day forty six.

today, myself, anna, megan, renee w, and sometimes josh finished shoveling dirt out of the matron suite area. my back still hurt, but it wasn't super sunny & hot out today, so it wasn't as bad. we used the transit to make sure that everything was 2" below the footings. after 2ish hours, it was finished! hoorayy

after this, i helped gabe and some other people lift walkboards up on the rafters, so that tomorrow we can put plywood on the exterior portion of the knee wall. after that, i helped candice, sarah, ashley, denise & johanna put the waterproofing on the foundation. robert helped us for the first piece of it, showing us how to do it properly. then we did one more before we had to leave for the day. the waterproofing is this thick plastic material with sticky stuff on one side, which we attach to the bottom part of the icfs and then the concrete footing. it takes a while to get each one on there so that it's wrinkle-free, and it's quite annoying actually. and now that we know how to do it, i'm sure we'll be doing a lot more, considering we have to do the whole perimeter of the building :)

day forty five.

today, anna, cody, renee w and i worked in the matron suite area to level out the dirt. our little bulldozer didn't fit in there, so we had to do it by hand. the dirt needs to be 2" below the footings, and then there is going to be 2ish" of gravel, 2" of foam, then 4" of concrete. the dirt was much higher than the footings in most places, so we did a LOT of dirt shoveling today. and now my back really hurts. it hurt a bit earlier from carrying all the braces & scaffolding, but today it REALLY hurts. i mean, i need to see a chiropractor now. hopefully we won't have to shovel tomorrow.

also today, anna, ashley & i learned how to assemble a wheelbarrow. the one we started out the day with was on the verge of dying. so josh & robert brought us a new fancy one. it apparently cost $200. who knew wheelbarrows could be that expensive. it did make the process much easier though.

digging.

[photo courtesy of john read]

day forty four.

today = more rain = more shop work. we continued cutting & sanding the 175 rafter tails. some people who stayed longer yesterday left a bit early today. but we were all out of the shop by 3:00 anyway. yayyyy early friday!

day forty three.

once again, it was rainy and gross out today, so we met up at the shop. the first task of the day was to cut the 175 2x6's we picked up the other day for the rafter tails so that they have tapered ends. we were going to use the table saw, but it was making some intensely scary sounds, and adrian decided we need an electrician to look at it. so we made a jig that each piece of lumber can fit into, to be cut with a circular saw. however, we didn't have a circular saw at the shop, so adrian drove down to the site to get it. we also didn't need everyone at the shop because there just wasn't enough work for everyone, so a few of us left early, including myself & megan.

day forty two.

today was cold and drizzly out. ickkk. however, the scaffolding people were coming today, so we had to quickly remove all the scaffolding out of the atrium area. we were expecting to go to GURP afterward, but robert said we were doing such an awesome job that he was giving us the afternoon off. so we were able to leave site by 3.00. it was LOVELY. also lovely: the fact that i will never have to assemble/disassemble/carry/load scaffolding again!

we also had a surprise upon arriving on site today: the gttc boys got all the trusses up! who knew they could work so fast. now with all the scaffolding gone and roof trusses up, it ACTUALLY looks like a house.

merely a fraction of the scaffolding pieces

day forty one.

as expected, megan, johanna and i finished removing the bracing and such from the matron suite area. the part remaining from yesterday consisted of many 2x12's screwed into each other, forming the walkboards. however, almost EVERY screw was stripped, so it was a super bitch to get down. we had to circular saw through some of the pieces, use the reciprocating saw to cut through some of the screws, and beat the hell out of it with some hammers & the crow bar. i got very frustrated and a lot of swearing ensued. but we eventually got it down, without injuring anyone. this was an impressive feat in itself, because our original plan of getting it down didn't work out whatsoever, so we ended up with a very treacherous situation with heavy lumber sitting precariously on only one or two braces. but amazingly, we all survived. i just can't believe it took two days to get everything down. we also of course, had to carry everything to the trailer at the front of the site. then we had to reload many of the pieces that were already on there, in order for everything to fit. and while we were working on the back room, people were getting the scaffolding down from everywhere else on site, except for in the atrium area. so now the site is ALMOST scaffolding free. hoorayyyyy!

a brace-free wall!

day forty.

today, megan and i spent the whole day removing scaffolding & such from the back matron suite area. we got most of it down, except for some areas that didn't have walkboards, but were made out of 2x12s. these were screwed together, but the screws were stripped, and we need a reciprocating saw to saw through the screws. it should be pretty interesting. the reciprocating saw was at GURP, so megan and i drove over there to get it, plus some other things for robert: rakes, shovels, and a water jug. we also got quite an arm workout today, because carrying those braces from the back corner of the site to the front, as well as trying to avoid all obstacles, was quite difficult.

day thirty nine.

today we met on site at 8:00, which is entirely too early. plus it was cold! first, josh & i measured some 2x12's to create a beam up in the atrium area, then we hauled them up on the scaffolding to assemble later (well, josh & cody did...i attempted, but it didn't work out so well) after that, we helped make some more beams to go at the front of the building. we finished up one that cody was working on yesterday, then put it in place. then we nailed 2 more beams together for the rest of it. each beam consists of 4 2x12's that are 8ish feet long, and it required a LOT of nailing. i'm going to have a beastly right arm because of it! so while josh/adrian/robert/whoever were putting those in place, anna, megan, ashley m and i worked on removing all the scaffolding from the living area, so that adrian can get in there with the mini-bulldozer to level everything out. it was nice to continuously have something to do today, which made the 4 hours go by quickly!

day thirty eight.

today we finished up the rafters from yesterday. i sanded a few more that needed to be done from yesterday, then found a new job as the other group had the nailing & such taken care of. so next, i did random things here and there: took down some scaffolding, took some measurements, had a meeting with robert & megan about our progress thus far and a possible summer internship. then, megan, johanna, anna and i helped adrian make a bridge for our mini-bulldozer to get inside the building. there is a small knee wall of about 8 inches at the front, and we helped adrian pack some dirt up there then lay boards over top, creating a nice little bridge. it's a lovely little creation. so tomorrow, we're going to work on leveling out the site some, and/or do some carpentry work!

day thirty seven.

today, anna, gabe and i had an adventure around greensboro, buying and delivering lumber and things. first we went to lowe's to pick up the 175 2x6's robert ordered for the rafter tails. i was the one who calculated how much lumber we needed for this, so i really hope it's right. robert also decided to point this fact out to me by saying 'hey caroline, i hope you calculated right!' ahhh pressure! but i suppose what's done is done, so we'll see how it works out. anyway, we went to lowe's and picked up half the load with gabe's truck, as well as a belt sander, rafter joists and some nails. then we delivered the lumber to GURP, because this is where we are going to cut them. then we headed back to lowe's to get the rest of the lumber. around this time, the people on site were needing the belt sander, nails and joists, so robert met us at lowe's to pick all that up. this is when he looked at the amount of lumber, and remind me how it will be my fault if we need more/bought too much. ahh. we also had quite an experience loading the lumber, as the lowe's people decided it would be better to load the lumber with the forklift. it probably took three times as long to do this as it would have been to do by hand, plus it was almost really bad news for gabe's truck, as they came mighty close to hitting it with the forklift. it was an entertaining experience to say the least. except really, it was really more frustrating than entertaining. but whatever. once the lumber was all situated, we ventured back to GURP to unload it.

also at GURP, we decided to explore the building more thoroughly than we had previously. at first it was cool, because we decided we should make this the next urban studio project and turn this into an awesome iarc shop + housing or something sweet like that. but then gabe made an extremely creepy discovery. first of all, some background info: this building is the former School for the Deaf, but it got shut down a few year ago i guess. so during our exploration, gabe discovered a torture chamber of sorts. seriously. it was a tiny closet, with a peep-hole looking INSIDE, a lock and lightswitch on the OUTSIDE, and no handle or ANYTHING on the inside. plus the interior was carpeted all over. it was seriously horrifying because we suspect they put kids in here to punish them. i want to report the school of the deaf people or something, because this was clearly a very bad situation, and i hope the appropriate people get in all kinds of trouble. or perhaps they already have, and that's why it got shut down. i don't know. but it was crazy :/

so after this, we went back to the site. i helped megan and johanna sand rafters so that the exposed end nice and smooth, and then adrian and some people got started putting them up. they went up VERY quickly, so hopefully we can get them all up before the gtcc boys come back on tuesday, proving to them how awesome we are :)

we're actually starting the roof! finally.

day thirty six.

so today it was BEAUTIFUL out! and even though we were basically doing the same stuff as yesterday, it as seemed much less boring. for pretty much the whole day, megan, anna, cody and i sorted & bundled wood. we also organized the wood that had been randomly strewn about. megan, anna and i also ripped up our ICF creation that was poured with concrete the week before spring break. robert is thinking about exposing the concrete on a wall that will eventually be a hallway, so we were testing out how ripping off the styrofoam would go. it's a bit of a pain in the ass to get it all off, but it would look REALLY cool. the studs stick out, but they could possibly be sawn off, or used to hang up piece of backlit 3-form or something, which i think would be really cool. so we'll see what he decides to do about that.

we also had a little pow-wow today about what's going to happen over the next few weeks. the gtcc boys are [supposedly] putting up sill plates and knee walls so that the roof can be put on. they're going really slowly though, so robert said we may be helping them/taking over kind of. because we need the roof on so that we can pour the concrete slab. so while the boys are working on the roof, we're going to be grading the site, laying the perimeter drain, taking down the rest of the scaffolding, and things like that. and robert has given the boys a deadline for the roof, and i think it's next friday. it'll be exciting to get everything dried in! i feel like the site has looked pretty much the same for the past month, so it'll be nice to have something different and exciting to do!

our lovely wood piles

wood!

exposed concrete

day thirty five.

today was quite boring, but at least it wasn't cold and miserable outside, like it has been for the past few days. we started out the day by taking down the bracing that we borrowed from jason loflin, because he was supposedly picking it up today, but it turned out that he didn't. but that only took a few hours, then after that, people took down more bracing, and i helped remove screws and sort it. then megan, johanna and i helped gabe take down 3 bays of scaffolding from the outside of the building, then relocate it to the other side of a wall so that later we can cut down a tree limb that is in the way of the roof. then we helped move more wood. and most likely, this will all be occuring again tomorrow, because there is still a ton of bracing & scaffolding around the site. how neat.

day thirty four.

once again, it was very rainy today. we all met up in the conference room, and robert talked for a little bit. then we split up into groups to take care of various tasks. one group went to pump water, and thankfully i avoided being in that group. another group went with adrian to finish up some stuff at GURP. and the rest of us, denise, megan, johanna, candice and i, stayed with robert to do some admin type stuff. this involved doing some math, such as calculating plywood needed for the roof, hardiplank for the exterior, and random things like that. i haven't done this much math in YEARS, so it was interesting at first. but it was nice to be able to use that side of my brain once again :)

the conference room + lots and lots of files

day thirty two.

so as expected, we spent today pouring the remainder of the concrete and removing braces & such. we finished getting all the braces and scabs off of the areas that were poured last week, and tomorrow we will take off everything else. hopefully this won't take very long, and we will be able to have an early start to our spring break! we can only hope...

day thirty one.

so we had FOUR entire days of not being on site. it was quite lovely. we obviously anticipated having the weekend off, plus monday because the concrete needed to set. we also got tuesday off though, because the site was covered in snow & ice from the blizzard we received sunday night. so obviously it wasn't a blizzard, but it's the most snow i've seen in quite some time, so it was quite exciting nontheless. it was great to have four days off, however now my brain is in spring break mode, yet we still have a few days left until it actually starts. lame.

anyway, since the majority of the concrete is now poured, we spent the day removing many of the braces and scabs that we spent the last few weeks putting up. it was kind of depressing, because we were taking things down when it seemed that we had JUST put them up like the day bfore. there are TONS of braces & scabs around the site, and we only got about halfway done today. it sucked because the site is super muddy from all the snow & ice, and it was rather difficult and also quite tiring to just walk back and forth on the site. i spent a few hours undrilling things, then a few hours collecting wood and bringing it over to the driveway where we are keeping the lumber. we then removed all the screws and nails from the wood, and sorted everything into lovely piles. it was less than thrilling, to say the least.

megan and i also created a contraption of sorts for robert to test out an idea of his: he apparently wants to somehow remove the styrofoam off one of the walls so that it's reveals the concrete, but we obviously need to test this theory out before hacking into a wall. so with a scrap ICF, megan and i created a little container that he can pour with concrete tomorrow, then see how difficult/ugly/whatever it is to remove the styrofoam. it would be cool to have this concrete wall, but i'm quite sure it's not going to work out very well because of the studs in the ICF. but we shall see.

tomorrow, we are going to finish pouring the concrete and most likely keep removing braces and such. the roof trusses are also supposed to be getting delivered tomorrow, but i doubt we'll start installing those until after spring break. robert also broke the news to us that after spring break, we'll be working a lot of saturdays in order to get everything done. yay.