June 2nd - And we are off !! The demolition men have fenced off the site and started work inside stripping out the ceilings.
June 3rd - It is Saturday morning and the demolition people are working to catch up their late start. By 10am the roof is off the Abbot House building and stripping inside continues. Vanessa watches the work with a tear in her eye as the years of effort keeping the building nice for the children come to an abrupt end.
June 7th - A big hello to all the office staff at our demolition company as I believe you have become avid readers of this diary. Nothing to do with finding out how the boss is doing on this job of course!! Your big moment is tomorrow, will you have the building ready for the ceremonial knocking down of the front wall in front of the press? Check out the website on Friday to find out!
June 8th - What an exciting afternoon we have all had. The sun shone, the sky was blue, passers by stopped and stared. The reason - a large crowd of people attired in St Alphege sweatshirts were busy cheering their vicar on as he destroyed the front half of a building!
It all went wonderfully and Steve declared it was one of the best days of his life. All the male watchers were green with envy as he operated the ultimate 'boys toy'.
For photos of the fun, click HERE
June 9th - It's the end of the second day of demolition and already only the end wall of the old Christian Centre remains up. The whole site is already looking much larger and the works are attracting a lot of interest from neighbours and visitors to the shop next door.
This picture taken amid the debris says it all - the old building makes way for the new - and the new Christian Centre will become a very visible sign of the continuing presence of God in Seasalter.
June 12th - the demolition contractors have kept the last piece of the old Nursery to take down with the children present on Monday morning. A nice touch and one appreciated by the staff and children alike - although for different reasons. A nostalgic moment for the staff and a Bob the Builder moment for the children! A few boos and protests were heard as the redundant wooden playhouse was also picked up and dropped in a skip but then it was back to learning about caterpillars - tracks that is!!
A project meeting in the afternoon with the main contractor has agreed the following work to be completed in June, starting on the 19th:
Set up the site
Scrape the site for the new footpath
Lay the kerb and base courses to the footpath
Form the car park base
From July each month's diary will list the expected stages due to be completed in that month.
June 18th - I am called out to the front at Sunday Service to explain what a Project Manager does. Humm, do I declare independence or say I act on behalf of the Building Group? Lynda is paying close attention so I go with the BG representative route and receive a round of applause. Must have made the right choice!
June 19th - The site is looking very bare at the moment, the demolition guys have gone and a white van in the middle of the site marks the arrival of the groundworks team. That's 'groundworks' not Ground Force, so its going to take longer than two days! This view is where the back of the Christian Centre stood with the Abbot House Nursery behind it, now only an empty field of mud and grass.
June 20th - Oh Dear!!! It's only day 2 and the Project Manager falls out with the site workers. I arrived in the afternoon to find they were just about to block up the footpath across the site. Horrible visions of queues of people at my door complaining that they can't get to the Londis shop flash across my eyes. I decide its time for my first bout of PMT (Project Manager's Tantrum) and 'ask' them to leave the path clear. They politely refer me to the Site Agent and we have the first, of I am sure many, 'discussions' to resolve our differences.
June 21st - We all meet up on site and agree to lay a temporary path, phew we are still all friends. Having told Dave the Site Agent all about the machine-loving vicar, Steve turns up at the site and I do the introductions. Sorry Dave, I think you are going to see a lot of him during the project.
June 26th - the start of week 2 proper sees some much needed rain arrive in East Kent. Unfortunately it turns the site into a mudbath and the pavement alongside the site goes the same way. Work however is continuing apace with BT having laid their new pipe and the new path boasting a layer of tarmac. The groundworks team are well on the way to clearing the whole site and, luckily given the change in weather, have even laid some hardcore.
June 30th - Where do plumbers go in the afternoon? That was the question posed during a conversation with Dave about the working hours of various trades on site. Apparently you never see a plumber after 2.30pm ! Are they all golfers or single dads having to collect the children from school?? If you know, why not pass on the information.
It's the end of a momentous month with the demolition of the old building and the clearing of the site ready to start constructing our new 'home'.
Oh! and we have a brand new, and much admired by the neighbours, footpath round the site.
To read previous months diary entries click the appropriate month -
