P3

Last week was phase 3 of the big LCA house remodel, aka P3. P1 was in 2006, where they (I couldn't make it) tore off the front porch, replaced it with a nice brick patio, did some great landscaping and remodeled the tv room, foyer and chapter room. Last year, for P2, they combined two two-man rooms into one three-man room, bricked the back yard, redid the game room and some other stuff, I can't remember what.

This year was the first year I was able to make it, and it was a good time. I wish I could have been there longer than just during the day on Saturday. It started mid-week with demolition work, and they ate some fried turkey nuts at some point. I arrived on Saturday morning, around 9:30. I had a 10:00 Housing Corp. meeting, so I couldn't really get started on any work. I checked the progress out, took a few pictures and went to the meeting. When we got done 40 minutes later, things were in full swing. The major project was in theme with previous years "the brickyard". We continued the brick patio and sidewalk from the front porch all the way down to the road, put in a new entry way at the road, new doors/windows in the chapter room, which are going to be much nicer during parties, as you could never open enough windows to keep things cool. They were also adding some nice stone accents to the front corners and around the door. They used the same manufactured stone as I put on my house, and it makes the front really pop. In the back, we took out all the gravel where everybody threw their smokes between the house and the parking lot and put some paving bricks down and some nice entries into the doors. They put the old front sidewalk (in chunks) in the back yard to accommodate the snakes walking path to their house. It was a better idea than paying someone to haul off a ton of concrete for sure! They also filled in a trench with concrete, that they dug last year to run power to the back yard bbq pit. up to this point it was just full of gravel.

Inside, we were putting up new doors on some of the rooms, and upstairs doing some major remodeling and masonry work. Jim "P-Nut" Benzing was the driving force behind the design and put together some really well laid out rooms. I have a few pics of it in progress, but hopefully they were able to get done Sunday and get it ready for the actives to move in. Of note, they combined the SAC closet with 250 to make it bigger. Not sure where all the bid-tuesday beer will be kept now... Other rooms remodeled were the slug room and geek room, and the other 2 rooms on that side of the hall. I helped hang some trim in there before I had to get back home. There was still quite a bit of work to do when I left, but I'm sure they pulled together and got the hard stuff done, with mostly cleanup left for the actives when they returned, which is no worse than we ever had it moving in.

Hopefully someone else will post some better/more recent pictures, as they had another day and a quarter to work after I left.

Next year, they're not asking for donations, just sweat equity, and the year after that is the big professional remodel. We're tearing that stupid Mansard roof off and putting a peaked roof and HVAC in! I wish all these assholes would have been around BEFORE I joined!