tickets, and in the bottom compartment are car batteries and a converter for power.



Jeremy really likes building stuff, and he's good at it. Here's Gareth helping him build a gravel sorter. The kingdom hall had a foot and a half of gravel all around the parameter of the building that had become mixed with a lot of dirt and leaves and such, so the brothers wanted a way to sift out the gravel from the rest. The way this thing works is that shovel the gravel and dirt into the top end, and then as someone rocks it back and forth with the handles, the gravel rolls down into a waiting wheelbarrow while the dirt falls through the wire mesh.



Just the other day we received all of the frames and planks for the scaffolding:



We also received the portoilets:


Last Friday they began demolition. They tore the siding off the outside of the building, took down the ceiling and insulation, and tore out a lot of the lobby and restrooms.





A local brother who is a retired mason also replaced some brick on the front-right corner of the building:


That's what's going on so far. I'm looking forward to being back there next week. Thursday or Friday we'll probably be receiving the chairs, which is a big deal.

Back in November, I said that my weekly time log posts would become monthly time log posts, and I haven't posted about my time log project since. Well, I've still been logging how I use my time, and I thought I'd post an update regarding the month of February.

Last month I spent 130 hours on theocratic activities. That includes 94 hours working with the RBC #10 in Oviedo. I'm really happy that my time spent on theocratic activities has moved to first place (after sleep that is).

Next I spent 76.5 hours on secular work. With the holiday season well behind us my work as dropped to part time hours, which I'm fine with for now. I had been hoping to gain full-time employment this year, but I've changed my attitude somewhat and am planning on putting off working full-time in favor of trying to regular pioneer.

I spent 34 hours reading. That isn't entirely accurate. Because a lot of my "work" with the RBC involves waiting around for materials to be delivered, I actually spent quite a few hours reading while I was there. These 34 hours represent time devoted solely to reading.

Creative pastimes, such as working on this blog and my wiki, creative writing, art, game design, and RPG prep, received 47 hours of my time. I'm pretty happy with that. I don't feel like that's an exorbitant amount of time, and I think I've accomplished a fair amount on my various projects.

Entertainment took up another 47 hours. This includes watching movies and shows, playing card games, board games, role-playing games, and sports.

Lastly, I spent 5.5 hours on housework, errands, and shopping.

Overall, I'm very happy with how I spent my time last month. I'm actually very happy with my life in general. Not that everything is going perfectly, but for the first time in a long time I feel like I'm right where I need to be in life, doing what I need to be doing. And that makes the bumps in the road a lot easier to put up with.

Over the last few months I’ve been involved with a project of the Regional Building Committee #10 to build a new Kingdom Hall in Oviedo, FL. It’s been a great experience. I’ve had a lot of fun working for Jehovah and my brothers and sisters. I’ve even made some new friends in the process, which is great. I thought I’d share some pictures I took over the course of the project.


This is fairly early in the project. A large group of brothers and sisters are working to pour the concrete for the parking lot.


This is the interior of the hall with only the foundation, rough plumbing, and block walls up.


These three shipping containers are where we stored most of our materials. As a member of the receiving team, this is where I spent most of my time.


Here is the interior of one of the containers where I spent much of the day sitting and monitoring materials as they came in and went out.


Here brothers and sisters prep the outside of the block walls. By the end of the project these scaffolding had to be disassembled, stacked, and all pieces accounted for by receiving. It was more work than it looks, and proved to be kind of a pain.


Here’s a shot of the main entryway as the project was coming along.


Here’s some of our receiving team taking shelter from the rain.


And here is one of the containers packed full of materials. It was interesting to see just how much materials gets used on a Kingdom Hall build.


Here’s a shot of the mechanism used to unload pallets of shingles from the delivery truck. This crane folds up right behind the cab of the truck and is barely identifiable. Then it unfolds to about twice the height shown in this picture and is manipulated by remote control to unload the pallets. It was cool to watch.


This is the view from the storage containers as the project progresses. Here the roof is on and individual departments have set up their tents and trailers on the parking lot slab.


The hustle and bustle going on inside the hall during the final weekends of the build.


Because the brother in charge of receiving is very creative, and a skilled carpenter, our job sometimes involves building things. This wooden box will hold a tent between projects.


Here’s Latifa goofing off (as usual) while the carpet is being put down.


A look at the drop ceiling before the ceiling tiles are put in.


This is only some of the sod that was ordered for this site. The brothers in the local congregations are going to have a lot of lawn maintenance to do.

Finally, the rest are some shots of the near finished product.


For the next RBC project I’d like to make blog posts throughout the duration of the project, rather than just making one long post after the fact.