day seventy eight // four.

today was AMAZING. because today, i PASSED the LEED exam! it was a little crazy, because last night i got sick. and i don't ever get sick. but of course i would the night before the the LEED exam. so i was still feeling nauseous when i drove to the testing place, but i stopped and got some ginger ale to calm my stomach so that i wouldn't throw up in the middle of my exam. THANKFULLY, i made it through without any major incidents. also, the test was WAY harder than any of the practice tests i took. it seemed like i guessed on 70% of the questions, and i was quite certain i was going to fail. however, i got a 184! 14 points above passing! when i went to sign out, the little testing guy told me i was amazing, because not only did i pass, i finished in an hour. so yay! anyway, i was out of the testing place by 10.30, and i was SUPER excited and needed to do something with my energy, so i figured i'd go on site, even though i was prepared to take the whole day off. so when i arrived, i joined the megans to frame a wall. they were mostly done, so i just helped finish it up. then everyone when went on lunch, megan & i put the wall in place & put a top plate on, so now it's good to go! by that point, it was 1.00 and i had to leave to go to work. 

day seventy seven // three.

today we started framing! well technically, framing started yesterday afternoon, but i wasn't around for that. cody, megan, kara, cori, megan m, and i framed three walls for an office and bathroom. most of the pieces were already cut for us from yesterday, so we really just had to assemble it. before today, i wasn't particularly excited about framing, because my experiences so far have been quite frustrating. but framing a full size wall on concrete rather than a tiny knee wall in the grass is completely different. so by 1.oo, we had gotten our three walls up, plumb, square, and attached with top plates & braced. meanwhile, other groups were framing out the matron suite and the large suites. so now the majority of the building is framed out, with the exception of the 3 suites & their bathrooms. it's kind of weird actually, because as ridiculous as it sounds, for the past 4 months i never really thought about the actual rooms... just big open spaces that are supposedly going to be bedrooms & such. anyway, now that framing is almost done, hopefully megan & i can start doing the wiring!

day seventy six // two.

today was a bit rough. i was SUPER tired & had a headache all day. anyway, it took everyone quite some time to get started today, as there were once again new people on site who needed to get situated, plus the rest of us didn't know what needed to be done. we started out the day unloading a truck of lumber. megan & i helped with this for a little while, but there were SO many people and everyone was kind of getting in everyone's way, so we left to join shannon & allison drawing the locations for the interior walls. they did most of this yesterday, but had to finish in the suite area. apparently, the much of the plumbing is a bit off, so the walls needed to be moved & adjusted a bit in places. but it should work.

after this, anna, megan, cody & i, along with a few other 3rd years went to the kitchen area to begin framing! but first, we had to get ready for the ceiling joists. we measured around the perimeter to put the rim joists on, then megan & i cut a few of the ceiling joists before it was time to leave. also today, i seemed to have some issues thinking, and i made a few mistakes. nothing major, but it was still quite frustrating. HOPEFULLY i got it all out of my system today, and things will run smoothly from here on out. we'll see. but around 1:00, megan & i handed off our job to amy & ruby, and hopefully they got everything cut and ready to go for tomorrow! but ideally, the hot knife/knives will arrive tomorrow so that megan & i can get going on the electrical stuff. because framing isn't necessarily my favorite job. but i am REALLY looking forward to wiring the house! 

also, my LEED exam is friday. i am freaking out about it / really ready for it to be over! ughhhh

day seventy five // one.

today was the beginning of summer session / our internship. for some unknown reason, megan & i joined anna and everyone else to work during the mornings at 8.00. i suppose it will be good for me to get up early every day, but this morning was pretty rough. oh well, i suppose i'll get used to it. anyway, we met on site at 8, along with maybe 15 or so of the studio/thesis/whatever people. we gave them a little tour, and then robert talked for a bit about how the summer is going to work. it's a bit strange because people made their own schedules, so some people show up at 9, 10, 12, etc. i'm not sure how this is all going to work in reality, but we shall see. so once we toured everyone around, they went to GURP to check that out. meanwhile, us 'seniors', as robert called us, stuck around to get to work. anna, cody, lauren & josh set up some scaffolding while megan and i got started on electrical stuff! we marked where all the receptacles & switches go, and sometime this week i guess we're going to start wiring it! i'm quite excited about this, because even though i have NO idea how this stuff works, it will be cool to learn and be able to do it. during the last urban studio, 2 girls wired the whole house and passed the inspection on the first try, so megan & i have a lot to live up to i guess! but i'm quite sure we can do it :)

sprinkler system.

marking receptacles with our very sophisticated template.

day seventy four.

today was our last day of real work! the concrete guys finished up the slab while we finished cleaning up the site. also, it was quite miserable for the first hour or so, because it was raining. first we cleaned up the trees/brush/random bushes and stuff that the people on sunday cut down for us. and it basically filled up the entire dumpster. but anna & i got in there and smashed the stuff down a bit, so we could fit more in. we then finished cleaning up wood & miscellaneous things around the site. then for the last half hour or so, we had a group meeting to come up with a plan for our review on friday. so by about 4.30, we were finished! 

megan is so excited to be out in the rain.

day seventy three.

today they poured the concrete slab! well, half of it. and it looks really cool. it's kind of crazy that we have a floor now. and these guys are obviously professional slab pourers, so we stayed out of the building and let them handle it. outside, there was a TON of cleaning up in preparation for our review on friday. right about 1, a huge dumpster came for us to load the trash & wood scraps in. we very quickly filled it up, and the guy came again a bit later to take it and replace it with a new one. we had so much fun rummaging through trash and wood piles, except not at all because there were extreme quantities of earwigs. and i saw this EXTREMELY gross centipede. it was like an inch and a half long, and it was bright red. needless to say, it was creepy & disgusting. and apparently later, once megan & i had left for LEED, a baby mole was discovered in the same pile. he was apparently cute, but i'm not sure i believe that. anyway, we also used some scrap wood to make cornhole! so this summer when we're bored & have nothing to do, we can play [which i'm sure will be never]. but its still pretty cool :)

lauren, josh & wood scraps.

cornhole!

day seventy two.

today was the last saturday on site! yay! today we got everything ready to pour concrete on monday... anna, megan, denise & i hung the doors that we built yesterday. according to robert, hanging doors is the 3rd hardest task in construction, after stairs & counter-sloped roofs. however, anna & i don't believe him. i suppose these maybe weren't so hard because they're temporary doors, but we still put them up pretty easily. after we got all the doors hung, anna & i drilled holes through the doors & the jambs so that we can put rebar in to lock them. we didn't get finished though, because all the drill batteries suck and all died. so i suppose we can finish that on monday. 

elsewhere on site, people finished the rafter tails and decking on the front of the building and putting plywood over the curtain wall openings. so we are ready to pour the slab on monday & tuesday! we will apparently be working to clean up the site while the loflin guys do the slab. and hopefully we can get everything looking nice by the end of tuesday, so that we can have reading day off to play kickball!

the rafter tails are lovely

also, we saw bag-head boy today! we seriously see some crazy stuff going on in the neighborhood, and one such example is this guy who walks around with a bag on his head. today, i decided we needed a picture:

day seventy one.

today was a weird day. first of all, it started POURING outside at like 12.50, just as megan & i were leaving for site. so we didn't really know what to do, so we just went to site to see what the deal was. halfway there, denise called us and said that robert was postponing everything until 2.30, and that if it stopped raining we would go to site then. however, megan had just spoken to renee, who said that half the class was there already, so we figured we'd just go down there and wait the rain out. and of course, by the time we got there the rain had stopped and it was sunny. north carolina is crazy.

anyway, an [us] o1 alum, adam gregory, was there to help us out today. we're getting everything ready to pour concrete on monday, and today the mission was to cover the curtain wall opening with plywood. gabe & some people started this yesterday, and we finished it today. first, we framed the openings and put them in there, then we got started on building the doors for them while another group put some sheathing on. so ashley, megan, cody, anna, adam & i built 6 door, i think. and that was it for today!

also, a few people volunteered to go to site early today to figure out the foam/plastic situation from yesterday. apparently, in some areas by the doors/curtain walls the gravel was too high, so once the foam was on, there wasn't 4 inches left for the concrete. so they had to take the foam & plastic off of those areas and rake the gravel so everything was level. and apparently, it was VERY good that everyone did this, because we wouldn't have passed inspection otherwise. so yay, thanks guys :)