The work to update the Social Hall bar wall is complete. Yesterday Stu and Bryan put in new insulation to the wall leading from the social hall to the kitchen, then put in new sheet rock and trim to join old to new (if you remember the new ice machine lines were moved to run along this wall to eliminate tripping hazards).



They also trimmed in the new bar opening to get it ready for re-upholstering-




Lastly wrapping it up--



Today Rhea and I finished it up by painting the hallway and the wall where we removed the old bar connection.




This project was 100% donated labor and materials. Thanks to everyone who pitched in!

Our members have been on a roll this last couple of weeks!

When you walk into the building, the sad muddy patch has been replaced with a beautiful stone garden--take a look:



Our intrepid crew showed up early on a weekend morning and transformed the Post entrance. Many thanks to Kathi Dorfmeister, Shelley Roberts, Mike McCann, Bryan Blankenship,Terry Jarvis and Kelley Russell!

To complete the social hall bar wall renovation, two of our friends from the Fraternal Order of Eagles helped move the water and drain lines for our new ice machine and get the electric in a permanent location (no more tripping hazards!). Brian Kitching, the President of the FOE did the plumbing and Brian Thornton of the FOE did the electric. We didn't manage to capture good photos of these fellows, they moved quickly. Hats off to our volunteers from the Eagles. You can bet Stu Harvey was involved in this as well.



And done:






Meanwhile, our crack team of kitchen volunteers have been cleaning, sorting and organizing the Post kitchen in preparation for an August dinner blitz!



These are exciting times at our Post. Thank you to our members and friends who are volunteering and helping make the Post better than ever!

As part of our member approved updates to the social hall and canteen areas, our own CL Roy and his son Logan Roy (our Auxiliary President) came down this morning to get a new pathway set up for our soda lines. The new lines will run above the cabinetry so we can create an opening in the entrance side of the canteen bar without having to trench the concrete. Now that this work is complete we can get our soda service to run new lines in anticipation of the construction. Our Post Jr. Vice Commander Eddie Lara and Judge Advocate Clayton Hosterman moved the freezer yesterday to the opposite side of the ice machine so we now have a clear pathway for the new opening.

Step 1: Assess the work to be done:





Step 2: Create the new opening for the conduit



Step 3: Slide conduit in place



Step 4: Mission accomplished



Eddy and Clay moved the freezer before I could catch them in action yesterday. But here it is anyway:

Stu and Brian were able to get electric in the new spot for the ice machine last night in a just in time project. Hats off, gents!

First part is the bin. Halfway there...



Run a new waterline (needs to be dressed out, but it's in)




Dale from Texas Ice Machine Co. and helper getting it done




Drain pipe needs some more work but it's a start




About 10;40 a.m. it's dropping ice



Even Doug approves

Stu Harvey, Harold Smith and I arrived at the Post yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. to begin the demo and bar wall mods for the social hall. When we arrived, our trusty Trustee Doug Sanders was already there with kolaches.



Step 1 was to cut the carpet back to expose the underlying structure.



Measure the cutout for moving in/out of the ice machines.



We thought there was no electric at this end of the wall, but just in case Stu looked a little more. Good thing because the original cut depth might have been shocking.




Here is the old non-working ice machine. It was pretty heavy so being able to slide it out sure beat trying to lift it out!





Next up we needed to do some clean out on the new location for the ice machine. Sawzall is our friend.



Give credit to those WWII guys--this stuff was built strong! It took a while but we got there and all that was left for demo day was the base clean up. Don't know what we would do without Harold.




Jimmy asked us what was up, so we showed him and got the Jimmy seal of approval.




In case you were wondering what my part was, it was the non-skilled labor job of holding things down, lifting things out, and hauling out the garbage, lol.

We have more work to do and a short amount of time before the ice machine is scheduled for delivery. We have to get a new jbox to plug in the ice machine. We also need to get a new floor drain installed, but won't be able to do that before tomorrow morning (machine is due to be delivered-installed). The existing drain is a little more than six feet from the new ice machine location; if we are lucky they will give us a pass until we have time to cut out some concrete for that drain.

With less than 24 hours we are a little anxious about the electric. Cross your fingers!