The work in the church is progressing. It all takes time to get it right. I figured I would share some pictures from Father's party on Wednesday night. Have a safe weekend.

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Charlie is going over the walls with a sponge to smooth out the plaster. It will be a couple of weeks yet of patching and sponging to get the walls ready for paint. Steve is stripping each pew which is time consuming too.

Do not forget that in the month of July, we have a generous offer from a parishioner to match dollar for dollar up to $10,000 on the renovation project.

A few pictures of Father Jazdzewski and his gifts from the parish cluster. There were alot of people in attendance and it was a very nice social gathering. Thanks to Danzinger Vineyard for letting us have the party at such a beautiful place. And to the PCCW for the delicious food.

Charlie and the guys are done patching in the entrance way and under the choir loft. They are working on the side walls now. Very time consuming job but they are doing a great job.

Now off to Father's farewell party.

There are 4 painters working today. 2 are up on the lifts and one in the stairway to the choir loft and the last one is on the scaffolding underneath the choir loft. They have to go over the walls 3 times to get it smooth enough to paint.

The plumbing is buried for the bathrooms. The ground is leveled off ready for cement. The painters have to go over the plaster 3 times. One is finishing off the entrance way and one is up in the choir loft.

Steve and Liam have brought some of the pews down from the storage container to be stripped of varnish, sanded and put back together. Some had come apart when they were taken out.

As they were leveling the ground by the bathrooms, they discovered a brick arch that was buried in the dirt. It is a pretty good size arch. Not sure what it was for or how long it had been there. Curious as to the story behind it.

Steve has started to strip the old varnish off of the pews. They look so clean after the varnish is removed.

The painters are still patching the entrance and have started up into the choir loft. Very time consuming job. The sand on the floor in Hansen Hall is getting leveled. The walls and the plumbing for the bathrooms have been marked out. We will have some roomy bathrooms when this is done.

The electrician has all the wiring done under the left sacristy. Quite a bit of wiring left to do through out the church. They are done taking the cement out of Hansen Hall. It has been loaded up and trucked away. The painters have almost finished patching up the ceiling in the entrance way. That will be a long process.

One of our vendors has taken all the metalware (chalices, ciboriums, etc.) to clean, polish, and/or replate. Our tabernacle will be completely cleaned. The painter has started to patch the walls in the entrance way. All the cement has been removed in the bathroom and back room area. Also 6 feet into the furnace room will be taken out to make Hansen Hall bigger.

The cement flooring is coming out in the old wood room and by the bathrooms. They have cleaned all the old wiring and extra wood that was up in the basement ceiling and in the crawl space under the sacristy. The electrician has his wiring all there and has begun to rewire some of the church. The painters arrived today and brought some of their scaffolding and supplies.

The walls in Hanson Hall have all been removed. All is progressing well.

Walls in Hansen hall are being removed to make room for a bigger room. Relocation of bathrooms and new wiring is progressing very well.

The electrical work/rewiring of the church has started today. Precious items such as the Tabernacle, Chalices, Candleholders and all metal have been sent out for specialty cleaning.

Today the work took place mainly on the flooring by the front entryway to the church. While cleaning and making repairs, it was discovered that there was quite a bit of rotting that had taken place in the wood that was providing support to the floor. You will see the hole that needed to be dug in order for the proper replacement to be made. Also attached is a photo of Father Brian with our incoming Priest Father Prince. Please keep both in your prayers as they make this transition in their lives. We are blessed to have them.

Also attached is a photo of wallpaper that was found in the hole that is being repaired. If you have old photos of our church you will notice this pattern.

Today our Contractor met with the Electrician to review all the necessary information in order to replace the damaged wiring. Meetings with a Church Painter from Illinois also took place to discuss the ongoing renovation with our church.

Servicemaster Restore is done with the cleaning. They will have the air purifiers running in the church all weekend long so no one can go in there when they are running.

Today they continue to clean with the dry ice machine. It is a very time consuming process. You can see how clean the timbers have become. Many years of dust and dirt have also come off. They are done on the main floor so the lifts have gone away. Soon they should be starting on the rebuild.

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The dry ice blasting machine is doing the job. It has cleaned soot (and years of dust & dirt) from the walls and the beams in the furnace room and former coal room. They are moving on to the bathroom area. You can see the beams before and after Lane has cleaned them with the dry ice blasting machine. The compressor outside supplies the air to accelerate the crushed dry ice. The process removes the soot before a sealant is applied to both eliminate the smoke smell and re-seal the exposed surfaces.

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The furnace room has been completely gutted. The whole ceiling is gone as well as all the duct work. The duct work has also been removed from Hanson Hall. The old ducting was specifically made for the old furnace. When the new furnaces are installed, they will pre-fab new duct work for it. That way there will be a less chance that any smoke odor or soot will be in the joints of the ducting. They finished cleaning the walls in the sanctuary. Tomorrow they will start with the ice blasting in the basement which is the final step in the cleaning process. The blue ozone machine is what they run to get the smoke odor out of the church and any material.

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They continue the tear out of the furnace room. The ceiling and some more of the duct work has been removed. Which is a very dusty job. We had the insurance adjuster and one of the head people from our insurance company looking at the church today. They just want to make sure that our church is taken care of and rebuilt properly. Continue to pray for everyone involved.

The Servicemaster crew have been really great and very respectful of our church. They are all very nice people. The crew in grey are from Green Bay- Lane, Toby & Xue. The crew in blue are from Wausau-Marshall, Matt, Raven & Kessler. There are 2 temps on the crew from Winona area - Brian is in construction usually and Liam just graduated from St. Mary's college with majors in History & English. With week 2 coming to an end they have all of the demolition done except for the furnace room. The ceiling will be coming down next week. They removed all the black ducting and it will be cleaned next week with some dry ice technique. It should bring it back to its original shine. I had to throw a picture in of the 3 masterminds of the operation.

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Today the studded walls in the basement were removed. The stairway has been cleaned the best they can. You can see the black marks are still on the walls & ceiling in the entrance way and up the stairs. That will have to be repainted. Toby was cleaning the hanging lights. Part of the wall inside the church was taken out to see where the soot traveled. A couple of feet will be removed from the floor up and replaced. The big statues and the cross have been removed and placed in a room with an air purifier to take any smell out of them.

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Today the main work was downstairs in Hansen Hall/furnace room. The have a machine to clean the air ducts. Which in turn brings the soot and the smell back into the basement. A big air purifier is vented outside to help take the smoke smell out. All the wainscoting in the church is taken off. The second dumpster was filled so now we are on number 3.

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Back to work today. The wainscot has been removed on the street side and coming down on the other side. Cleaning of the confessionals today. You can see on the wall going down the steps to Hansen Hall where they have begun to clean. Also, Cleaning has begun in the sanctuary. Keep praying for the men and women who endured the heat to clean the church.

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Week one is complete. The crew started to go home early this afternoon; some to Wausau and some to Green Bay. Cleaning the walls is progressing and they are starting on the choir loft. The crew will return on Tuesday morning. Steve and Father are asking for extra inspiration (Ha Ha)... Let's keep perspective on the real reasons for Memorial Day.

Hanson Hall is all torn out. Kessler was sweeping up the remains of the wall.

Lance showed me all the brick walls that were hiding in the studded walls. Not much left of the bathrooms with all the walls and fixtures removed. Furnace is removed. They cleaned in the crawl space under the sacristy. Poor Liam was the one that got to do that dirty job. Pray for all the crew that is helping restore our church back to it beauty.

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The containers will be used for running the special air purifier to remove the smoke odor. Everything is removed from the main floor for the scissor jacks to move around. Cleaning of the Stations of the Cross has begun. The electrician is here to install new wiring and get the lights back working. Ceiling and walls are coming down in Hanson Hall.

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And the clean up continues. All the carpet has been removed through out the Church. The pews are cleaned and will be removed later today into containers that will have a special air vacuum attached to remove the smoke odor. They are starting to clean the windows and the walls. The tear down of Hanson Hall continues. The pictures from the walls and papers from the case in Hanson Hall were cleaned with special dry sponges. They will also be put into the containers to remove the odor.

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The equipment is starting to arrive. A few of the ServiceMaster crew have begun cleaning pews before they get removed. Pray for all the wonderful people that will help restore our church.

Liam was working in the Sanctuary today taking inside trim off to get old wiring out and discovered this written on the top of one of the pillar trims. Looks like 3 paint jobs after the original. We will keep that and have Charlie put his mark up there too. He also found some of the old stenciling under the chipped paint. Exciting to find hidden history like that.