WILDOMAR -- The roof is overhead and the walls are up on the future Lake Elsinore Elks Lodge, giving members a chance to ponder what the new place will be like when it is ready for occupancy.

"I cannot wait to be able to walk into our place, our home," said Cari Gardner, one of the club's administrators, gazing at the massive structure going up along the west side of Mission Trail south of Corydon Road.

Lodge secretary Walt Hobert, 77, agreed -- with a caveat: "If I'm still alive."

It's been more than a year-and-a-half since the site on which the building is being erected was a heap of ashes and charred debris, the remnants of a fire in November 2007 that destroyed the building from which Lodge 2591 had operated for two decades.

"It was a mess," Hobert said, adding that he didn't believe a cause was ever established. "They think maybe it was electrical."

Since then, the group noted for its charitable endeavors, including its annual Thanksgiving dinner, has had to rely on the largess of others, such as VFW Post 1508 next door and the Trevi Entertainment Center up the road in Lake Elsinore, to keep its activities going.

"We're limited," Hobert said of the current circumstances. Gardner estimated that the lodge's activities have been cut at least in half. She and colleague Michele Gramata work in a double-wide trailer on the property.

"It has been a challenge; I will not dispute that," the lodge's current exalted ruler, Gerald Babinski, said.

Yet, come October, the 940-member group expects to be back in business in its own building -- a brand new 13,000-square-foot place in which to host its weekly meetings, bingo games, dances and charity events. The building, which is costing the lodge nearly $2 million, will be more than three times bigger than the old facility.

"I think it's going to be a nice addition to the community," Babinski said. "It's going to be a very nice building and I think our members are going to be very happy with it."

Hobert said it will provide for a much larger meeting room, a larger social and dining area including a bar, and more bathrooms as well as office space. It's going to be modern and, significantly, equipped with an automated fire sprinkler system.

"It should be one of the nicest buildings in this area," said Hobert, who served as the 1995-96 exalted ruler of the lodge.

If progress has been slow, Hobert said, that's understandable from the standpoint that they're working off an entirely new building design and with a new city. The site is about a stone's throw from Lake Elsinore in Wildomar, which incorporated last July 1 and brought a greater level of scrutiny than folks were accustomed to under the county's jurisdiction.

"The architect had to start from scratch with a new city -- that takes some time," Hobert said. "Everybody has to OK everything."

Though the lodge is based in Wildomar and named after Lake Elsinore where it was originally based, its members hail from a much wider area, including Murrieta and Perris, Hobert said.

"It should bring in more members, or that's what we're hoping for," he said of the new building.

While there is still much work to be done, the promise of the future resonates as the project comes together piece by piece.

"It's going to be something altogether different," Hobert said. "This is kind of … you're excited, but you don't know how to be excited."

Call staff writer Michael J. Williams at 951-676-4315, ext. 2635.