It's so exciting to be writing the first of what I hope will be many progress updates on the refurbishment at the "New Ark" in Shrewsbury.
We are so incredibly grateful to our architect, Mark Newall, who has worked steadfastly to get us to this point and has the real hard work ahead of him co-ordinating the build, but without his experience and calm leadership we would certainly be lost at sea!
Last week our builders finally went in and began the job of stripping out the old pub fittings, in order to make the premises safe and begin the refit.
The first major issue we faced was the removal of over 40 beer kegs that were taking up room in the cellar, luckily "Kegwatch" exist to do just that and first thing on monday morning they were on site to safely clear out the cellar.
For the rest of the week our builders worked tirelessly on site and by Wednesday we were amazed to see the walls going up for the downstairs therapy and clinic rooms!
However, nothing is ever plain sailing for the Ark! Our builders have been hit by Covid, putting the schedule back by at least a week and we have also found out that we're going to need an entire electrical re-wiring and both boilers replacing, - the list just keeps on growing!
We can't thank those who have already donated enough for their support, we're nearly a fifth of the way to achieving our target, but please do contiue to share and support our work, as you can see - there's still lots to do... www.gofund.me/5192aad8