Preparing for Holiday Visitors – Talk about a Sweet Place to Live
As you read this, something sweet and exciting is happening at Peter Becker Community. Two large scale gingerbread houses are being designed and built by resident and staff teams. The houses will be about three weeks in the making and will be mostly edible (except for the wooden frame).
Bob Cobel and Roy Feiss are the woodworkers at PBC who are responsible for getting the project started on a solid foundation.
Interestingly, the giant gingerbread house frames were all custom design, or should we say quickly sketched on a piece of paper. There was no online pattern or model available. But, that did not slow progress. Wood working enthusiast residents, Roy Feiss and Bob Cobel rose to the occasion.
‘We love a challenge,” explained Feiss and they went to work. Feiss immediately used a CAD system to draw a prototype on his computer and figure out the material needs.
After that, it took them five days to build the first frame. “It was all those angles,” explained Cobel. “The second one was a breeze.” The second house which will be displayed in the main campus lobby, took just two days to construct.
The next phase is baking and covering the frame with gingerbread. That task is being placed in the hands of the baking enthusiasts in our dining services team. After that resident groups will begin decorating with candy, icing, cookies and more.
The houses are slated to be finished by the first week in December.
A Sweet and Sticky Venture
When the sticky project is complete, the main lobbies in Maplewood Estates and the Campus Center will be stuck with them until the beginning of 2017. resident and guests of the community will be able to visit and enjoy the candy adorned homes in the two main lobby areas of the community.
First Phase Photo Gallery
Here are some pictures of the pre-gingerbread original structure. Stay tuned as this project sweetens.