This summer, our student work crew has been working hard on a major project: reconstructing the men's dorm annex, also known by most of us at PIU as the "Cannex." Here is a photo journal of just a few of the steps in the process they've been going through.(Photo at the right: crew taking a water break on the Cannex steps on one of our very hot days recently.)
I missed getting photos of the crew tearing out the layers of vinyl tile, the plywood under that, and some of the sub-flooring, but once that messy, arduous task was done, new sub-flooring was patched in, tar paper was installed as a moisture barrier, and then the guys brought in plywood to lay down. Here, Mo (left) and Gary (middle) move in a sheet of plywood while Tim (background) directs them.
After all of the plywood sheeting was cut to fit in both sides of the Cannex as well as the entry
area, Joses went around and screwed it down with wood screws. This was a challenging task because underneath this plywood and the wood sub-floor is a metal support structure (metal floor joists). If he hit one of these, he had to back the screw out and try again in a new spot. This happened more times than you can imagine. You can tell in a later photo how many times - in the photo a few pictures below, the white spots are where the guys had to putty the holes left by the screws that had to be removed!
One reason the floor had to be rebuilt was water damage from the bathroom in between the two dorm rooms. Besides doing floor replacement, sheet rock had to be pulled off, repairs made, and then the sheet rock replaced. Tim said they installed a weep screed (a metal flashing used to allow moisture drainage in porous walls and is required for all framed walls at the framed wall and foundation joint) to help prevent future damage as the original wall didn't have this. After the sheet rock was replaced, they caulked the other side of the wall (in the bathroom) very thoroughly.
Before the vinyl flooring can be installed, the rooms all needed painting - here you see our crew hard at work taking care of painting the dorm rooms and the bathroom.
Once all of the painting was done, the holes on the plywood were plugged in with putty. There is just a little trim
painting left to do and then Monday, the work crew will seal the plywood in preparation for laying the vinyl tiles! At the right, you'll see a photo of our librarian's kids and two of their friends having fun posing for this photo of the new interior paint job in the Cannex. (Note all the white spots from the puttying of the holes on the floor!)But this isn't all our work crew has been doing! In between all these tasks (as described in our July ministry update), we experienced no fewer that three water mains blowing! Two on the main campus, and one at the Bannex (girls' dorm annex) as well as two showers in the Bannex needing major leaks repaired. (Sorry - no pictures of these!)
In addition to all this 
construction, there is the usual summer maintenance work - power washing all the walkways on campus as well as the basketball court (see photo at left) , power washing the Bannex roof (see photo to right), and the roofs on a couple of other buildings as well.
Besides power washing, students
have a lot of yard cleanup: trimming bushes and trees, bush-cutting, mowing, pulling weeds out of flower beds, keeping our three classrooms and adjacent restrooms, and the offices and restrooms all cleaned - as well as taking care of their own dorm space. Add to this that several of them are also taking classes and you can see that these men and women are very busy this summer! Pray for them that God would bless them with the ability to balance all of these many responsibilities - they are doing a wonderful job!
Also, keep the next "phases" of the Cannex project in your prayers. Once the vinyl flooring is installed inside, the construction of a back deck (for a water heater, washer, and dryer) and awnings for the doors and windows (to keep rain from blowing in) will begin outside. Here you see Gary using the jackhammer to dig holes for the support posts for the awning structure. "Why a jackhammer?" you might ask. "Why not a post-hole digger?" Well, we only have about 1.5" of dirt in most places on Guam - below that is solid coral, volcanic rock, or limestone, depending on where you are on island! :-)I hope you've enjoyed our update on PIU's summer work crew! Pray for them all:
Ladies: Teisy, Doralynn, Tyleen, and Lucy
Men: Mo, Gary, Joses, and Vince
Supervisor: Tim
Thanks for stopping by our blog! We'll have an update on summer activities in a few days!
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