projects – Page 27 – Easterday Construction Co., Inc.

Outdoor Living Project I

May 26, 2011January 6, 2011 by

This Fall we received the opportunity to work on a unique project. We were asked to take over a project for a poolside cabana project. The project had gone through multiple initial designs, but the original contractor was an expert in landscape masonry and not in the type of structural project this had become. We were asked to look into options to make the project work.

We were able to redesign the roof line to match the house as the owner originally wanted. We added a bathroom with a shower to improve the usability. We redesigned the fireplace to tie it to the structure. We improved the drainage system allowing leveling of the paving system. We added hurricane shutters to protect the interior as well as extend the useful seasons. We employed Scearce Rudisel Architects to provide drawings and verify that we were on track to meet the owners’ vision.

The original design called for sand set pavers, but because the interior of the project was enclosed on three sides, we revised the design to include a sloped concrete slab base with the floor pavers set on pedestals to level the floor. This system is similar those we have used on roof deck projects. This allowed for a flat floor, with positive drainage beneath the pavers. The cabana was to be raised one step above the existing pool deck, so we installed a trench drain to collect water from the sloped deck of the pool. The step also allowed us to create a new level edge from which to start our construction. (The pool deck had previously drained into a landscape area and the edge did not need to be perfectly level and was allowed to have variations.) The pavers themselves will be 24″ x 24″ x 1-1/2″ thick installed in a stacked bond pattern.

The outdoor kitchen has been designed with stainless steel appliances protected by a stacked block wall. The wall will create bar height seating on two sides. The bar and countertops will be Typhoon Bordeaux granite.

The exterior roof style has been designed to mirror the existing home’s roof line. To reduce the water returning to the pool deck at the front of the structure, the top section of the roof has been designed with a slight slope to the rear. Flashings will be installed to hide the slope. Gutters will be installed around the entire structure for continuity and rain chains will be installed to handle the minimal water exiting the front, while downspouts will be concealed at the rear to handle the majority of runoff. The interior ceiling shall be comprised of two crossing barrels giving added height to the interior.

Foundations and slabs are in place, steel columns have been set and the roof framing is underway. Roof sheeting should be underway yet this week. Weather has held up the fireplace mason, but we are working around that the best we can. Despite poor weather conditions, the project is beginning to take shape.

Culver Garden Court/Bureaucracy Rant

December 19, 2010 by

It seems that a day doesn’t go by that I don’t get asked about the status of the Culver Garden Court Project. I’m not sure why I should expect this phase of the project to go any smoother since it took years of promoting the project before finding a generous property owner willing to work with Garden Court for a site. Now that we have a site and the Town is behind the project and HUD has approved the funding, we have hit another wall of bureaucracy.

It is particularly frustrating when President Obama has been talking about expediting shovel-ready projects for the past two years. Is this how you expedite a project???

Time line:

July 2010 – Project Funding Announced: Generally on past projects the funding is determined and announced in the Spring, often in time for us to have an early to mid-summer start. This year the announcement was delayed until late July.

August 1st– Garden Court, Easterday Construction and B.A. Martin Architects meet to discuss finalizing plans. Garden Court attorney applies for the 501(c)3 status with the IRS. (HUD requires that each Garden Court be its own, separate, 501(c)3 non-profit entity.)

August 15 – Plans complete and sent out for bid.

September 1 – Prices in. Budget met. Easterday Construction is ready to go! No 501(c)3 status. Can’t close on property.

September 15 – HUD would REALLY like to have this project close before their year end of September 30th. Can they help expedite the 501(c)3 approval with the IRS? No.

September 30 – HUD year end passes. No 501(c)3 status. Project can’t close.

October 31 – Another month passed. No 501(c)3 status. Project can’t close.

November 30 – Another month passed. No 501(c)3 status. Project can’t close.

December 10 – We had been nursing hopes of still starting but Winter hits with a vengeance. Even with a closing, we would not be able to start, but… No 501(c)3 status. Project can’t close.

Present – As of this time, nothing has changed.

This project is not funded with “stimulus” money. This project falls under HUD’s regular budget. Washington is talking about expediting projects and they can’t even get their regular projects out the door in a timely fashion! Is it any wonder that stimulus money remains unspent 2+ years after it was budgeted?

There are a lot of good people involved with Garden Court Projects. The people at the local level are extremely dedicated to making these projects above and beyond the norm and the genuinely care about their elderly clientele. The Open House for the LaPaz Garden Court we just finished was heartwarming as usual, seeing all of those involved come together in the celebration of a new facility. The new residents were there to help celebrate and seemed thrilled with their new home. And it is a home. Garden Court strives to make it so.

My understanding is that the initial hold up with HUD’s funding was not at the local (Indianapolis) level. The people at HUD in Indy have been wonderful to work with on the last couple of projects. They seem to particularly like Garden Court projects and make a point to introducing the Garden Court representatives to their superiors at HUD when we are there for closings. Our site inspector for LaPaz Garden Court, Vera Atha, was knowledgeable and showed genuine interest in how the final product would serve the elderly residents. This hasn’t always been the case and it was refreshing! We were pleased to hear that we will be working with her again on the Culver project.

The hold up with the IRS is puzzling. As mentioned above, every one of the Garden Court properties is its own 501(c)3 corporation , so this isn’t something new nor is it an unfamiliar entity making the request. The Garden Court attorney has done this in the past, so there should be no issues with paperwork. To the best of my knowledge there hasn’t even been a request for additional information. We are assuming that now that we are into the holidays, it is unlikely that there will be any movement on this until after the first of the year.

To repeat, President Obama wants to expedite shovel-ready projects! How much more shovel-ready can you get??? To paraphrase the MasterCard Commercials:

Project Funding in place? Check!
Property under contract? Check!
Plans complete? Check!
Municipality requirements met? Check!
Budget met? Check!
Contractor ready to start? Check and double CHECK!
One piece of paper from the IRS that is currently holding up the entire project? PRICELESS!

The Remnant Trust Open House

February 5, 2012December 14, 2010 by

The Remnant Trust in partnership with OrthoWorx held an Open House for their Winona Lake facility on December 3rd, 2010. (See previous entries on this project here and here.) Unfortunately I was unable to attend, but Will and Kathy Pearson attended as representatives for Easterday Construction Co., Inc. The Open House was attended by various members of the Warsaw and Winona Lake Community. Brian Bex, one of the founding members of The Remnant Trust, was there signing copies of his book Summa Liberte’: The Unchaining of Ideas.

Exterior view of the Winona Lake Remnant Trust facility

This project began with bidding in the early Spring of 2010 and culminated with this Open House the first week in December of 2010. Finalizing funding delayed construction until Summer. While mainly an interior remodel, the project also included some minor maintenance and upgrades to the exterior such as the repair of rotted wood and the addition of security lighting.

The Remnant Trust Open House 2 — The Vault Room in the new finished Remnant Trust facility in Winona Lake during the Open House

For this project, we took an existing building owned by Grace College and remodeled it into a storage vault and research facility for preserved documents. The interior of the building was tongue and groove wood siding that we had to match and blend with new. The existing open framework was maintained except in the vault room where walls were deepened to accommodate additional insulation and to allow us to make the room less permeable. All of our joints were either caulked or otherwise sealed. The new acoustical ceiling tile system was installed with clips to hold the tile in place. Pressure tests were completed at the end of the vault construction to verify that it was appropriately sealed. A specialized fire suppression system was installed, designed to extinguish a fire in the early stages without introducing water or other chemicals that could harm the documents stored within. UV protective film was installed on the windows and sensitive HVAC and alarm systems were installed. Additional security lighting was installed around the perimeter.

This ends another project that we are proud to have in our portfolio. Congratulations to The Remnant Trust and Kris Bex, Director of this new facility, for this new addition to their library system.

LaPaz Garden Court Inc. Open House

November 21, 2010 by

: LaPaz Garden Court Inc. Open House announcement from the Pilot News November 6, 2010

Friday was the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the LaPaz Garden Court. It’s always a great thing to go back and see how the facilities have been decorated, see the residents that have taken rooms and hear from all of those involved. Dr. Ronald Liechty served as Master of Ceremony and as always, made everyone feel good about the work that it took to bring the project to completion.

We completed work on LaPaz Garden Court in mid-October and it is already 2/3rds full. There was actually another resident signing up while the open house was in progress!

We were pleased that the H.U.D. representative for this job attended the ceremony. This is the first time this has happened. We were all pleased that she also had the opportunity to see the good that Garden Court has been able to do. This would not be possible with out the grants from H.U.D.

LaPaz Garden Court is the 6th Garden Court project that Easterday Construction Co., Inc. has partnered with Garden Court, Inc. to complete. While we have also worked on several of their other projects, we have completed six projects from start to finish in Argos, Bourbon, Knox, Plymouth, Mentone and now LaPaz. We hope to be starting out 7th project with them, Culver Garden Court, within the next few weeks.

All of us at Easterday Construction are proud of our association with Garden Court, Inc. and we hope to continue our partnership into the future.

Grace Baptist Church Restroom Remodel

August 29, 2010 by

Existing Womens Restroom — Existing Women's Restroom

The restrooms at Grace Baptist Church in Plymouth have been an issue for a number of years. They were small and the decor had become dated. Off and on for almost 10 years we have visited this subject with the Church, but we had been unable to find a suitable solution. The restrooms were block wall construction built between the Sanctuary and the classrooms and were surrounded by mechanical infrastructure. The quandary resurfaced last year when Pastor Elliott asked that we take a fresh look at the restrooms.

Existing Mens Room — Existing Men's Room

The Church was also experiencing some mechanical problems with two of their five air handling units at that time. The two units in question were in the mechanical space between the restrooms. By including the replacement of those two units in the project, we were able to open up new possibilities.

Even with this, we went through 11 new floor plans before we found one that pleased the Church Building Committee. The final plan gutted both restrooms and the mechanical room between them. A second floor mechanical room was added allowing infrastructure to be moved up, freeing additional floor space. This also provided some additional storage for the Church.

Over the years, the original galvanized water pipe from the street had become corroded and water pressure was insufficient to serve multiple fixtures simultaneously, so new water lines were installed from the street to correct this problem. We updated the electrical circuits in this portion of the building and we installed a new in-line water heater to increase capacity while reducing energy consumption.

The men’s room was widened slightly to allow ADA standards to be met. There is now a full 5′ turning radius in the room. It was also lengthened, closing an existing exterior door and allowing room for a larger sink and an additional urinal.

The women’s room benefited the most, not only gaining additional space to meet ADA standards, but by taking most of the former mechanical room space into the women’s room, there is now generous floor space, full size stalls and a larger counter with two sinks. There was even room to put a small table and a couple of chairs.

New Womens Room Chairs — New Women's Room Chairs

Pam Clay of Clay’s Flooring & Interiors, Inc. in Rochester helped with the tile design. She provided color boards that included different tile, tile patterns and tile borders for each room. Using that as a basis, the Church chose colors for walls and toilet partitions. A last minute upgrade to solid surface sinks and countertops was made. The Church found a source for designer faucets which allowed them to upgrade those fixtures at no additional cost. They also found baby changing stations which we installed.

To create the second floor space without detracting from the existing building, a shed roof was employed using a 1/2:12 slope and standing seam roof. This allowed the second floor addition to remain hidden behind the existing trusses and invisible from the front entrance on the north side of the building. Butler Manufacturing Company metal wall panels were used to match those used on the Grace Baptist School just across the creek. This was an economical solution that blended well with the existing brick and emphasizes the ties between the Church and School. An access door was included at the second floor for equipment maintenance.

The final kicker to this was that we had a two month window in which to work as there was a wedding scheduled in the Church and we had to be substantially complete in time for that event. Sometimes the smaller projects are the most difficult under these conditions. There were many trades required to work over the top of each other to meet this schedule, some of which were interdependent, requiring a portion of one contract to be completed before the next could begin. Through it all the team we assembled worked well together and while we were not 100% complete for the wedding, we were substantially complete and the restrooms, including the plumbing and HVAC were operational for that day. Thanks to Espich Siddall Plumbing, Matt Peregrine Heating & Air Conditioning, Michiana Contracting, McKinley Painting, Inc. and H&D Creamer.