day thirty.

today we poured concrete! it was very exciting, and was super awesome to have something different to do today. megan and i got to the site around 11:00, and the pouring was already underway. the weather was nice and cooperative in the morning, however around 12 it started raining. it sucked. the novelty of the cement trucks and the snout, as robert called it, wore off very quickly, and since it continued drizzling ALL afternoon, i was soaked and quite miserable. it also didn't help that i spent the majority of the day standing around, waiting for something to do. there wasn't much to be done, unless concrete spilled over, in which case we cleaned that up. i did spend a while 'floating' the windows, aka making the concrete smooth and pretty. but other than that, i just fetched things for people up on the scaffolding, or stood around. but at least we've got the concrete FINALLY poured! and now we have monday off!!!

oh, so my hands are a bit better today... i scrubbed them a lot last night and got the worst of it off, so now i just have to wait until the rest of it comes off by itself. adrian guessed it would take a week or so. we'll see.

cement trucks! there was a line of like 5 of them. it was neat.

denise & jason tackling a door buck

robert & the snout!


robert once again

cleaning up

day twenty nine

today, as expected, we did more bracing & scabbing. i worked with johanna, megan & renee c to scab the atrium area, and for some reason, it took ALL day. but everything is scabbed and ready to go for the concrete tomorrow! people are getting on site early to make SURE that everything is good to go, and then concrete is coming around 10! adrian warned us today that we have to be ready to quickly plug any areas that may leak, and to be very aware of whats going on, because who knows if a wall or something will fail, and concrete goes everywhere. so now i'm worried about that. but he said it's not likely to happen at all. so it could be interesting.

also today, i got a bunch of that foam shit we use for plugging holes ALL OVER my hands. i wasn't worried about it at the time, because i was told that nail polish remover takes it off easily. that is apparently not the case when you have extreme amounts on your hands. i have been attempting to pick it off during tina's class, but i'm most likely going to be trying to deal with this all night. and i'm sure its got all kinds of chemicals in it, so now i'm probably going to develop some sort of finger tumor. and i haven't had a chance to look in a mirror yet, but i feel as if it's in my hair too. how neat.

edit: apparently neither nail polish remover, goo gone or paint thinner works on this stuff. the only thing that seems to work is scrubbing the hell out of my hand with a scouring pad...looks like i'll be at this for a while

day twenty eight

so as expected, we spent the day bracing, scabbing, rebaring, etc. i started off by helping anna and josh with the vertical rebar, but my job was to literally hand them a piece of rebar, wait a few minutes while they get it situated, hand them another one, and repeat. it was very dull. so after a while of that, megan and johanna took over, and i helped renee brace the 4 windows in the matron suite area. this was a deceptively difficult task. the first few windows were easy, because they could be reached properly from ground level. the other two, not so much. they required the drilling/hammering to be done at very odd angles, which made it take like 10 times longer than probably necessary. renee abandoned me a little while into this task, but megan helped me finish it up.

also today, a super ghetto ice cream truck came through the neighborhood and stopped at the site! it was very entertaining. i was up on the scaffolding while this was occuring, and denise and robert bought some ice cream, and anna said that along with ice cream, you could also buy a pickle or some newports. strange. but entertaining nonetheless. megan has some lovely pictures of the event over at her blog: meganweatherly.blogspot.com

i also remembered to bring my camera today, so i took a quite a few pictures once everything was all cleaned up. some are for my portfolio, and some are fun & artsy ones :)

and also, here is the difference between iarc and gtcc construction:

iarc: straight and lovely

gtcc: not straight or lovely

day twenty seven.

today was super awesome because we FINALLY finished ICFing!!! mostly everyone worked around the site to even up the walls which go up to 8 courses, then about 8 or so of us finished up the atrium area, which goes up to 13 courses. actually, renee w. and i finished it, because everyone else peaced out around 5.30 to go to tina's lighting class. however, i was determined to not have to deal with that t-wall again, so i opted to skip class and finish it up. it was a glorious moment indeed when we put the last piece of rebar in :)

also today, i realized i have no problem doing extreme maneuvering while on the scaffolding. yesterday when i was up there, it was slightly terrifying, but today, not at all. yay

so the concrete pour has once again been moved, this time just a day later to friday. so tomorrow and thursday, we're going to make sure that everything is scabbed, foamed, braced, and lovely, so that we can pour concrete on friday, then have monday off! yayyy!

view from atop the scaffolding

the scaffolding + me risking my life to do some vertical zip-tying

day twenty six.

so friday, i was sick and wasn't on site :(

today, everyone was working to brace everything and make sure the walls are all level and lovely. so i started helping anna and megan with that, and it was super boring and colddddd because we were back in our little corner that gets no sun. then adrian asked someone to climb up on the scaffolding and prune the tree that's in the way up there, so i volunteered for that. it was quite difficult, because first of all, i was like 30ft up in the air, and the handrails didn't seem exactly sturdy. also, the tree was difficult to reach in some places. and i was also doing my best to not let the branches fall and damage the ICFs and/or impale anyone below.i did however, get quite an arm workout, because i was using a handsaw. then to get the branches down off the scaffolding, i had to launch them off, which that was quite fun. after all this tree excitement, i helped brace more stuff. and tomorrow we should get ICFs! yayyy can't wait to work on those some more.

battling with the tree

day twenty four.

so yesterday we got the day off because it was raining, and we really didn't have anything to do at GURP. it was lovely!

today, however, we were back on site, getting ready for the concrete pour. it's scheduled for next thursday, but we won't have more ICFs until tuesday. so for the time being, we're getting everything braced & scabbed, measuring & cutting rebar, and things like that so that on tuesday and wednesday we can finish up the ICFs and be good to go. and since it rained yesterday, megan, renee w, johanna and i had the awesome task of pumping water off the site. we literally did that all day, and it was horrible.

day twenty three.

today was another rather uneventful day, but at least it wasn't as cold as yesterday. robert figured that there was no way we could have wasted as many ICFs as we are missing, so he figures a bunch of them got stolen. so since we had no ICFs or rebar, i started off the day by sorting through our massive trash pile with a few other people. we sorted out the recycling, cardboard, trash and ICF scraps, and bagged it all. then we spent a few hours cleaning up the site, picking up wood, rebar, ICFs, trash, etc. it was borringggg but the site now looks very clean and lovely.

also, today was anna's birthday, and yesterday was robert's, so denise brought a cake! however, she dropped it face down in the grass when she was bringing it out, and it was covered in leaves and grass and such. but that didn't stop us all from eating it... hah. we just dug underneath the icing to get to the clean stuff :)

day twenty two.

today sucked. it was cold and windy, and i was way unmotivated. and at the end of the day, it didn't feel like we had made much progress, which i hate. for most of the afternoon, i was working with renee w. on the atrium area. there were about 6 courses up when we started, and by the end of the day, renee and i had gotten 1 additional course up. which doesn't make much sense, because we were working on it FOREVER. the scaffolding all up in that area made it very difficult & exhausting even to move around, plus we had issues with rebar, and things like that. so yeah. i guess we'll be working on that some more tomorrow. hoorayyyy

oh and robert got SUPER pissed today, because we realized we were missing a lot of whole ICFs. people were apparently not using scraps and stuff when cutting small pieces, so we were wasting a lot of ICFs. so he had to order some more, and apparently the order takes 3-4 days to be delivered. so who knows if we will actually be pouring concrete this thursday....

the scaffolding maze

day twenty one.

today, about ten of us showed up to get caught up on some things, even though robert rescheduled the concrete pour [once again] to thursday. so we're a week behind the original schedule, but oh well. we worked on the ICFs of the back suite area, and by the time i was leaving, all the ICFs were up and tied, and just needed some of the vertical rebar. while denise, lauren k, katie and i were working on this, anna and josh were working on the vertical rebar of the front wall and two small side walls, and they are officially done! hooray. and lauren g and ashley were working on ICFs in another area. so come monday, hopefully all the ICFs will be assembled, and tuesday and wednesday we can scab all the cracks/holes/etc.

and on a more interesting note, the crack house got busted today! we were all working, when all of a sudden a bunch of cop cars pulled up, and we all watched [from behind a wall of course] as the cops ran around with their guns out arresting people. so that sounds really melodramatic, but it honestly was very exciting. the first dude they arrested was chilling in a truck in the driveway, and they pulled him out of there and handcuffed him. then they surrounded the house, securing the area, then busted in the door, and arrested like seven or eight guys from inside. it was pretty crazy. i wish i had my real camera with me, because these pics from my phone are not so great...

cop # 1 is arresting the dude out of the car, while cop #2 is about to bust down the door.

a few of the many cop cars

day twenty.

so today i got on site at 9:00, along with a few others. renee w. arrived a bit later with krispy kreme donuts, which was lovely. :) we started out the day working on more scaffolding. it seems quite ridiculous, because it takes more time to set up the scaffolding than to actually set up the ICFs. so we got most of the scaffolding up by lunch time, and finished it up afterwards. then around 2:00 or so, we started working on ICFs, and got the top 2 courses + rebar in, so that the vertical rebar could go in. i had to leave around 5:00 though to go to work, so i'm not sure how the vertical rebar situation ended up. they were getting most of it in as i was leaving, i think.

so tomorrow we're going to be on site again, since not all the ICFs got finished today. and HOPEFULLY everything gets done, now that all the scaffolding is in place. we'll see. tomorrow also happens to be valentine's day, the busiest day of the year at fleming's, so it's going to be pretty awesome to work for 4-5 hours on site, then go basically straight to fleming's and work my ass off there until around 11:00. yay can't wait.

day nineteen.

so today was quite frustrating. when we got on site, we saw that 4 or so courses of a wall we had worked on yesterday got blown down. so we spent some time fixing that. then we had to unload MORE scaffolding so that we can finish up the top 2 courses on the front wall. so one group was working on that while i worked on ICFs in another area. i was working in a corner where other people had been working so far, and they missed putting rebar in a bunch of places, like under and over one window, and in a few courses. so we had to fix those mistakes. then i went over to the group working on the scaffolding, and since they had gotten some of it up, i figured we could start working on ICFs in that area. however, it was near a corner that was all messed up from yesterday, so adrian, johanna and i spent a good hour or so trying to fix that corner up so that it's ready to go. so today, we basically spent the whole day fixing mistakes + setting up scaffolding. so tomorrow we for real have to finish ALL the ICFs. so we're getting there at 9, and working until whenever. yayyy

circus tricks

we clearly love scaffolding

view from atop the new scaffolding

day eighteen.

so i missed day seventeen, because megan and i went to a LEED workshop. so yesterday everyone worked on scaffolding + ICFs some more. and today, we did the same. hooray. it was really windy today, and when we got on site, we saw that some of the ICFs they had worked on yesterday had got blown off and around the site. so we fixed up those areas, then proceeded with more ICFing. i climbed around a lot on the scaffolding today, which was terrifying at first, but i got used to it. on the front wall and one side wall, we got the ICFs up to 9 courses, which was all we could reach from the scaffolding we currently have set up. so to get the last 2 courses up, robert is going to rent some more scaffolding, which is sure to be just as fun to assemble as the scaffolding from the past 3 days.

so after we finished what we could of the front wall, we helped finish up the scaffolding around the rest of the site. the pouring of the concrete has been moved to tuesday, so we have to finish ICFs by the end of friday, so monday can be spent filling gaps and such in the ICFs. if all of this occurs on time, then we get to have wednesday off :)

day sixteen.

today the weather was lovely, which made me much more motivated to work than usual. anna, megan and i started out the day by bracing some of the gaps in the ICFs, so that they don't blow out when the concrete is poured. while we were working on this, the rest of the class was unloading the scaffolding so that can be assembled. we need scaffolding because we can only reach to about 5-6 courses of ICFs, while we need them to get up to 13 in some areas. so it will be fun to climb around on scaffolding for a while. for the rest of the day, anna, megan, johanna, denise and i worked in our little corner to screw the bracing to the ICFs--the first step in the scaffolding process. i took control of the drill for the afternoon, because i felt bad for not being on site on saturday. plus we decided that drilling is badass, so that was fun. however, now my hand hurts, and i'm most likely going to have a massive blister tomorrow. oh well.

day fourteen.

anna and i started off the day by taking exact measurements of the building so that the roof trusses can be ordered at the proper size. we then moved on to more ICFing. at least it was super nice out today.

i had to leave early today though, because back when i thought we were going to be able to work friday mornings, i told fleming's that i'd be able to work friday nights. so i had to leave early in order to make it to work on time. it was quite convenient though, because i was WAY unmotivated and didn't particularly feel like doing anything.

day thirteen.

today was the basically the same as yesterday. we were ICFing all day long, and i was once again covered in styrofoam balls by the end of the day. hooray

a lovely window

another lovely window

day twelve.

today it was SUPER cold out, which sucked, but not entirely as cold as i was expecting, so that was nice i guess. and we of course continued working on ICFs, because they have to be ready for concrete next thursday. when we first got on site, we found out that we had to fix some of the ICFs from yesterday, because we never got the memo about having to vertically tie the first two courses together. i thought that was going to take FOREVER, but surprisingly it didn't. so after we fixed everything, we continued working on window placement in the ICFs. it was anna, megan, johanna and i working together again today, and our little corner of the building is coming along quite nicely. yay.

day eleven.

today was quite cold, but at least it was sunny for most of the day. we once again worked on ICFs, cutting them properly for the windows. we then covered the tops of the ICFs we were working on with plastic, so that when it snows tonight, it won't turn into ice, like it did today. this will make it much easier to proceed tomorrow. except HOPEFULLY it will snow/ice a lot tonight, so that class is canceled tomorrow. today i also learned how to use this nifty surveying/leveling contraption, to make sure that the ICFs are level. for the most part they're fine, but we're going to have to finagle a few of them into the right spot.

day ten.

today the weather was beautiful, and we worked on ICFs all day. we started out fixing what was left over to fix from friday. my group squared away all the corners and made sure that our measurements were all correct, so that we could put up the rest of the walls in the proper locations. the rest of the class finished laying 2 courses of ICFs throughout the entire site, so that tomorrow the gtcc boys can start working on windows. our little group then laid a few more courses on the interior fire walls, where there will be no windows. working on the ICFs was kind of tedious, but it also was nice to have something to do for the entire day, and not have to search around for projects. it was also pretty cool, because it started to feel more like a structure, once we had some walls that went above our heads!

today was super nice out, but tomorrow it's supposed to be cold, and possibly snow. ick

and on a side note, the police stopped by the crack house today. it was very anti-climactic, but we're hoping that one day we'll get to see some SWAT drug-busting action...

Megan and Johanna posing with our lovely ICF wall


a mess of ICFs!


looking at our handiwork from atop the dirt mountain.

our perfectly-squared portion of the building