There it was gone

They were short of volunteers at Zac's this morning so I popped along to help. Before I went away Zac's looked like this:

This morning it looked like this:

The main hall hasn't been used for for about ten years due to the damp and decay. We had great plans to redevelop it but, sadly, what with Covid and inflation in general, rebuild costs shot out of control. We had raised what we thought was a large sum but it wasn't enough, and, to be honest, we couldn't haven't justified spending the new amount required anyway.

A structural survey last year revealed the hall to be in dangerous condition and we made the decision to demolish. A whole lot of delay mainly thanks to our surveyor's tardiness and next door's decision to have their own survey done (that we had to pay for!) meant we watched anxiously for any deterioration for fear it would fall down of its own accord. It didn't, thankfully, and eventually demolition happened while I was on holiday.

Cost a lot of money! And still more needed for making good the walls. There won't be any left over to do anything with the space just yet. Maybe I'll scatter poppy seeds. Yes, that would be nice.

We're still able to run our normal services so I see this as a new beginning. So long was spent talking about "when the hall is done and we've got all this fancy stuff," it's almost a relief to have made the decision and concentrate on the future.