This is the spire being assembled, way back in 1995. I'm posting for my associates as well as for all visitors. : ) We're going to be working on Migyur Dorje backwards.

Stupas are built from the ground up, with the spire and ultimately the sun, moon and tigle being placed last. This rising from the earth foundation up to the pinnacle of Enlightenment is reflective of the nature of the path to Enlightenment (as is every detail and aspect of a Stupa, it is a three dimensional road map as it were). One must start on the ground, where you are, dig deep and unearth the things that must be suppressed, and then build virtue, level after level, until you refine it to the point where you are free of all misconceptions or doubt, liberated into the state of unending compassion and omniscient awareness.

On a practical level, I'm posting so we have some idea what we are dealing with. As I said, we're going at the renovation backwards, starting with the spire and working down (because paint, and chemical strippers all flow downward). We're planning to climb up the spire to strip the paint off, and that's going to be challenging. Especially if we start tomorrow...