• Book Release,  Paranormal

    Author Researched: St Patrick’s Cathedral @Liza0Connor #RLFblog #paranormal

    Climbing out of Hell begins with Trent tossed from his limo onto a NYC sidewalk.
    A priest asks if Trent need help. Thinking he needs an exorcism, Trent follows the priest back to St Patrick’s
    Cathedral.
    In my story, the Cathedral has already finished its current $177M
    restoration project. Otherwise, Trent
    would have been appalled by all the scaffolding and walked out. He needs to be impressed.
    So I have gently played with time to allow St Patrick’s be at its most impressive.
    However, I’ve two real building lessons for you:
    Projects always costs more than estimated.
    And they take longer to complete than anticipated.
    Initial estimates to build St. Patricks were $850K for the building.
    (They left out the cost to furnish.) The cornerstone was laid in 1858. For three
    years the work progressed rapidly.
    Then in 1861, our country decided to fight with itself. (Civil
    War) All work stopped until the war ended in 1865 and our country recovered sufficiently
    that people could afford to build pretty things again.
    In 1878, they finally had a section of the building that could
    (as Trent would
    say) do its job, if only it had furnishings. To resolve that, they had a fund raiser
    to help purchase furnishings for the Cathedral and a year later it formally opened.
    The papers declared it the noblest building ever built to honor St. Patrick.
    This claim doesn’t impress Trent, because when he thinks of St. Paddy, he
    thinks of short, drunken Irishmen stumbling down the street, wearing green. (What
    can I say, he’s not Catholic.)
    The gorgeous spires weren’t completed until 1888. (30 years after
    they began.)
    They finished the Lady Chapel in 1906, furnished it by 1908.
    The first of the stained glass windows was installed in 1909, and the remaining
    windows arrived over the next 25 years. I’m going to assume they had plain glass
    in the windows until the stained glass arrived. Otherwise it would have been a bitter
    cold place to worship for a really long time.
    By 1910, with only one stained glass window install, it is estimated
    that over $4 million dollars had been spent on the church that was supposed to only
    cost $850K. That’s a 470% overrun. Thus, proving lesson number 1. (See above if
    you’ve forgotten it already.)
    For the next 24 years, they installed glass stained windows,
    imported from Europe.
    You might wonder why they declared it finished in 1910 instead
    of 1934 when the final window gets installed. Here’s my guess: They needed major
    repairs and it is embarrassing if the cathedral you are building requires major
    repairs before you have finished building it.
    In 1927, when the stock market was booming, they began the first
    of many major renovations. Clearly, they raised their funds just at the right time.
    Two years later, the stock market crashed and NYC was in dire straits for the next
    ten years. Not surprisingly, no further repairs were done until the world recovered
    financially.
    The second attempt at renovation took place in 1941-47.
    Then in 1972, they claimed to have restored the interior and
    in 1979 the exterior. Thus, it’s all fixed now right?
    Wrong.
    1984-2000 they had to do extensive renovations to maintain the
    structural integrity of the building. (The roof and steps needed replaced)
    Which leads us to the project begun in 2012 that is planned to
    be finished by 2015. (Remember Lesson 2?)
    Due to all those years of buying stained glass, there are now
    more than 1,300 PANELS of stained glass that require attention during this renovation.
    This drawing of the central entryway gives a sense of how much
    work is planned. Each box indicates where a repair, repointing, or entirely new
    stone is needed.
    This is just one little section of a very large church. In case
    you are curious, Restoration costs are estimated at $177 Million dollars.
    I hope they don’t overrun by the same percentage they did in
    the first estimate. If so, it will cost nearly $832 million dollars. Hopefully,
    they’ll only overrun by 20%, costing the church $212 million.
    Which bring me to my final lesson:
    Old structures are money pits, and the cost of renovations will
    far outweigh the cost of a new building. But there is something special about this
    gothic cathedral, and regardless of the cost, I believe it should be preserved.
    Now back to Trent
    and his attempt to climb out of hell…
    (picture of cover)
    Climbing Out of Hell
    Book 4 of the series
    A Long Road to Love
    Romantic Comedy
    Billionaire Trent Lancaster has destroyed his relationship with
    the only woman who ever loved him. Now we discover the full truth of what happened.
    He actually had reasons for his behaviors.
    Still, there is no going back. Trent
    has lost Carrie forever, but he would rather die than marry Coco,
    so he does just that. Trent gives away most of his
    possessions, fakes his death, and starts over with a new face and a better attitude
    in a small town in Iowa
    where his half-brother Sam is sheriff.
    Losing his true love has fundamentally broken Trent to his core. His only
    chance for happiness is to become the better man Carrie had always seen inside him.
    True change is not easy. Can Trent grow up and become a man we can love?

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    Img credits (Saint Patrick’s Cathedral): Wikipedia Creative Commons
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