Just in time renovation is what I call this job now.

The 2 photos below shows parts of wire and metal that were part of the main electrical panel that just decided to pop off last week. Of course, all electricity went down inmediately after a loud popping sound.

The good news is we were already planning to replace the main electrical panel for the East Rec.

Certainly with this information, no one can say OVA rushed into this renovation project before it was necessary. And for those who thought we should wait a few more years until construction slows down, this event among others should make everyone more confident it was more than time to get the upgrades at East Rec done.


The cable railing being installed below is now completed as part of the new trex and steel deck…no wood, nothing to burn or rot.

This type of cable railing least interferes with the great surrounding views.

The bridge to the pool that we talked about repairing and bringing up to code last week has revealed new issues. One of the three main girders is rotted. Last week I talked about how we were replacing the old railing and bridge deck boards with cable wire and trex…for fire resistance and rot resistance. (It will now match the upper building deck in appearance.)

We have specified a waterproof flashing on the tops and sides of these girders before the trex deck pieces are installed on the bridge. This will protect those girders from rotting in the future. That type of rot usually happens when wet deck boards and wet joists are constructed together with no flashing in between. While the rolled bituthane flashing is not required, it is just prudent and easy to do when the deck boards are being replaced.

The most exciting event of last week was the pouring of the tinted concrete for the pool deck area. You can see the liquid concrete coming out of the pump hose this worker is firmly holding onto. It takes a lot of crew members to manage a big pour like this. The pool deck was done in two different pours on back to back days.

Look how far away the concrete truck is from the actual location of the pump hose.

The finished concrete has a finish called “salted”.

Below you see the blue bags of rock salt. After the concrete is poured and smoothed into place, the finishers pour rock salt on it and get on their knees and start lightly pounding the salt into the finish Concrete before it sets up completely. Then the salt is washed away and you have varying indentations that create an interesting finish that is not as slippery when wet.

The Billiards club will be happy to know that they have a new split HVAC system in their room. They had an old window unit for air conditioning that they had to stand on a chair to reach the on and off button.

Now they have a new hvac system just above the black board. The thermostat will be on the wall.

The outside part of this billiard room HVAC system is just outside of the kitchen window in a place not very visible. (See below)

The wall above where the unlovely window unit was hanging needs closing in. The Nordby team is working on that now.

Below you see Johnson Pool staff installing the new salt water pool equipment.

See the extended threshold below into the billiard room…all ADA compliant. Ahhhhh! Such a relief!

Expect to see some concrete sidewalks being formed this week and concrete curbs and sidewalks being poured next week.

After that the asphalt driveway goes in.The math for ADA was finally worked out between the experienced field construction team and the knowledgeable engineers.

Our East Rec future looks bright. The dirty well used asphalt truck sitting in the parking lot is a thing of beauty to behold!

As a second reminder, we have moved the grand opening of the East Rec to May 22nd so we can complete the entire parking lot at the East Rec, as it was scheduled to be done in late summer of 2019. This decision has extended the job scope and time.

Iris F. Harrell
BCC Chair OVA

We are all in this together…2019