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Top Left: Andy fills the bin a bit too much.
Middle Left: Dave trying to compress the rubbish in the bins so that no one knows that the RVU are filling them full of plasterboard.
As the work progressed, a lot of rubbish was generated in the form of bits of old plasterboard, bits of old wood and other odds and ends. The church bins were emptied once a week and then promptly filled again by the RVU. However, the church were insistent that the bins were not used to dispose of any building materials, therefore the RVU had to disguise the fact that they were filling the bins each week. Sometimes it would be necessary to climb into the bins to stamp down all the rubbish.
Below Right: Dave sitting in the trophy cabinet nailing the ceiling up.
"Nail 'em up I say, Nail some sense into 'em."
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JAMES FITTING THE LAST OF THE ROOF INSULATION |
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JON FITTING INSULATION INTO THE WALLS BELOW THE WINDOWS |
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LISA MOOVING STUFF |
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Putting up the ceiling plasterboard panels was probably the hardest job of all. The plasterboard had to be held in place by two people whilst another two nailed it to the beams. When there were only two people available they had to both hold the plasterboard and hit the nails in. There was a tendency for the nails to completely miss the beams we were aiming for. As if this wasn't hard enough there was also the problem that the beams tended to bounce. The effort nailing in would be absorbed by the moving beam resulting usually in a lot of red faces and a battered piece of plasterboard.
Below Left: A view of the venture room. Lisa is moving the stuff that was put in the new venture store to get it out of the way out again. This was to allow hardboard to be put up over the plasterboard, tape to be put over the hardboard joints and then finally the store could be painted. The hardboard protects the plasterboard and also covers up all the holes in the plasterboard where people had been careless with a hammer whilst nailing it up.
The floor where the old guide and venture stores were situated was about two inches lower than the rest of the venture room. Originally the floor of the whole of the building consisted of thin tiles straight onto the slab. When the building was hot condensation would form on the cold floor. This is why at some later date a new floor was fitted throughout the building, except in the store rooms. The new floor consisted of a layer of insulation, made of polystyrene type material, with a layer of wooden floor boards on top. |
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ANDY, MARK, CLARE, JO, SARAH AND JON PICTURED BEFORE THE FLOOR BOARDS WERE PUT DOWN.
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ANDY SORTS THE FLOOR |
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JON ADMIRES THE NEW VENTURE ROOM |
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Initially we thought that it would be a simple task to raise the floor - simply buy some boards and insulation of the correct depth and lay one on top of the other. However, life is never simple. It was not possible to buy any insulation of the same depth as was used before. Hence it would not be possible to simply lay the boards on top of the insulation on top of the slab as this would not give an even floor. Instead batons were cut from off cuts of timber to support the floor. A layer of insulation was put down slightly thinner than the batons. To make life even more complicated it seemed that the slab itself was not entirely level, so the batons had to be of variable thickness in order that the finished floor be level. Although everyone helped with some aspect of the floor, most of the work was done by Andy Lannin.
It is a tradition during these building projects to leave a memento of those involved. In the new store everyone signed the back of the last piece of plasterboard. For this project a list of everyone involved was made under the floor where the guide store used to be.
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Towards the end of September the county had organized a party at Gilwell Park. This coincided with Dave's birthday and so the hard working RVU took a weekend off as Dave said goodbye to his teenage years. Present were (left to right) Jon Goodwin, Dave Gardner, Ross Brown, Mike Heinson, Andy Farnese and Chris Eary, with Mark Hutton and Andy Lannin out of picture. As can be seen the ventures took a bit of pride in their setup complete with ice bucket, a thoughtfully arranged selection of drinks and a working bar light. Many words could be said about that night -- but moving swiftly on.
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DAVE'S BIRTHDAY |
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On the Sunday after the party at Gilwell, the RVU returned to the hall around midday and decided that due to a
very tight time schedule they should work in the afternoon. However everyone was still in their best trousers
and pastel colored shirts and the jobs left to do were messy ones. So Dave suggested to Andy Farnese that he go and
find an old shirt and trousers from the jumble so that he could continue working. When Andy returned he was sporting
a red and white peaked England cap, a blue dressing gown that was too small held with a black belt and a pair of blue
tracksuit trousers. No one was sure whether he set off deliberately to find the most amusing outfit possible
but we suspect not. Suffice to say, everyone decided that this dressing up game was too fun to miss out on.
Next back was Jon sporting a blue Hawaiian style shirt complete with chest wig, and a pair of silver trousers.
 
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DOESN'T HE LOOK SMART |
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By this stage in the project time was getting short. Dave had been at the hall almost every day for many weeks and James had only missed around two days. However Dave and James would soon be returning to University and this would inevitably mark the end of the work - the pressure was on. A deadline was set for opening one Thursday and a small party arranged by DJ Jon.
The main job left to do was the painting. Before this could happen the gaps in the plasterboard had to be skimmed over with plaster and the hardboard had to be put up. Once the hardboard was up the joints had to be taped and then finally the paint could go on.
Most of the hardboard was up by this stage and the ceiling was receiving it's first coat. The color scheme had been chosen by Dave and James with help from Jon and Andy, as these were the four main characters involved.
Left: "Do you reckon one coat is enough?" |
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They decided to paint the entire ceiling white including the beams. The previous color
scheme had painted each beam black but this tended to break the room up and make it look smaller.
As for the walls, it was decided to paint them blue and yellow with green trim. The painting
deadline was very tight. The panel of yellow shown left was painted at the very end of one day so
that we could see what it looked like on the walls. Ideally we would paint all the panels one day,
leave that to set for a few days and then paint the green trim. This would allow us to mask up the
walls to get a perfect lines. The trim is made up of all the small pieces of wood that hide the
edges of the hardboard, including the skirting board. The RVU had two days to paint the lot in order
to give all of Thursday for the paint to dry.
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DAVE AND LISA PAINTING |
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During the work at the venture hall, the RVU became well known at "The Ship" public house.
Dave and James were regulars to the extent that by the end the landlady would know exactly
what they wanted before they ordered. A stack burger and a pint was a little over four pounds
and an absolute bargain. Many happy lunch hours were spent in the ship indulging in a stack
burger and pint followed by a round of golf. The Golden Tee golf machine deserves a special
mention as it still occupies a special place in the hearts of the RVU regulars. James even
managed to get his name in the hall of fame with a spectacular hole-in-one.
Far left: Jon making his drive on the Golden Tee golf machine.
Left: Dave carefully lining up a putt.
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LEFT: Finishing off the painting late at night the day before the opening.
On the day before the opening ceremony it was essential to finish the painting. A small band of hardcore RVU elite were
still working as night fell, and also someone who was made an honary member during the summer; Dave Gardner, James Logan, Jon Goodwin and
Sarah Cooper. All that remained now was to play with Jon's disco lights, oh, and clear up all the mess and lay the carpet!
BELOW: Sarah Cooper giving the thumbs up to a job well done, although a little more care with the paintbrush may be in order next time. |
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There are many people to thank for their part in the successful completion of this project. Firstly my partner in crime James Logan for services beyond the call of duty. Secondly, I would like to thank myself, Dave Gardner, for being the one person who never missed a days work. Other people who made an outstanding contribution were Jon Goodwin and Andy Farnese on the hard graft front. Andy and Tony Jones should be singled out for their hard work on the electrics and for their support from the start, without them it would never have happened.
Special mention should also be made of Dorothy Jones for support throughout, for motivating the paper removal operation and, along with Tony, for providing the new door for the venture store. Mark Hutton and Andy Lannin deserve a good hearty clap for their devotion to the cause. Amongst other things Mark built the shelves in the new guide store enabling us to move the guide's kit out of the venture room and Andy Lannin laid the new floor sections in the venture room almost single handedly.
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SARAH |
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THE FINISHED ARTICLE |
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There were of course many other people who turned up to help, Ross Denton , Nick Eary , Jo Bateman , Clare Plunkett , Sarah Cooper , Danielle Paolino , Ross Brown , Mike Heinson , Chris Eary and Lisa Myles-Hook (I hope that's everyone!). I would also like to thank Malcolm Goodwin for an endless supply of tools, although I don't think you knew about it at the time, and for the many jobs you have done. David Weller also deserves a thank you for not putting a stop to the whole thing at the start and for helping out. Finally, apologies for absence were received from Duncan Harvey (injured) and Jim Carlaw (injured).
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CLEAN AND TIDY |
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