Campus Renovation Updates
It is an exciting time at Villa Maria! The Sisters of the Humility of Mary have been moving deliberately in the direction of new life through the transformation of the Villa Maria campus into a center of opportunity that promotes life-long learning and healthy, successful aging. Campus renovations are getting underway with construction projects to license Visitation Hall as an assisted living facility. We invite you to continue to work alongside us as we look to the future with great hope. Your support toward these projects will allow us to continue to use our resources for the good of God’s people.
Check back here or follow our social media channels for updates on current campus projects.
Assisted Living Facility
A licensed assisted living facility on the Villa Maria campus is closer to becoming reality. Construction has begun to renovate Visitation Hall, the sisters’ current healthcare unit. When renovations are complete, the facility will offer 32 rooms that address healthcare needs while offering affordable housing possibilities to current residents and the local community.
Interior renovations to the resident rooms involve the installation of a kitchenette with a sink, small refrigerator, and space for a microwave.The common spaces will be refreshed with new flooring, new furniture, new lighting, and fresh paint. Visitation lobby will also be similarly refreshed.
Memory Garden
A secure exterior space is part of the planned renovations to provide residents of the new assisted living facility with a place to enjoy the outdoors. This garden will be completely enclosed and accessed through the facility. Sisters and residents can wander freely and safely through this peaceful and meditative space. Safe walkways, plenty of seating areas, and accessible gardening stations are only a few of the details carefully planned by the architects to make the space enjoyable for all residents.
Project Updates
November 5, 2021
Work continues in the garden and the pavilion and planting shed have gone up in the past two weeks. Next on the schedule to be installed are the raised gardening beds, a fountain, and a handrail around the upper patio.
Interior renovations are moving forward. Half of the individual rooms are nearly complete with their new flooring and cabinetry, and the common spaces have been refreshed with new lighting and carpeting. Renovations on the second half of the rooms is scheduled to begin in mid-late November.
October 18, 2021
Most of the plants, shrubs, trees, and flowers have found their homes in the planting beds and new sod has filled in the rest of the area surrounding the garden. Decorative rocks have also been placed around the space.
October 1, 2021
Planting has begun in full force! With the weather cooling off, a variety of trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowers are being delivered and planted in the garden beds. The progress this week has been amazing to watch–something new happens everyday! You can see the transformation that has happened in only three days in the photos featured below. Thanks to Sr. Winefred Bullach for some of the crew action shots in the second group of photos.
August 27, 2021
Since our last update, exterior construction has halted while we wait on furniture deliveries and better planting weather. A decorative facing has been applied to the upper patio wall, outdoor water faucets have been installed in a few places around the space, and electrical wiring has been run. Interior renovations are waiting on cabinetry to arrive, but flooring and lighting have been installed in the individual rooms and in the common spaces.
June 18, 2021
Concrete work continued on the garden pathways and patios this week. The pavilion floor was poured, pathways were connected, and a contrasting concrete border was added. Demolition continued inside Visitation Hall: carpeting was torn up and work began on roughing-in the kitchenettes in the individual rooms.
June 11, 2021
After some rain delays, the garden pathways and patios were marked out and the concrete was poured this week. Interior renovations also began in Visitation Hall. The current resident sisters moved to one side of the building to accommodate the construction process, and temporary walls were built between the rooms being renovated and the currently occupied rooms so demolition can begin.
May 21, 2021
The garden area continues to be filled in and graded to get the appropriate slope. This week, the construction crew also began to survey and mark portions of the path so those could be graded as well. Trenches were also dug to install drainage pipes and electrical conduit.
May 14, 2021
After a week of rain and then waiting for the area to dry out, the construction crew was back to work this week. They continue to fill in the garden area with soil and grade the surface.
April 30, 2021
Leveling of the area behind Visitation Hall continues this week. The crew has begun flattening the soil to provide an even surface and has cleared the grass from the entire outline of the garden.
April 23, 2021
The construction crew has continued to clear grass from behind Visitation Hall in preparation for the new memory garden. They have been surveying and filling in portions of the area to level it.
April 16, 2021
Construction began on the memory garden on April 12. The crew marked out the space and began clearing existing trees and shrubs to prepare the area.
