Today I took some photos, as the oak floor is being laid.  Before I show you the floor, I want to show you the last bits of the nave that need to be decorated.  You can see that the walls will be much brighter with the new layers of paint.  This is a view towards the stairs to the organ gallery.  This is a view towards the English Martyrs' Altar. 

The church I hope will appear significantly lighter.  The lightly stained oak floor will be lighter than the old varnished one.  The restored pews will also have a clear stain rather than varnish.  But the new layer of paint will also brighten up the church.  It is the same color as before, but one can see what years of joyful worship and candles being burned can do to the walls.

There was an unfortunate delay in starting to laying down the floor, but it is well on the way now.  We lost four days of work, but one still hopes that the laying of the floor is completed in less than two weeks from now.  The floor will have to be sanded, with three different grades of fineness.  It then needs to be stained and sealed.  So there is plenty of work yet to be done.  But, it is grand to see the beginnings of the final finish.  It will look slightly darker than it is now, but as I said earlier it will be significantly lighter than the old floor. 

This is the view down the south aisle.  This is the view down the north aisle.  Here is a close-up of the oak.  Remember that this is the raw oak before sanding and the final finish.  I think the floor will be very beautiful!

The views down the central nave and up the central nave give some idea of the vastness of the space as the oak 'grows' across the floor. 

I want you to consider the following while you look at this final picture.  To lay the floor they needed to find the central plumb line to start each row off correctly.  Lasers are used to do this.  So for the central nave plumb line they used lasers to find the middle between the front two columns and the final two columns of the nave.  They then could draw a line so the central oak tiles could be placed exactly as they should.  What the contractors discovered was how magnificently the church was built over 120 years ago.  They found that the central plumb line went precisely down the middle of the church.  They then lifted the laser vertically up the church.  It went straight through the 6 and 12 on the clock face on the gallery and right up precisely at the apex of the archway above the organ.  The tolerances were at the exactness of a laser, very fine.  Two facts can be gleaned from this.  The original workmanship on church was at an astounding precision, especially considering the technology available at the time.  We are very proud of our church.  I think this astounding fact should just reinforce our appreciation of the work done so many years ago.  The second important thing to note is that over all those years the foundation has not shifted a bit.  As they built the rectangular box exactly, it still remains so all these years later.  Our main contractors have enjoyed working on our church, partially because they appreciate the craftsmanship of the building.  This laser proof has just reinforced their appreciation.

So we are seeing the beginning of the end.  We are still many weeks away from our return, but I hope you are as excited of that prospect as I am.  We should be in for Advent and our Christmas will be glorious, but even more as our restored church invites us in to greet the Lord.  Please continue to pray for the success of the work and in thanksgiving for all the generous people who have made this possible.

For a view of all the photos I have posted concerning the restoration please go here.