Renovations Progress -

This pile of stuff is waiting for us to begin renovating. It's gone now! — This pile of stuff was waiting for us to begin renovating. It’s gone now!

Renovations are drawing to a close! From the time that Red Sea offered to lease Hope House to us, we have been planning to remodel the space to increase our capacity and to make it more livable for the residents. It has been a long slow process! Here are some of the highlights. Click on links to see previous blogs with more pictures and stories. Check out our Facebook pictures too!

Marc of Sprinkler Design Svcs LLC designed our sprinkler system for free. Dave Miller of MCG Cx Services designed our fire alarm system for free.

Great workers volunteered to paint Hope House — Paint a Better Tomorrow workers volunteered to paint Hope House

Paul, an architect and member of Red Sea who works for LRS designed out space and worked with his firm to keep working on them through all the changes we made! Paint a Better Tomorrow helped us paint the whole interior of the building with lots of volunteer help.

The Collins Foundation gave us $25,000 to help with our renovation. Holy Cross Catholic Church raised over $10,000 for our kitchen. Several businesses donated materials, services and appliances.

Brenda helped get us donations of floor board and kitchen cabinets — Brenda from the Home Builders Foundation helped get us donations of floor board and kitchen cabinets

The Home Builders Foundation came on board and agreed to manage our project for us. They also donated $25,000 and have solicited other projects and services for discounts or free. Ken Cowdry has also used his connections to help us navigate issues with the City of Portland.

We applied for, worked hard to meet the requirement for, and were approved for a Conditional Use Permit so we could expand the number of unrelated people living in the same home from 15 to 34. This meant meeting the requirements for Land Use, Transportation (including a parking review), Environmental Services, the Water Bureau, Fire and Safety, and Urban Forestry. We had a public hearing where are neighbors were able to share their concerns, which we worked to address through a good neighbor agreement. We were able to have part of the fees waived by BDS and Fire and Safety in this process. Thank you!

Stagecraft donated fabric for curtains for the bedrooms. Indoor Billboard donated a mat for our front door.

Curtains make from fabric donated by Stagecraft

The Rotary Club of Greater Vancouver joined the Albina Rotary and the Portland’s Rotary Charitable Trust donated money for beds and helped build them.

Assembly — Girl Scouts assemble bookshelves

Girl Scouts build bookshelves for us.

Then we had to apply for building permits, make several changes to them to meet the approval of each department, and were approved. During this process we appealed and won several issues with the city, who worked very hard to support out vital mission. We did not have to widen two sidewalks, install a fire hydrant, install commercial exhaust systems for our stoves, or have a drain from our trash enclosure that went into the sewer. We also got system development fees waived through the intercession of Councilman Dan Saltzman.

In the mean time, CBRE Cares donated and installed a new playground for us outside. Now the kids can play in their own yard!

Finally we could begin the work. Volunteers took out old cabinets and pantry walls in the kitchen.

Linda Jo celebrates the removal of another stud

Volunteers came and painted the walls, and took up the carpet in the rooms we would build new walls.Strong, brave men got the 70 pound carpet donated by Gustav’s into the building.

Larry and Nancy have fun painting the kitchen

Newly cleaned hallway. No more asbestos!

Finally, we were ready for the contractors to come. The asbestos tiles were removed where we would need to cut into the cement floors to add plumbing.

The plumbers came and marked where the cement floor needed to be cut so the plumbers could add new pipes for the bathroom, showers, and laundry. Then others came to cut on the lines. Then they came and jack-hammered the holes. Now the holes are filled and the new floor is down! Yeah!

This pile of dirt greets us as we walk in the door

And here is the view from the other end of the hall

Here is what the floor outside my office looks like now. What a difference!

And here is the new flooring in the hallway. Nice!

The new walls to separate larger rooms into smaller bedrooms were framed. The electricians updated our wiring, fixed lights, and added new circuits.

Electricians as work — Electricians Adam and Joe at work

Adam, our electrician, had to make lots of holes in the kitchen walls.

We have new plug ins so the families can plug in the toaster and microwave without blowing the circuit

Mic of Mic's Plumbing moved the water lines in the kitchen, preparing our space for the dishwashers and new sink. — Mic of Mic’s Plumbing moved the water lines in the kitchen, preparing our space for the dishwashers and new sink.

This is where the pantry used to be. Tony took out the rest of the wall and we have a new place to plug in the stove

Here’s the progress on our shower room and new bathroom.

Here is the floor for the shower room, ready for the plumbers to add the new pipes.

Now we have places to plug in hair dryers and curling irons or hair straighteners. This is where the new mirrors will go.

I took this looking through the new wall of our new ADA accessible bathroom, ready for the plumbing

A small group from Red Sea church brought our back steps up to code and set the posts for our trash enclosure.

New lumber on the steps so the holes are less than 4 inches wide.

They dug the holes and set the posts. Now it’s waiting for contractors to come and pour the cement so they can complete building it.

Josh and Joe adding railings to the outside stairs

They put the gravel down to prepare for the cement.

We had to remove the curb so the trash carts could come in and out. It's a lot of work by hand! — We had to remove the curb so the trash carts could come in and out. It’s a lot of work by hand!

The next step for the plumbers was to dig the holes under the building deeper to fit the pipe in. The dirt covers the floor on both sides of the holes. What fun walking along the hall! It’s not as hard in the new bathroom, laundry room, and shower room.

A group of Lutheran high school youth group from North Dakota came and helped clean up after the construction workers. What a help! See more pictures on the here.

The floors got filled in, wallboard added to the walls (I can’t walk through them anymore!) and the water line was installed by the City of Portland.

We can walk in the hall again. No holes, no dirt!

I can even come downstairs and get into my office without navigating the hole right in front of the door!

The holes for the shower drains are left free by putting cardboard boxes full of dirt around them before adding the cement. The walls between the showers are framed and ready to add.

The city surprised us by adding the water line sooner than we expected. Now they need to come back and fill in this hole. And I thought I had gotten rid of all the holes!

With this wall, we now have two bedrooms where there was one.

This is the new wall to the meeting room, waiting for the door.

The showers arrived! Getting them in the door meant taking out the post between the two front doors, and then they found they had to move some walls since they were bigger than they thought! What an adventure!

They framed the walls for the showers ready for them to be installed

Here's one ADA shower outside. — Here’s one ADA shower outside.

Once they got it inside, they had to figure out how to change the space they had already built to make sure it fit.

These are the showers that will not be ADA accessible.

All three showers in the shower room are in and ready for the wall board.

JP of ACT Plumbing with the shower in the ADA bathroom. He is doing a great job!

Linda Jo shows off the newly painted showers. She's so happy to have them almost ready! — Linda Jo shows off the newly painted showers. She’s so happy to have them almost ready!

Dick added some shelves for under the mirrors for the ladies to set their hair dryers and make up.

Dick found this cabinet and bought it and the counter top. Then he cut a hole just the right size for the sink. Amazing work for his first time ever doing it!

Viking Sprinklers came and installed the sprinkler system providing materials and labor for free!

Grant led the team. He's overseeing the guy fitting the pipes. It's a hot job on a hot day! — Grant led the team. He’s overseeing the guy fitting the pipes. It’s a hot job on a hot day!

Phil dug a trench in the garden to extend the piping to be close enough to the fire hydrant so the fire department can add more water if needed. He even stayed longer in the hot sun to dig up some concrete buried there!

Here is the post at the end of the line they dug the trench for. Not it's close enough to the fire hydrant for the fire fighters to add more water if we have a fire. — Here is the post at the end of the line they dug the trench for. Not it’s close enough to the fire hydrant for the fire fighters to add more water if we have a fire.

Here it the pipe next to the vault that will hold the equipment for the sprinkler just outside our building.

One of the guys even brought his wife along to help dig!

The hole in the ground is now ready for the vault and to drill holes into the building for the pipes to come from the new water line into the building.

It had other vaults in it too. Ours was the smallest!

And the pipes are in. There is enough space for someone to climb in and check the system.

They had to drill a hole through the wall to put connect the pipes in the vault to the pipes indoors.

They had to drill another hole for the water to run out.

Grant and his team kept talking about the best way to get the job done.

They guys finished the pipes just before installing them.

Viking is a family business, with several generations working for them. These boys would love to continue the tradition and were glad to help out.

Wives came to help too, some bringing babies along.

The final weekend, a team of over 30 employees and their families came to finish the job in time to open.

It was really a party with dinner provided!

They even sent volunteers to paint the ugly black pipes to blend in!

The kitchen cupboards are going in. Dan and his friends are putting them up. Galaxy Stone works measured for the counter tops.

Galaxy Stone works rep measuring for the counter tops.

The kitchen counters are installed by the J team from Galaxy.

Here's the new wall that covers all those pipes in the laundry room. — Here’s the new wall that covers all those pipes in the laundry room.

They covered the plumbing wall in the laundry room and are getting all the walls ready to paint.

As we are in the last month before we open, several teams came for a work party to help clean and paint. We had representatives from Red Sea, Holy Cross, Madeleine, People of Praise, St. Johns Covenant/University Park Methodist, and Community Open Bible Churches.