Things felt a bit more normal at the end of the week of October 17-21 when the "back stairs" (the ones near the church office and across the alley from the large parking lot) were finished and declared ready to use (see photo).  While the old handrails were reinstalled temporarily so that the stairs could be usable, it made much easier to enter the building.  It no longer required a road map (or GPS unit) to navigate the corridors and hallways of the basement to get upstairs to the sanctuary and offices.

The beams for the roofs over our new extensions arrived and were installed over the kitchen (see photo).  Once the beams are installed over the Fellowship Hall, the roofing of the extensions can begin, another major milestone.

As the week wound down, the weather forecast became a concern with a substantial amount of rain expected to fall over the weekend.   Since the only things protecting our old Fellowship Hall (now without its exterior wall) were thin sheets of plastic, the workers reinforced the plastic with blue and green tarps.  This prompted someone on Sunday morning to quip that our Fellowship Hall was taking on a typical Pacific Northwest look – blue and green tarps as well as dampness.  (see photos below for an exterior and an interior shot of our new décor).