day seventy.

today we had to get all the vapor barrier plastic down, as well as the insulating foam around the perimeter of the building. the inspector is coming tomorrow, and we're pouring the slab on monday, so we had to get EVERYTHING done today. at first it was just cody, anna & myself working in one area, and denise & megan in another, so i was quite concerned that it wasn't going to get done. but then more people joined, and we were able to get it all done. however robert came by at the end of the day and said some of the areas were wrong because the gravel didn't get raked level before the foam was put down, so it should be interesting to see how that gets fixed... 

also, today was super annoying because it seemed that EVERYONE was in a bad mood, including myself. i had a killer headache and was tired, which is not good. i suppose everyone stayed up late finishing our programming documents which were due today, so maybe that's why everyone was in a bad mood. whatever, hopefully tomorrow is better!

megan is having a nap.

plastic + foam + cody

bahahaha!

day sixty nine.

today i worked with candice & ashley to prepare the south side of the big roof for decking. for the past few days, josh & lauren g have been putting up the rafter tails, and we had to do a bit more work before we could put the decking on. first, we cut some plywood to sheath some small areas that aren't going to be exposed from underneath. then adrian & robert did some designing/problem solving on the fly, as we had some issues with the corners and also the tree that required there to be a notch in the decking. so at the corners, instead of mitering the decking so that it creates one smooth corner, we cut it flush with each rafter so that there is a notch at the corners as well. to do this, we had to build another rafter for the corner to support the last pieces of decking. it was a bit annoying, because this whole process took us ALL day, because we had to add a whole bunch of blocking so that everything is supported properly. then at about 5.30, we were able to get the decking started, so tomorrow everything should go pretty smoothly!

completed rafter tails

day sixty eight.

today was another rather boring day. i began by helping cody & anna level out the ditch on the north side, then put the pipe pieces together & putting string through it. then i joined megan, candice, and ashley to cut plywood into soffit pieces and also installing some of them. and that was really about it for today.....

pipe + string + anna

ditch

day sixty seven.

today was a rather boring day. i began by moving wood up to the roof with megan, candice & ashley. we then put a bit more gravel where the wood was, to get it to the right level. next, we moved all the wood out of the interior of the building, because we are apparently pouring the slab on thursday! after this we took an extended water break, as there was nothing really for us to do. megan & i then ventured to the BP for some snacks, and when we got back we cut some blocking for between the rafter tails, then i helped candice & ashley nail them in. surprisingly, today went by very quickly even though i didn't do much. so that was nice :)

day sixty six.

today we got on site at 8.00 as usual, which was actually good because being on the roof in the morning wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday afternoon. cody, anna & i got the rest of the sheathing on the roof, so it is good to go for the green roof guys who are coming on monday. we got done by about 11.00, then anna & i assembled rafter tails for josh & lauren g, who were installing them. then at 12.00, everyone took a lunch break at skippys. and since they take soooo long, we didn't finish our lunch until 1.00, and by then it was time for me to leave to go to work!

parapet wall

rafter tails!

das uber ladder

day sixty five.

today i was expecting to be shoveling gravel once again, but robert sent me to the roof with anna & cody to help get the knee wall finished. at first i was quite excited about this, but i quickly realized shoveling gravel in the shade of the building is so much better than being on the roof when it's 90 out. because it's like 110 on the roof. and because of the extreme heat, we were not very productive today. oh well. we got all the top plates on, and the majority of the sheathing. robert wanted us to get it ALL done today, but oh well. we'll finish tomorrow. 

day sixty four.

so we were ALL on site on time today, as we were prepared for the "event", which we knew involved food. however, it was apparently not occurring until 2, so we got to work shoveling gravel for a bit. robert also informed us that he and everyone are impressed with our gravel work, particularly how quickly we have been getting it done. hooray. 

eventually, 2:00 rolled around, and it was food time! rick boedicker [a construction guy somehow involved with helping us] apparently moonlights as a chef/griller, and he cooked us some barbeque! it was delicious :) as everyone was finishing up lunch, gabe brought out his football and threw it around with cody, and eventually half the class joined in and played a football game in the field beside us. i was super tired, and decided to sit & watch, while semi-napping on a blanket in the grass. it was LOVELY. however, robert ruined our fun and made us get back to work at like 3. so we proceeded shoveling gravel, of course. it's getting tricky too, because we have to get to the small rooms in the back, which involves using wheelbarrows in addition to the sharks. we also have to avoid some plumbing, because the plumbers STILL aren't finished. oh well...we're pouring the slab next week! yayy. 

day sixty three.

megan & i began our day today by going to lowes... last week, she & denise went and did some flirting/charming of lowe's people & the building community at a luncheon [aka: hot dogs] they were having. they apparently entered some contest, and megan won a prize! so we went today before site to pick it up. i was SUPER excited to see what she won, and it turned out to be a turf builder seed spreader. it was not at all what we were expecting, but hilarious nontheless.

anyway, we got to site, and finished building the knee walls from yesterday. then we joined the gravel-shoveling group, as there was nothing else to do. we got all the gravel done in the small suite area, and about half of the huge suite area/hallway done. it looks lovely! and shoveling gravel is deceptively painful. and very annoying. sarah & kaytee used the little shark guys to dump the gravel in the room, and we spread it out so it was level. we also had to use the transit A LOT to make sure that each spot is 2" above the footings. it's quite a pain to get it all level, but at the end of the day, robert said he was very impressed with our gravel-filled rooms. yay!

so after we shoveled gravel for 4 hours, we joined the rest of the group to clean up the clubhouse area around it. it has gotten QUITE crazy, and the clubhouse is a mess. this is all in preparation for an "event" tomorrow, that robert has decided to keep a secret. we know that there is food invovled, but megan & i also suspect that important people will be showing up, since we cleaned everything up. so that will be interesting.

megan & her seeding device!

gravel mountains

transit + shark

day sixty two.

today i once again worked with cody & anna in our lovely green roof area. the mission for today: put up the knee walls we built yesterday on all four sides, to contain the green roof materials: aka more waterproofing, dirt, water, and some sort of vegetation. cody, anna & michael worked on installing the first pieces, while megan, johanna & i cut a lot of plywood for the sheathing. we finished that, and since everyone else was shoveling gravel and i clearly don't want to do that, i went back up to the roof to help install knee walls. they had gotten most of them layed out in the proper locations, so anna & i nailed them in while cody & michael went to build the side ones. anna & i finished that, then took over for cody & michael so that they could put up the edgeband on the front of the ijoists. meanwhile, some ominous clouds were approaching, and it was only a matter of time before we got hit by rain. around 4, it started pouring, so we packed up and had an early afternoon! woohoo!

megan is on the roof!

roof + knee wall + drain

day sixty one.

i began the day today working with cody, anna & renee w in the large suite area to level out the last high spots of dirt. we got part of the way through, then robert sent anna & cody to build a knee wall. so it was just renee and i. a few others joined a while later, but they soon left for some unknown reason. then renee had to go to class. so i finished it by myself. it sucked, but i had the radio so i survived. once i finished, i went and helped cody & anna build the knee walls, which took the rest of the day.

day sixty.

today i once again went to site at 8am. and once again, it was wayyy to early. we all started out the day by digging the ditch on the north side of the building. this is where we initially used the trencher, but it didn't dig quite deep enough, plus all this rain we have been having eroded the sides and more dirt fell in. so we have about a foot and half to dig so that the duke power guys can lay the electrical conduit. however, since this is on the north side of the building, it is still all wet and muddy and gross. and a pain in the ass to dig. so after 20 mins or so of us attempting to dig, robert admitted defeat and we proceeded with our other tasks for the day. cody, anna & i finished up the plywood on our portion of the roof, then cleared it all off and started putting the waterproofing on there. we got 2 strips on there before it was 12.00 and therefore time to leave! another group of people were coming in the afternoon, so hopefully they got all the waterproofing done. that was robert's goal for the day, because its supposed to rain tomorrow night. so HOPEFULLY it all got done and we wont have to pump water inside anymore! yayyyy

also, we have decided to form an [us] air band. the miscellanous plywood scraps/waterproofing tubes make very good guitars/basses/drumsticks, and we had a good time jamming out on the roof. cody especially:

air guitar

day fifty nine.

today I continued working on the roof with anna & cody. this is the green roof area, and since robert has never done one, he wants to make sure that it is super strong. so we put an additional layer of plywood on top of everything we did yesterday. anna & cody cut and measured, while i followed behind them and screwed everything in. robert wanted us to get it done in about 2 hours, yet we spent all day working, and didn't even finish entirely. it was much more time consuming that one would think. anyway, i probably screwed in a THOUSAND screws, and now my back/knees hurt. plus i got more sunburned today, even though i put on sunscreen like 4 times today. i look forward to having crazy tan lines.... 

day fifty eight.

today anna, cody, renee w and i finished putting sheathing on the green roof area! once again, we had to wait until 2:00ish to get started, because the gtcc boys were all up in our way. and once they were finished, they didn't even clean up the area; they left all their plywood scraps and shit in our way, and we had to clear it all off before we could begin. i was very annoyed. and quite close to telling them off for not picking their shit up. anyway, it was super hot today, and i wasn't prepared for it. so i got sunburned, because i only put sunscreen on my face. tomorrow we will be fixing up the front edge because it's a bit crooked, then we'll begin putting the 2nd layer of plywood on!

meanwhile, this is what's been occurring elsewhere around the site over the past few days: putting waterproofing membrane on the roof areas that are done being sheathed, putting up rafter tails, some hardcore grading by professional grading guys & their machines, and putting gravel inside to get ready for the concrete slab!

day fifty seven.

today i helped cody & anna put plywood on the roof area we've been working on for the past few days. at first, it was quite annoying because the gtcc boys were working very near us, and they are very loud, annoying & get in the way. so we didn't make much progress for the first hour or so on site due. once they left, we were good to go, and we got about half the roof done. and it looks lovely!

day fifty six.

i was really hoping it would rain today so that we wouldn't be on site. alas, it stayed cloudy most of the day. there was also a slight shortage of work to be done today, because it was too wet everywhere to do waterproofing. so i spent quite some time in between each task just searching for things to do. this was very annoying, and made the day draggggg on. oh well. so i started out the day fetching things for cody & anna while they were on the roof. i also helped pump water in between fetching things, because being their assistant didn't require very much work. after this, i got to go up on the roof! gabe & i finished leveling some of the rafters and put blocking in. after this, i went up to another portion of the roof to see if they needed any help. they didn't really, but towards the end of the day, gabe & i began adjusting some of the rafter tails by screwing a 2x4 to the top of each of them so that the spacing in between the 2 tails is even.

on the roof.

day fifty five.

today, megan and i finished our [us] picture display in the lobby. first, we went to addams to pick up all necessary supplies. then we delivered the glossy paper to shawn so he could print the last image. while he was doing that, we cut the photos he printed earlier. then we picked up the last image from shawn, mounted & cut it, then pinned everything up in the lobby. it looks lovely. except for the 2nd years' bus shelter is a bit in the way. hopefully it will be moved soon

day fifty four.

today megan & i met robert at his office to work on the pictures some more. we finalized the image we worked on the other day, then put it onto the server for shawn to print off. he started printing the first few pictures, and they look awesome. so then we went to addams trying to find epson enhanced matte paper, but they had none. we also checked at southern photo, and they didn't have any either. nor did anyone know where we could possibly find some. so we went back to site to inform robert of the paper situation, and he said that we can just put that one on glossy paper, to make it special. also, the things currently on display in the lobby aren't going to be taken down until monday, so we'll just wait until then to get the paper, finish printing, and FINALLY display our lovely pictures. yay!

so once we were back on site, megan & i started some waterproofing. this involved using the waterproofing membrane, which is some sort of plastic with SUPER sticky stuff on one side, which we wrap around the footing and up onto the icfs. and it is seriously sticky. i worked with it a bit last week, but only did a few sheets of it and it was in the shade, so it wasn't too bad to deal with. today, however, was quite hot and sunny, which makes the sticky side uber sticky and a pain in the ass to work with because it sticks to itself as well as to people. the good news is that most of the building is done, and i won't have to deal with it much longer!

also, this weekend is easter, which means we have a 3-day weekend! yayyyyy

our final image!

megan & our waterproofing masterpiece.

this is what waterproofing does to skin.

day fifty three.

today, i started the afternoon helping cody, anna & denise fly the last 8 or so rafters. we measured the heights of them and did some shimming so that everything is sloping at the proper angles. then cody & anna worked on putting blocking between each joist, while denise & i made a knee wall to go at the end of the joists. it was a pain, and took the rest of the afternoon.

also, robert really liked the image we created yesterday. he's going to make some minor adjustments to the text, then i'll create a final image for shawn to print!

our knee walls that took entirely too long to build.

day fifty two.

today we all met on site as usual, and i was prepared to work on flying joists up in the entrance/common area. however, robert sent megan, renee w. and myself to the studio to finish formatting the pictures that are to be enlarged. today was the PERFECT day to do this, because it was quite cold & windy out. so we headed back to the studio to get everything situated, as well as get 3 of john's pictures that we are going to use. robert also had a neat picture of the [us] stencil we use to tag everything that he wanted to incorporate with a little blurb about urban studio as well as all our names. however, this picture was quite dark and we couldn't photoshop it so that it looked normal, so we ventured back to the site to take a new picture. robert hasn't seen this yet, but we emailed it to him to get his opinion. so we'll see. john also sent anna a few of the group pictures, and we decided on one to enlarge. i'm not sure how i feel about it, but oh well.

our proposed image

group picture!

day fifty one.

today, cody, anna, denise & i continued working on the front beam to get ready for the I-joists. we finished nailing all the 2x6's we cut on saturday, then put 2 layers of plywood on top of that. then denise & i tacked a few 2x4's onto the other wall, so that the I-joists stay in the proper spot. the joists were shorter than robert expected, but he somehow figured out a way to make them work. i'm not sure, we just followed his directions.

day fifty.

today we met on site at 8am. it was wayyyyy too early. anna and i worked to help robert figure out the roof situation above the entrance/common area. because of the design of the area, each rafter needs to be sloped a bit differently or something in order for it to work properly. i don't really know how to explain it. but anyway, anna and i used the transit to measure the height of the wall at each of the four corners, to determine if anything needed to be shimmed or adjusted. we found out that the beam wasn't quite level, so we took out some of the shims that they put in earlier, which fixed that problem. next, we had to cut some 2x6's in order to build the top of the beam up 4.5", so that the I-joists sit at the right level. we measured and cut all the pieces we needed, but there were no more ladders tall enough so that we could reach up there, and the boys were using both the walk boards up in the atrium. so robert had us build some walk boards that we could put between 2 ladders. we spent probably and hour or so doing that, then we were able to start putting the 2x6's up on the beam. we only got a few up there though, because 1:00 rolled around and it was time to go! it was lovely to do some carpentry work today though, because anna and i have been digging dirt for the past week :/

the beam.

day forty nine.

today, we got to site at 11, because we are way behind and need to catch up. i worked with cody and anna to finish the trench. cody operated the trencher while anna and i assisted as needed. i stood in front and directed cody, so that he wouldn't fall off the boards and into the trench, but also so that he was close enough to the edge so that the blade didn't rip into the boards. we did this until 3:00, when we ran out of gas, and also when john came by to take our group picture. this process took like an hour, but it was highly entertaining. we took pictures in a few spots: up on the rafters, sitting in the windows on the front of the house, and in a doorway. after this, anna, cody and i went to lowes to get more gas, then to finish using the trencher. however, the trench itself is not finished. so much of the loose dirt and soil fell into the trench, and now we have to go back in and dig it all out, so that it's 40" deep. yayyyyy

day forty eight.

it seems as if greensboro is having an identity crisis and thinks it is actually seattle, as we experienced more rain today. and rain is in the forecast for the next day or so. anyway, just a few of us met in the studio today to work on some admin stuff. megan, johanna and i did a bit of paperwork for robert, while candice and denise typed up a schedule of sorts for things remaining to be done. then all of us plus anna, went through the hundreds of pictures that have been taken so far, in order to find 6 really great ones to print out at 24x30" for display in the lobby. there are over a thousand pictures, so it took quite a while. but we found some really good ones that are going to be awesome once they're blown up :)

here are 5 of the 6, 3 of which were taken by kaytee or robert, and 2 by john read, our photographer buddy. the 6th is going to be a group picture of everyone, which hopefully we'll be able to take soon!

photo: john read

photo: john read

day forty seven.

today was pretty gross and drizzly out, but at least it was warm. i helped anna, cody & adrian get started on digging the ditch for the power line. it is on the far side of the building, and the trench needed to be 40" deep. it was pretty tricky because there was a ditch about 3 feet wide and a foot or so deep that the trencher needed to get over. so we took 8 or 9 pieces of 2x10s to create some decking for the trencher. and then we moved them around as appropriate so that the trencher could get to the back and start digging. the trencher was really intense, and cody & adrian both said that it was really weird and awkward to drive, so i was quite content just helping move wood, shovel, and fetch things as needed. but it was fun to watch.