If one photo could summarize a month, it would be this photo above... we have consumed many a cup of coffee while the Valued Treasures have simulated roles within a coffee shop. Near the end of this month, we would wrap up the majority of work on our rooftop enclosure: electrical, plumbing, counters, moving up furniture and connecting the espresso machine. The steps and stages were numerous, so I devoted an entire post to that here.
But before that...
Lydia wrapped up her final week at Valued Treasures, including on her last day an Oreo Cookie taste test for the students, ranking various Oreo flavors brought from the USA by her mother. (We can only get one or two flavors here in Albania)
Above, Shpresa smells Oreo mint.
Peanut butter won the taste vote!
We received a beautiful Easter card from the Valued Treasures students!
A popular dish in this part of the world is japrek -- or, as you might know it, "stuffed grape leaves." Ellie spotted it in canned form at the supermarket. I love that I am still surprised by occasionally finding unexpected items on the shelves. No, we did not buy it. :-)
Nathan designed and ordered new jerseys for Jeta's youth futbol program! We were so happy with how they turned out!
A great thing about big kids is all the help they can be -- like filling the Easter eggs they would hunt the following day! :-)
Easter Sunday was glorious and we had a beautiful, joyous service. Below, Eda leads an interactive recap of the Easter account via resurrection eggs.
Later, Nathan shared an Easter message.
This Easter, after weeks of busy activities, hosting guests and traveling, I was grateful when no one objected to bailing plans on eating an elaborate feast at home. Instead, we ate at a nearby restaurant.
We were joined by our dear friends, the Dukas.
We continued our post-lunch Easter tradition of dying eggs.
Reni's sports team themed collection
Jordan's literary inspired egg diorama
Noelia's intricately designed olive branches, shqiponja, pearly gates, and Easter lilies...
In a life marked with frequent transition, it's important to me that we keep as many traditions as possible.
About a week later...
The following weekend, we were pleased to host one of Reni's closest friends, visiting from a neighboring country. Nathan and I enjoyed shopping for coffee shop chairs while they caught a film.
One of our neighbors (above), sans his partner.
Late on April 16 we welcomed Don and Claudia, for the third visit to minister to our team!
We enjoyed a coffee in the newly enclosed coffee shop, surrounded by a collection of various chairs and furniture pieces, awaiting set up at the conclusion of work.
That evening, Jordan was a good sport for Luis' demonstration of faith without seeing.
The next morningJordan plays the role of leprous Naaman for Saturday's kids' club. He sure gets put to work a lot here! :-)
Above, our great team spent an overnight in the city of Vlora. Don and Claudia brought us some encouraging messages from the Word. The weather was incredible and it was nice to have some time together without the pressures of work!
While everyone grabbed pictures on the waterfront, we decided to get a pic with Jordan. He has been a fun and special addition to our family this spring!
After a five-day delay (a combination of an airline strike and bad weather), Mom and Hannah eventually arrived! They were bummed to miss the the staff get together in Vlora but just grateful to have eventually made it!
One day, while I was shopping with Mom and Hannah for coffee shop furnishings at Megatek, Nathan called to share an exciting account from home.
After making an unusual amount of noise, Nathan discovered our nieghbor's cat delivered a small litter of kittens underneath our grill cover! I suggested he call Shpresa, our resident cat lover, for assistance!
Below, Mom shares greetings at church.
One Sunday evening Mom suggested we go out to eat. I remembered a restaurant in Durres recommended by a local friend and decided to try it. The road was quite an adventure just to get there, but the location was beautiful.
The restaurant was nestled into the side of a tall hillside overlooking the ancient city of Durres. Next to the entrance of the restaurant, a tunnel invited us in. The walk (according to my video timer) took about 3 minutes. Be sure to watch all the way to the end for a surprising destination!
We finally reached the stage where we could set up all the furniture pieces we had been acquiring for the coffee shop and reveal it to the Valued Treasures students. I think they all were very pleased with it! Especially seeing where they would eventually get to practice working!
Jordan, washing windows! I think new windows are the hardest to wash! They seem to have a film that doesn't come off easily in the beginning.
Over the next few days we would slowly practice serving coffee in our shop. Below, a former VT volunteer visiting Albania for a conference, was a good sport and let the students serve her!
Bu the VT students are not the only ones learning the ropes! Nathan is having fun learning the ins and outs of this second-hand espresso machine, made in Italy. Reni and I will be the next to learn!
Of course, it's not real "grandma time" without baking! Ellie and Mom made some incredible chococolate chocolate chip muffins! A definite repeater!
Meanwhile, we are spending as much time as possible in the new rooftop space. It's just a lovely place to hang out, to work, to visit with others. The views out the windows are a constantly changing work of art, depending on the weather, time of day, clarity in the air, and season of the trees and crops.
Nathan's face above perfectly summarizes what we have been able to 'control' about completion on the training site for our Valued Treasures students. The project was supposed to be relatively straightforward, but it has been nothing like that. We started in November, and this was where we stood as of early March.
After the support structure went up for the solar panels in early February, the waiting game began. Many days we would see Mandi sitting on the terraza, waiting for the contractor to arrive, as promised, only to be stood up. Again, and again, and again.
In the mean time, Lydia had to keep moving forward in creating her job training curriculum -- so we managed with what we could control. That meant she didn't get to train in what would be the ultimate training environment, but she was a good sport and adapted other parts of Jeta as she could. Above, she trains Besi in using the touch screen espresso maker.
Above, for teacher's day, Valued Treasures visited a nearby restaurant for morning coffee, with special note of the way the establishment and their staff handled taking and delivering orders. In the end, the owner of the facility covered the bill for the excursion!
Bit by bit, the window frames were installed.
We determined a plan for running electricity for lights and had the ceiling painted black to disguise our tracks and cables.
The second week of March, we hosted Michelle from Lexington, a professional interior designer.
She measured the footprint and we calculated how many tables and chairs would feasibly fit within the space while still allowing enough room for wheelchairs to navigate. Her design advice proved to be invaluable, and encouraged me to keep moving forward when it felt like the project had stalled.
Above, we set up chairs around phantom tables to gauge maneuverability in real life. It's one thing to theorize on graph paper -- another to try it in person! This is March 14 (above).
Above, looking north. The remnants of the original elevator overhang lie on the floor.
Below, Diana brought some boxes of artificial succulents with which to decorate the space. We visited a number of stores to price furniture, lights, and accessories, finding beautiful pots in which to arrange Diana's gifts. From those, we created a color scheme for the furniture we would select and painted the stucco a pretty shade of green to support the "greenhouse" name and concept.
Most time went into designing the coffee bar, taking measurements and drawing the perimeter in chalk on the floor. You can see Lydia navigating in a wheelchair to determine turning-radius and spacing between openings.
As construction crept along, Lydia conducted simulations in the sanctuary for students to practice various roles within a coffee shop environment. For her part, it involved a lot of set-up and tear-down, but she never complained!
It was fun to place orders and identify any gaps that needed addressing.
Below, the framing finally came for the mechanical windows on the south side of the space. Jordan primes the frame to prevent rust.
Additional windows are installed... as you can see, we had a daily view of the action from our home!
Diana and Michelle returned to Kentucky, but Michelle created these renderings from her measurements and our shopping trips of available products. Click on the video below:
Since we had identified furniture choices with Diana and Michelle, and confirmed the number of tables and chairs needed, we started acquiring the necessary pieces. To be sure, the computer renderings lit a fire in me to finish the project! We just had the matter of finding storage for each piece we acquired!
Below, Nathan assembles a table base. We would order stone table tops from the local "mermer" man. Albanian marble was about the same as laminate from the hardware store.
We took the opportunity to prime the existing patio table, which was rusting underneath and staining the tile. After priming, we wedged shims underneath to prevent future rusting.
Shopping continued... light fixtures for over the center conference table.
We found a suitable corner couch and bar stools, but needed to store them in the men's changing room until the space could be fully enclosed.
We found a second-hand espresso machine. The automated touch screen machine alone won't be sufficient to serve more than a handful of individuals, so this will be a back up during higher volume times.
The stone table tops arrive! They are beautiful!
Fourt-tops and two-top tables (below).
A glimpse of the view at dusk...
Below, we begin marking the ceiling with masking tape where we want the lights to hang. The electrician will then run beams concealing electrical lines. At the end of the project, he would joke that this job involved as much ironwork as electric!
We affix the table tops to the bases
Jordan touches up the new electrical canals with a coat of high gloss paint to match the ceiling. Note the wires where future light fixtures will hang.
The crew returns to attach flashing and gutters (below)
April 13 the long awaited "guillotine" (yes, that's what they are called) windows arrive!
With the arrival and installation of the windows, the space is finally fully enclosed!
Note the guillotine windows are mechanized and can lower to knee-wall height. The idea is to enjoy an indoor-outdoor space -- something ideal for Albania's climate, more than half the year. But enclosing the space meant we could begin moving furniture pieces upstairs.
The coffee bar arrived! Turns out, when you build on a rooftop, nothing is level (because the surface had been sloped to drain rain)! These guys were troopers, trying to level everything on a sloping floor.
We still had to shave portions of the cabinetry joints to ensure complete contact of the countertops.
Insert waiting several days for the counters to be measured, cut and delivered.
Each piece weighed nearly 300 lbs. Imagine our frustration when we realized that the counters were mismeasured!! The thought of carrying all that stone down and new stone back up three flights of stairs...
I pose with the stone, nevertheless. We turned the lemons into lemonade though (keep scrolling down to see what we did with the "bad" stone). Oh, and I won't ever insist on cutting the joints at 45 degrees again either. So many complications, including fragile corners that didn't handle turning corners in the stairwell.
It all had to do with that pesky pole supporting the roof (see below) and the fact that our cabinets were built in unconnected pieces. So when the second man came to measure the counters, he decided he didn't want to measure and cut around the pole so he unilaterally moved the base... not realizing that we didn't have a centimeter to spare because a dishwasher was going in between the two separate cabinet bases.
Insert several more days of waiting...
A lot of math was involved getting the replacement countertops to join, given that we had to move the base back to its original position. Oh, and did I mention it included a cutout for the sink too? Nathan and I were getting more than a bit anxious at this point... In the end, we took some carpentry into our own hands and made the floating cabinet piece narrower. This "floating" cabinet featured a lower countertop height so wheelchair users could wheel up to the touchscreen espresso machine. Its width was somewhat flexible.
After applying the silicone, we weighted the stone down even more to be sure it all attached/connected to the cabinets. Not sure if that was really necessary, considering the stone weighed more than 300 lbs!
Turi, the plumber, came and installed the sink and connected the dishwasher! It started to feel real now that we had running water and a functional sink! We are glad we had the foresight to run a water line there 6 years ago, even though this was leaps and bounds above what we had ever imagined installing on the rooftop one day.
By now, we are in the last third of April and my mom has arrived in Albania. She was more than happy to help us shop for the final items needed. These included a coffee table, spots for a track light, a floor lamp, two refrigerators, two side tables and a pastry display case, to name a few items.
Below, she poses next to these flowers in the garden section. She is smiling because we found a beautiful glass front fridge as well as a mini fridge for under the counter (for keeping milk for cappuccinos and machiatos).
Turns out the fridge we wanted was the last one in stock. The staff boxed it up. Check out how close it fit in the back of our van. I am not sure what Mom and I would have done if we could not have closed the door. I honestly assumed it would fit. I was so, so grateful instead when the door safely latched!
The tile started going up on the coffee bar! I was honestly so nervous about this. I had help from our friend, Anne, who found this at the tile shop while I tried to track down a salesman to purchase a different design. I was glad he was hard to find, because it gave her extra time to find this!
We liked that it contained hues of terra cotta, a tie-in with the conference table chairs. I also liked that it mimicked wood tones, which we desperately need to warm up the space. I also liked that it resembled bamboo sticks or dried reeds, also fitting in with our greenhouse vibe and the local surrounds...but until he finished tiling, I held my breath, second-guessing our choice.
The coffee guys arrived to install the coffee machine, now that we had counters and running water.
A second major hang-up in completing the project were conflicting opinions on the best options for HVAC. The company came FOUR times with different ideas of what would best work in the space. Some of the challenges were limited wall space for hanging the wall radiator units (given our furniture plan) and the fact that the few walls we had were incredibly thick and full of re-bar. Until those decisions were made and the crew installed the units, we did not feel free to fully set up the space, given that the drilling could generate a lot of dust.
Then the day came for "un-boxing" and cleaning!
Thankfully, we had lots of help! Below, assembling the couch unit.
Expert cleaners after all the construction!
We didn't get it all done, but we made good progress. The windows above the sink (see above) can only be accessed on the other side via a scaffold in the stairwell! I think we will clean them well, then frost the glass or attach drywall. Then Nathan wants to install shelves on this side of the window frame.
Below, Jordan drills a hole for the power cord and lifts the height of the shelf to create a custom opening for the under counter milk fridge.
I hope Jordan's mother is not looking at this post. In my defense, I was not present to object to this cleaning method!
So we were able to salvage the mismeasured countertops and have them cut to serve as a backsplash behind the coffee machines and sink!
No doubt we will continue to keep working on the space... like installing roller shades for the windows (coming in two days), adding string lights on the patio, hanging signage with our future logo, and things of that nature, but for now, here are some photos of the "Greenhouse" in its mostly finished space (HVAC work was still in progress when most of these photos were captured).
Pardon the tile installer's equipment still on the floor below...
The marble table tops bounce the overhead lights and create a glow.
I like these drop spots that create a sence of intimacy over each table, yet have a slender profile that doen't obstruct the view. The mini carpets were purchased in Kruja and contain Albanian motifs in our color palette.
Thank you to everyone who prayed for and/or contributed to this project. Your generosity floored us and resulted in a stunning space. We hope it glorifies God and creates an inviting space where our students can grow and learn and where guests feel welcome and loved.
You are invited to come enjoy a cup of coffee...
And enjoy the stunning views of Albania! (below, the village of Preza, thanks to Nathan's amazing zoom lens, shot from the hightop bar).
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