Drainage

No, it's not post-nasal drip! We are in the process of working with the City of Akron on creating a permanent solution to some drainage issues that we have. Some of the solutions will be simple like installing a sump pump while other parts of the solution may involve some drainage pipes around the building. It's not the most glamorous part of the Aster Project, but it's important for 2 reasons: 1) the drainage problem will be solved permanently meaning that the building will be there for years, and 2) so that we will be able to get the permits to do the work inside the building.

The funds that we have raised over the past year will be what pays for this portion of the project, and we're grateful to everyone who has donated. Without your support the Aster Project wouldn't be moving forward as it is today.

Our Architect, Don Allcorn

We're excited that this evening we signed the contract with our architect, Don Allcorn. He will be coordinating the various engineers that will be involved in the project, as well as drawing up the plans for our new Center. Don has been very helpful over the past few months in guiding us and helping us from time to time, and we're excited to have him on board.

Down with the chimney!

WOW!

Let me say it again ... WOW!

We accomplished a lot on Saturday morning, October 7th.

Volunteers included: Doug S, Kevin C, Sandy B, Colleen N, Paul S, Steve Aand Tom B.

We removed the chimney and capped it. That was quite a job. Tom rented 14 foot step ladders from Home Depot and the crew hoisted the ladders onto the roof and then we removed the chimney brick by brick using an assembly line to remove the bricks from the roof. The chimney was in very bad shape and the deterioration was significant.

Doug had a leaf blower and all the remaining debris was swept or blown off the roof. The chimney was capped to keep rain water from entering the building. (The chimney was used with the old furnace that no longer worked and was removed -- the new heating unit is on the roof ... so the chimney had no function at this time. We may use it later as a means to vent air from the basement.)

The crew raked the yard and mowed the grass. We removed 18 boxes and bags of yard waste. The back yard looks really great!

Thanks to Doug, Kevin, Sandy, Colleen, Paul, Steve and Tom for their good work. This was a thousand dollar job and we completed it for about $94 in materials, tools and rental equipment.

During October we still have some additional roof work to complete. We'll need to caulk some of the joints surrounding the roof, cement some of the coverings and then re-tar the roof. Once completed, the roof should give us about another 4 years of good use. We also need to remove the tree stumps in the back yard.

The termite abatement has been completed.

Keep an eye out for other scheduled work days. We'll soon reach the point where we'll have completed most of the work we can do ourselves. Then we'll move into the contractor phase of the project.

Right now ... we need money. With $ 50,000 more we can complete the project.

Your financial donations are appreciated along with your volunteer work.

Thanks again.

Tom

3 trees down

On Saturday, September 9th, 5 people helped with the work day at Aster.

Those involved were Kevin C, Doug S, Carri Jo A, Alan Cand Tom B.

Jim, Carri Jo's buddy who works on roofs, came by to fix part of the roof where the leak was located near the front.

We took down the three large trees and worked on the yard and on the roof.

Since Day in The Sun is next Saturday ... I think we can skip that day for the next work project.

We'll schedule for later in September, for Saturday morning on September 23 and September 30 starting at 9 am. Please keep some time open in your schedule.

The next jobs include stump removal in the back yard. We're going to dig and cut the stumps out so the trees don't grow back along the foundation of the building. We need to pull the weeds in the alley way and rake / remove trash from the alley. The grass will need cut and we need to remove the remaining tree limbs from the back yard and rake up some sticks along the back wall.

The other jobs include the roof. We need to get the roof ready for winter. (1) We need to remove the chimney brick by brick. (2) We need to patch the tiles on the roof and patch around the vents. (3) We need to coat the roof with new tar to seal the roof for winter. That effort should extend the life of the roof for about 3-4 more years. (4) there are some other minor repairs that we'll make to the roof flashing in the process.

Please keep some time open to help with these projects on September 23 and 30. Placing tar on the roof will depend on the weather. We need a day when no rain is in the forecast.

Thanks to Doug, Tom, Carri Jo, Alan and Kevin for their good work Saturday. It was very labor intense and took lots of effort ... but this work probably saved us several thousand dollars!

4 dumpsters later

Wow!

Wow, again!

What a great work day we had on 3/22 at the Aster Project. Helpers included James, John, Doug, Pat, Marilyn, Kathy, Tracey, Tom, John C.

Thanks for the help -- you guys are the best!

Everything is out of the basement and everything is out of the top floor too. We filled another dumpster, 20 cubic yards.

So far, that's 4 dumpsters --- 80 cubic yards of demolition material, every bit of it taken down by hand, boxed and bagged, and moved by our crews. Tim from the mold company said that he'd charge between $10,000 to $15,000 for the work just to demolish everything and move it ... so the contributions of our crews is valuable to us in many ways. Thanks again!


Next week we'll move on with our plans to hire an architect and begins drawing the plans. The old chimney needs to come down. There are some repairs to the roof that are needed soon. We'll be cutting down the three trees that are growing into the foundation of the building in the back.

Until then, thanks to everybody who's helped so far. I really appreciate it.

42 bags

Alan and Tom worked on the Aster Project for 4 hours Sunday morning, 3/19. We shoveled, broke and bagged 42 bags of dry wall from the ceiling in the basement -- swept, looks open and very different. We opened one of the floor drains, the second is going to take much more work.

In the basement again...

We got a ton of work completed today, Saturday the 18th. Doug, Tom, Paul, Rebecca, Dan, Bob and Rebecca brought along a friend of hers from Canton. Thanks to all who helped.


Thanks to everybody who's helping.