Keep on Building!

Another week of renovations is over and we are enjoying the beautiful silence of a weekend. Weekends don't exist in monasteries but with the renovations they are being rediscovered!

The highlight of the week was the installation of the exhaust hood system for the ovens. It's enormous. More than we need but the NJ code thinks otherwise.

Another wall was knocked out and will be rebuilt so that the doorway to the kitchen is, as one of the sisters calls it, a two-lane not a one-lane, highway. The doorway was so narrow that a sister in a wheelchair could get through with about a half inch to spare on either side. The old doorway had a make-shift sliding door if we wanted to close it. We used to hang our retreat day calendar and guest room calendar on it. So, that probably tells you that it didn't get closed too often!

Our new dishes came in last week! No more discolored, brown prolon (plastic) dishes! Two of our sister picked out suggested patterns from Corelle and then the community voted on the five narrowing it to two and then the winner! Dominican government at work! Special thanks to Kathreja and Jane for their gift.

We also got the new hanging lights for the refectory. This will be quite a change from the bare fluorescent bulbs! Originally we had bare light bulbs hanging from the ceiling and the novitiate still does. We were happy to get these at a real bargain! Once again, St. Joseph is looking out for us!

There are two weeks of updated photos on the renovations site.

The new stove hood. (Santa could definitely go down the shaft!) By Friday afternoon the whole back wall was covered in stainless steel.

The older sisters have the most difficulty getting back and forth from their dormitory to the choir and community room but the new ramp has made things so much easier! Like the rest of us, Sr. Maria Veneranda stops to check out the progress.


Sr. Denise Marie shows off our new dishes. Simple and understated. Blue for our Lady! True to our feminine nature this part of the renovations is the most exciting for us!

New flatware was donated by a company here in NJ. Imagine, all our sets will match. (But for how long?)