Blood, sweat and tears
If only we had realized the task ahead of us. We were fortunate to have some building skills among our members and those we didn't possess we begged and borrowed from some very good friends, it wasn't, I can assure you as easy as it sounds, a lot of blood, sweat and tears were spilt in some cases laterally.
Slowly but surely, from the ashes of the old the Phoenix began to rise. Founds excavated, walls built, roof on, plumbing, wiring and then finally plastering and painting. Some of the more memorable moments included water pipes having nails driven through them, toilet bowls being smashed, one member nearly electrocuted, another left stranded on the roof after his ladder mysteriously disappeared and a host of other mishaps.
The strange thing now is that when we look back on it, everyone involved remembers the funny times and there were plenty of those as well. Encouragement and abuse were handed out in equal measure, but sympathy was in short supply regardless of the effort being made, as witnessed when one member of the Band not being renowned as having a head for heights offered to work on the roof, but as his head (thinly thatched) slowly appeared above the ridge tiles it elicited the memorable comment “I see the moon's out early tonight" (I guess you had to be there).
The reader is probably wondering why it took us three years to complete the project. The answer is quite simple; it was purely a matter of finance. When we had raised enough money we would work on the next phase so you can guess it was a case of starting and stopping. Credit is therefore due to the people who persevered and also to our friends who helped us financially. The total cost of the extension was around £9000 and since then we have spent approximately another £10,000 in maintenance and further improvements. About £6,000 of that sum was spent in our 40th year as we decided to renovate the main hall, stairs and landing.
The finished result is a hall that any organization would be proud of. Much as we would like to rest on our laurels, we have another work planned for next year, namely a new floor and redecoration of the downstairs hall, so as you can see it is really an ongoing operation to keep on top of things. Nevertheless, we are proud of our hall and as I said, "if walls could talk" we like to think that the walls of this old hall would be proud of the Albertbridge Accordion Band.