So it looks like this year winter came in Oct and Apr, if not in Jan, Feb, or Mar. Monday’s weather was a mess. Thankfully it all appears to be an aberration, and we’re back in the 60′s again. Good thing, too. Lots of important things happening right now.

The elevator crew has arrived. They came out last week with several pallets, and they’ve been steadily assembling and installing:

They set up their equipment in the downstairs room that’s catty-corner (as they say in Lancaster) from the elevator itself:

Here’s an early shot after the main drive cylinder was put in place:

And here’s the operable floor of the elevator, with the side guide rails installed. Later they’ll build the actual car on top of this platform:

They’ve also installed the doors in the openings:

The masons will have to in-fill the block to complete the shaft. The fire shutters have also been completed. Here’s the view from the children’s classrooms downstairs:

And from the stairwell itself:

There’s also been some big progress in the multi-purpose room. They’ve installed some of the large ductwork. Here’s the first piece:

And the start of the first run:

They’ve also installed the OSB sheathing on the wall, which really helps to define the scale of the space. Sorry for all of the blurriness:

And they’ve begun to paint the main steel truss (the lighting’s pretty rough in there):

They’ve also installed most of the interior doorways. Upstairs, some of the frames form an inside corner, which will allow light into the classrooms and give a cool effect:

Most of the doors have at least have a sidelite for daylight to pass into the room:

And the scale of the lobby is starting to be felt as the walls are framed:

The plumbers are also moving along. Here they’ve installed the bases that will support the wall-mounted toilets and will also connect the waste and vent lines:

And outside, the membrane has finally been completed. They finished the west wall last week:

And they’ve continued the stone work. Out front, they’ve installed the felt and wire mesh under the porch:

They’ve done final prep on the east end:

And they’ve run the first strip of stone there. Finally, another large air handler was suspended in the storage room off the NE corner of the building. We brought in a crew of world-renowned experts to inspect the finished product:

In case you’re wondering, that’s Hunter Johnson, our architect, and Pete & Doug (foreground). You can get anything past those guys.

Until next week.