Today I had the opportunity to meet with the General
Contractor and one of the major contractors for the project; Myron
Kukuruza, President of United Design and Construction Corp of Clifton, NJ and
Marko Golubovic, Co-Owner of Milan Remodeling & Restoration of
Woodbridge, NJ. (
http://www.milanrestoration.com/)
UDC is the general contractor in charge of the entire project and the addition to the Church, and Milan
Restoration is responsible for the restoration of the existing Church. While work has not officially begun,
Marko was there today taking some rough measurements of the pews and marking them for removal. They need to make sure the pews get back in the same locations, since the first fifty years has already determined their 'character' and they need to make sure they fit back in place after refinishing. We'll also get to meet additional people involved in the construction as work begins, not wanting to leave out the equipment operators, masons, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, steelworkers, glaziers, installers and more.
Myron then gave me a rundown of the site work to be done initially (electrical, water, drainage, etc), affecting the Church, Rectory and School in some ways. Actual work is expected to begin next week, with the removal of the pews as first priority, before tearing up the parking lot, sidewalk and curbing. We should see construction equipment and trailers begin to show up early next week as well as temporary fencing erected to keep our 500+ school children from wandering too close to the site. Next week, we should also have the final schedule available and we'll lay out the highlights for the coming months.
The rough schedule Myron laid out today is an aggressive one, with early estimates having us back in our Church for Christmas! That would certainly be a blessing for all of us, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll have full access to the site during the renovations, to see what's going on "on the inside" and I'll make sure to take lots of pictures of the progress.
Thanks for following along.
Hear my prayer, God. Listen to the words of my mouth (or my hands).
Ps. 54:2
Monday 4/20 - Wednesday 4/22, I got a chance to see some 'real' work happening, on the inside at least. While it doesn't look like anything is going on from the outside, as we drop our children off for school, Milan Restorations actually has started removing kneelers (we're getting new, lighter 'quieter' ones) and dis-assembling the pews. Milan has a warehouse in Elizabeth where they will be taken for restoration. They will strip and refinish the pews while the inside of the Church is being remodeled. It's tedious work taking the pews apart after fifty years and without doing any damage. More work being done was the removal of the heating system vents, sound system speakers and other woodwork and hardware from the walls. This crew was about five or six, but I expect we'll be seeing a lot more activity and people in the weeks ahead. 
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