AC Renovation

Here is the way the temple, ancillary building and office building look from the street today.  But behind the scenes lurk the purveyors of dust-truck-sion (renovation workers!).

The missionary couples who have lived here may find this posting of particular interest. This blog posting is about the air conditioning renovation to replace the one-of-a-kind AC in the ancillary building.  It is one of a kind because at the time of installation, it was supposedly cutting edge. It turned out to be a passing fad.  If the AC in the ancillary building ever went out parts had to be manufactured because they currently don’t exist. The  occupants of the ancillary building and the office have been in the heat for weeks at a time, with no AC from time to time.  The temple AC is also being upgraded with a back-up unit.

The renovation projects were awarded to two separate contractors so that if one ran behind it would not impact both buildings. They are to run concurrently starting in April and to be completed when the temple reopens in August. 

The plan was that renovation of the ancillary building would be done a floor at a time so that couples housed in the ancillary building would only be out one month. Right now every floor is torn up to some extent. The second floor, our floor, is the least disturbed at this point.

So far, the first couples to be relocated to Alema Courts moved out starting the last of May.  Now, in July, we are the only ones left in the building, and we are not scheduled to be relocated until the end of September.  TIA (This is Africa!), as the saying around here goes.  (In other words, things don’t go as one might expect.)

The following pictures were all taken on the same day, indicating the widespread upheaval. The picture on the left is the ceiling unit in the apartments that will be replaced. On the right is the piping being installed that runs from floor to floor. This is in the laundry rooms. There is also one like it in the room just past the garbage shoot. They had to break a hole through the concrete floors and the jack hammering sound from which rattled your teeth and seemed to take weeks.

   

The next two pictures show the 3rd floor by the elevator and down the hall towards room 305.

     

The next two pictures show the 1st floor by the elevator and down the hall towards the Temple President’s apartment.

           

The next two pictures show how the furniture is being stored in stairwells. Not very well protected from the dirt and dust. The bags, we assume, contain curtains from the rooms. Very few items were covered as we were led to believe they would be. 

 

The huge chiller was trucked in from the seaport at Tema. It took a crane to lift it out of the truck. The temple president was watching. They removed the children’s playground (New playground equipment will be put in later.) and cut down one part of the tree to get the chiller behind the office building. This project was supposed to be completed by the beginning of August but now will not be completed until October. We’ll see.

 

In order to get the multi-ton chiller between the buildings and around back of the Area Office building they used a small forklift to pull it over 4 inch pipes that were relayed along under the chiller as it inched over the ground. You can see the ends of the pipes it is riding on below. The little tractor pulling, and many men pushing, got it from the parking lot in front of the ancillary building to this corner by the office building in about 7 hours.  How long will it take them to round the corner?

 

The pictures below show the road behind the temple where the back up chillers will be placed for the Temple. The side walk is piled with dirt covered with black tarp.  Shown below, the chillers will be placed on concrete slabs (behind the white boards) and the chilled air will be piped under ground in the large pipes to the temple. The one with the cement mixer is by the buses parking area. During the demolition on the driveway behind the temple cars have to be rerouted back through the entrance to leave.  What is usually the exit has to be used for entrance to the stake center.

The picture below shows a hole they broke into the temple where the pipes will be routed. The dirt from the trenches is piled up on the nearby trees. We are hoping it is moved before it kills the trees.

In addition to upgrading the chillers for the temple they decided to fix the windows that were not adequately sealed to keep out the moisture and were leaking.  There is a team of about a dozen workers from the US here to solve that problem. They are encasing the stained glass windows in argon-sealed double panes. Since the temple was closed for the AC upgrade they decided to address the window leakage issue as well. These are the celestial room windows covered with plastic on the outside.

This may seem a strange thing to blog, but it is one of our experiences living here. Anyone who has lived through any kind of renovation at home knows what we mean! We miss all the other missionary couples who normally live as our neighbors in the ancillary building! It is quite lonely now that the patrons rooms are also empty, with the temple being closed for regular scheduled maintenance.