A Look to the Immediate Future

For those who want to see…  here is what we’re up to this week!  We hope to be done with the side of the hangar that the fly shop is on this coming year,  with three additional retail shops,  all the second floor offices,  flight school classroom and the pilot apartment.  I’m at a standstill though as I wait for an electrician to come in the spring.  In the meantime,  we’re beginning to work on a portion of the building dedicated more to the WWII museum and less toward paying the bills with retail shops.  About half of the northeast side will be exclusively for the museum,  with the rest dedicated to a restaurant and aviation.

I finally gave up looking for my lost camera and the new one arrived yesterday.  Here are a few photos of the “next phase” of hangar work.  I’m out of 2×4′s and so is the hardware store.  Until my shipment arrives next month,  there is plenty of destruction to do…  We are working on the demolition of the rotten floor of the old movie theater.  As of last night,  I’m done cutting out the old unused electrical conduit and the old steam heat pipes on the 1st floor.  Next up will be to cut the 2nd floor floor into chunks and drop it out.

There were some interesting surprises…  They had added the bathroom outside the theater at some later date,  so they just piped the toilets into the roof drain pipes – not into the septic system.  My guess is the old roof drains just went into the creek behind the hangar.  The salmon didn’t seem to mind…  That toilet hasn’t been used in 30+ years thankfully.

 

 

 

The emergency exit from the theater into the hangar bay

 

The northeast side of the hangar in all her glory! Theater on second floor at the near end. We’ll be renovating this half first, then move on to the far end next fall/winter.  Doesn’t this look like a simple project to jump into?

 

The roof drains up on the third floor were the leak problem. The constant drip (but only when it rains) is what rotted out the floor. Had someone bothered to seal those up starting in the 1970′s, then none of the floors would be rotten now.

Most of the damage is along the windows – not because of the leaky broken windows, but because that is where the roof drains come through the roof…

Looking full-length through what will become the pilot retail shop directly under the theater.

More rot… No shortage of that…

There were three small rooms in this corner. I took the walls down and hammered the concrete footings out this past week.

Looking up the stairs – the only spot with no rot!

Second floor with the bathrooms and theater right behind me… The restaurant will be at the far end of this, with a great view overlooking the runway and mountains.  This is where the community dances were held once upon a time.  I don’t think I’d be dancing on that floor now…

The old snack bar

Peaking into the theater. It will only be 20 feet wide, so not exactly the ideal place for 70mm presentations, but it’ll be good enough for Yakutat!

The rotten floor of the theater

From the top of the stairwell toward the theater. No, this old pool table is not salvageable.

Thanks for taking the tour with me.  I’ll post photos as we progress through the destruction and the rebirth over the next year!

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