projects

Sand Hill Farm Ground Breaking Ceremony

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The Town of Culver and their Workforce Housing Committee have been working on solutions to workforce housing for the past three years. Housing was the centerpiece of our Stellar Communities plan the last two years. As the culmination of this hard work, Easterday Construction Co., Inc. and the Town of Culver are excited to announce the ground breaking ceremony for the Sand Hill Farm Apartments on November 8th at 3:00pm. The ground breaking will be at the site, 540 West Jefferson Street, in Culver.

Sand Hill Farm apartments will have a mix of one, two and three bedroom apartments totaling 24 units. The development is geared towards the goals of increasing housing opportunities, attracting new families, increasing population and increasing school enrollment.

This will be a great kick-off to our Stellarbration at the beach lodge immediately after this. Hopefully you have that event on your calendar as well.

Thank you to all that helped make this possible! We hope you can take the time to help us kick the project off right.

Blast From the Past: Restroom Renovations

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I have a potential client that asked us about upgrading some institutional restrooms to make them more modern and inviting. They asked us if we had any experience. Of course two projects immediately came to mind. We completed work on the Grace Baptist Church restrooms in 2010. The existing restrooms were functional, but need expansion and modernization. We were able to accomplish that within the tight parameters. We were able to move an adjacent mechanical room to the second floor and expand into that space.

Before
After

 

In the case of the St. Mary of the Lake restrooms, we changed the chase locations and were able to mostly stay within the same footprint. So yes, we have experience in bringing old restrooms up to code and modernizing their aesthetic!

 

St. Mary of the Lake – Blessing of the Pets

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It’s always nice to see a past project appear in the news. The picture at the right, borrowed from The Pilot News, Thursday, October 5th, 2017 shows the North Addition to the St. Mary of the Lake Catholic Church in Culver, which was completed in 2007.

We have completed several projects for St Mary of the Lake Catholic Church in Culver over the years. We appreciate being one of their go-to contractors and are proud of the work we have completed in partnership with them. We have completed minor and major renovations at the Church, some of which are listed on our website, working with three different priests and building committees.

The North Addition project created a handicap accessible entrance to a newly created Day Chapel behind the alter. We were extremely pleased with how the brick matched and the floating arches came together for this project. We’re also please to see it being used a the backdrop for photo ops like this. 10 years later, it has become an established fixture for the Church. The picture to the left, borrowed from the St. Mary of the Lake website shows the steel, wood and glass dividing wall that we installed between the Day Chapel and the Sanctuary.

 

Below is a color picture of the entrance as it was being completed in 2007.

Mixed Materials Fence

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I noticed this fence in Wabash, Indiana and after driving by it for a year or more, I thought it was interesting enough to stop and snap a few pictures. Since seeing it in Wabash, I noticed a similar mix of materials inside Texas Roadhouse in South Bend. There they used it as a booth back at the end of a row of booths. The mix of wood and industrial metal is an interesting contrast that I’m starting to see more and more.

The fence in Wabash is a screening fence for a back yard. No one was home, so I didn’t get permission to look inside, but it would seem to be a great application for a pool. It has the slight limitation of needing to be level, but if that fits your application, I think it’s a creative use that should prove to be durable.

I liked it well enough that I’ve incorporated it into the Sand Hill Farm project. I plan to use this as the dumpster screening wall. It should be durable enough to serve that application well. Dumpster pads are generally level by design, so that limitation won’t apply here.

Dumpsters are a necessary evil, so I thought I might as well make the screening as sexy as possible. It will still have a chain link fence gate, but I’m kind of excited to see how the rest of the surround comes out. As the saying goes, Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery, so I’ll be going for Sincere Flattery in lieu of pursuing Original Design in this case. Swing by and check it out when it’s complete.

Blast from the Past: Dr. James Ford Museum

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I was cleaning house at the office the other day and ran across this invitation. Richard Ford was always kind enough to include us in events such as this. He made it a point to contact me and explain that the invitation applied to everyone at Easterday Construction that worked on the project, inviting them to come for the celebration and bring their wives to share what they had helped achieve. Our work mainly revolved around the structure and infrastructure, so most of the field crew had not see what the completed project looked like. This was their chance to see the home with the finishes in place, the museum displays up and running and to accept the kudos Richard was always sure to give. It is always nice to have your skills and accomplishments acknowledged and Richard did this deftly.

The museum is now under the Honeywell Foundation’s property umbrella. The duplex next door has been torn down to provide a parking lot for the Library across the street. This opens the home up to be seen from State Road 15. The home is starting to show a little bit of age, but in reality that just makes it look more lived in and more settled. Richard would still be proud of what he accomplished there.

If you haven’t visited this museum, it is worth your time. Make it a day and visit the Twenty restaurant at the Charley Creek Inn. If it’s a summer day, you can have lunch in the Courtyard. The Charley Creek Gardens are also open to the public. These are all projects Richard completed that continue to benefit the City of Wabash.

You can find out more about the Dr. James Ford Historic Home at their website here. You can find out more about Easterday Construction Co., Inc.’s part in it’s restoration here and here. There is a little more about the relationship Easterday Construction enjoyed with Richard Ford here.