The last month has been busy for everyone — but especially on the building site. With the roof finished (complete with gutters) and the arrival of the windows, work has moved inside the building. That means rooms partitions and internal walls, electricity, plumbing, ceilings (the old ceiling of the new library has been taken down.
We start with a view of a fully tiled roof over the bedrooms.
And from the inside...
The roof of the lift shaft — the highest point of the whole building — was made inside before being re-assembled outside.
Here is Father Daniel blessing the whole building from its highest point.
We have quite a good idea of what the finished building will look like from the outside now. Here are a couple of views of the side:
And one of the back:
The old fire escape staircase to the first floor has been temporarily removed while the new window and door frames are built. Before:
After:
...and from the inside:
Finally, the steel supports of the library gallery arrived last week:
And are already in place!
After a slight delay while the lightning conductors were put in, the roof is now nearly finished. Here you can see the insulation in place:
A view from the top floor bedroom...
And here are the actual slates going on:
This next photo is taken from the top floor landing, as if we'd just come out of the lift. The new outer wall of the staircase and landing is one of the last bits of external brickwork left to do.
Turning round, you can see that the lift shaft is nearly at the top. When it is finished, it will be the highest point of the new building.
Meanwhile, in the library, the new brickwork where the old window used to be is done. We had to divide the window up so that we could put in the library gallery. The new bricks give you an idea of the height where that will be.
In July, some of our volunteers started selling bricks after Masses.
After a determined 10 weeks, enduring all kinds of weather conditions, we have a total in...
£5,842
Many thanks to the volunteers, and to everyone who bought a brick! It's not too late to make a donation, see the donations page to find out how.
Partitions are going up on the ground floor — dividing the new Parish office from the kitchen and bar. You can also see the concrete floor that has gone down.
A view from the bottom of the lift shaft:
Insulation has arrived, ready to line the new roof...
...which can be seen from a distance in the next photo:
And here are the slates ready to go on:
The old Parish office was a boxed-in part of the upper floor, which looked like this:
It was being used temporarily as a site office. The soon-to-be library is looking much more spacious, now that's gone!
Last Saturday, a group of young people (and Fr Daniel) took part in a sponsored walk from Bicester to Oxford, a journey of over 14 miles.
Here you can see the group early in the morning setting out from the church of the Immaculate Conception in Bicester.
And travelling through the countryside:
The route took them via Islip, where Saint Edward the Confessor was born and baptized.
They decided not to use the ford marked as a footpath on their map...
And here we have them safe and sound outside our church in Oxford, having raised over £600 for the new buildings!
The new building's roof structure is all in place. In a few weeks, it will all be covered, tiled and weather-proof. Once that's done, work on the inside of the building can start, and then we'll be finished in no time at all! (Well, early next year isn't too far away…)
The new entrance to the private section of the new building — the front door to the bedrooms — has been built. Here are views from outside and in:
The new Parish office has a new floor, or at least the insulation that goes underneath the final floor. We're told that it's so efficient, you can't sit on it directly for long without things getting uncomfortable!
The lift shaft continues to grow…
And this is as good as the view is ever going to get. You can just glimpse the famous spires.
Just for fun, here's the full view (click it to enlarge):
