What’s Happening Around Holy This Summer
Rectory:
In case you have never been to the second floor of the rectory (build in 1926), there are four suites. (Five, in a pinch) I occupy the “Pastor’s Suite” on the south side nearest to the church. On the opposite end are two rooms which could room two priests. Pres- ently, we keep that free for Bishop Rice as his “St. Louis” home base. There is a suite facing Joy Avenue, which Fr. Jim lived in when he was here. Opposite that there was a suite of rooms with a sunroom facing the school. These rooms have been worked on this summer. Here’s why.
Those three rooms were a mess. Junk was stored there and there was an awful grey carpet bubbling up from the floor. We cleaned the junk out of the rooms, ripped up the carpet and refurbished the floors. We had a leak at the joint where the rooms linked up with the sunroom and so the roof had to be repaired. We then fixed the walls and painted them. So these rooms have been fully restored.
You may ask, why did we put all that money into refurbishing a room that probably will never be used? Fair question. Before Fr. Jim came, I had several people ask about staying at Holy. (It is a primo location.) At the time, strangely, we had no room. (Bishop’s room
– taken. Fr. Jim’s room – soon to be occu- pied. School side room – a total mess.) Fix- ing the roof will keep the building in good shape and restoring the rooms is always a good idea.
School:
There are two major projects going on in our school this summer. One we planned for.
The other was a bit of a surprise.
If you have ever been on the second floor (the primary wing) you might have noticed the tile bubbling up. That was not a good thing. We took up the floor (actually we took more than we thought we would) and re- placed it with new flooring.
To add to the fun, we had to put plywood down before we put in the new flooring. (Have you noticed wood prices lately?) But this project is almost completed. It will not have the colored tile that the kids used to skip on, but all in all, it is a welcome addition to our school building.
The second project was a bit of a surprise. Back in February, when we had that cold snap, a pipe burst in our concession stand (window will be replaced). That flooded part of our gym floor. At present we are working to extract the moisture that has bubbled up the wood flooring (are you noticing a pattern here?). Once that is done the whole gym floor will be redone and repainted. It should be ready by the start of school. (Hopefully)
Church:
The leaks in the church have been a thorn in my side for a while. There has been three separate attempts to resolve this issue. One has been a success, the other two…Just to let you know, we know of the issues and are working to get them fixed. (Gotta love flat roofs!)
Of course, our lovely gardens are the pride and joy of Holy Redeemer. Thanks to all the diligent workers. I owe you a wine and cheese party in the fall. And it is great having a new sign out in front. That is some- thing else we can be proud of.
If you notice anything around that needs work, let me know.