It’s amazing what a difference a month can make. In just 4 short weeks, we have moved from the not-so-pretty yet necessary structural and infrastructure work to our favorite part – the pretty stuff! After our last post, the dumpster arrived and framing crews removed the old garage door and installed a new temporary front door. They built the metal frame for our new vestibule and completed all interior insulation and wood framing. The HVAC folks performed a magic trick and levitated an installed furnace above our heads, making better use of our limited storage space. All the mechanical, electrical and plumbing rough-in work was completed. Skilled crews installed all the drywall in record time and completed the tedious taping and texturing finishes. And now, even the interior painting is done, thanks to a little help from our friends.
What’s left? Next we will refinish the floor with an epoxy coating. New light fixtures will be installed and we will start moving all our furniture back during the week of April 29th. Then the following week, we will install our elegant new front entrance. This will include historically accurate folding barn doors on the exterior and bifold energy-efficient glass doors on the interior. We have now set a Grand Reopening Date of Friday June 7, so look for a Facebook event very soon. In the next month prior to our reopening, our Exhibit and Archive Teams will be working feverishly to safely remove photos and artifacts from the archives and bring our local and tourist visitors new and revised exhibits in time for the Grand Reopening Open House event. Thanks to all our amazing volunteers and extended Manitou community family, we can now see the finish line and it looks great!
