There has been some exciting progress on the building, so here’s one more post on the construction before we head off to Israel tomorrow…

The reclaimed cypress siding has started to go up on the exterior walls (see the second and third pix down). The siding will eventually get two coats of clear sealer which will protect and enhance the look of the wood. The Jerusalem stone is now going upon the main wall – the bottom pic shows some of the work that was done yesterday and today. (In case you are wondering, the small shadows on the the stones are made by the spacers that have been placed between the tiles to prepare them for grouting.)

As the pictures above and below indicate, the exterior of the building and the third floor sanctuary window are coming together beautifully. Looking forward to seeing even more progress when I get back to town August 15!

There has been a fair amount of progress on our building over the last two weeks. All of the windows have been now been installed: the pic above shows the window framing for the east wall of the third floor sanctuary and the shot below shows the east window of the first floor chapel. The second pic down offers a good view of the windows in the second floor classrooms.

They have also begun polishing the concrete floors (you can see the workers doing just that in the sanctuary shot above.) We are told that this process will continue well into next week.

As I reported in my last diary entry, we have received the shipment of reclaimed cypress siding for the exterior walls. The contractors are still debating the best way to treat the wood before installing it, which will hopefully begin next week. The second pic from the bottom shows a test model of the cypress planks as they will look on the walls.

We have also just received the shipment of the Jerusalem stone (bottom pic) that will clad the entry arch and main interior wall. This installation should begin as soon as the concrete floor polishing is completed.