Final Week on Site...

Saturday was spent finishing up some of those BAN/FINs. I need to get more from Robert to work on later this week.

Monday and Tuesday we spend really cleaning up the site. We got rid of all the wood that has been piling up that we cannot use for anything. We cleared tree branched, garbage, brush. You name it, it was cleaned. The site never looked so good. On Friday we have our final review and we need to organize the food, the speeches, and the agenda. I think it would be a good idea to have a slide show of picture going of the things had we done throughout the semester. We all had gotten some really great pictures.

Thursday I worked with Mandy again with the BAN/FINs. First I picked up some from the IARC office that Robert left for me and then I walked over to Mandy's office. They couldnt get the computer running again so I had to use someone else's in the office. Luckily I knew the drill by now and I was able to get things done a lot faster.

Friday is our final review. People brought their sketchbooks. I looked through a few and they did some really nice work on them. They also had the slide show of pictures going which was nice for the parents to see. I was suprised at how many parents showed up and how little students had showed up to see our work. All in all it was a nice critique and it was a little sad to say goodbye. I really liked working on this project and I learned a lot. I will be back later in the summer to see more of the progress. Good luck to the new Urban Studio group!!

But just so you know... WE WERE THE ORIGINAL GUNS ON THE PROJECT!!

Friday April 30 2009

Friday April 30 2009
I worked in the Dean's office with Mandy Cartrette today. It was a welcome change getting off the site for a little while. I love being outside but lately I am so sick of all the rain! I feel like it's been raining for the entire month. However I guess that it's a good thing though considering we were in a drought last year. Mandy showed me how to get the BAN/FIN documents done on the computer so they are nice and neat instead of messy handwritten versions. Apparently we were doing all the codes and invoice numbers wrong when we were doing them in the studio with Robert because Mandy said she pretty much had to redo all of them... which is what I was helping her with. They are not that bad, they are just time consuming. I spent all day Friday on them and was told I would be doing some of them on Saturday and next week.

Thursday April 30 2009

Thursday April 30 2009
I heard that we are getting the concrete for the floor poured in a few days! I will be excited to not see gravel anymore. Today we got started on shoveling out the footings for the North exterior walls. Sometimes I feel like we do things over and over again without thinking ahead. The ditch was already dug for the drainage pipe and Adrian told us to fill it in so we did. If we would have known BEFORE we were filling it back in that we had to dig it out again we would have just not filled in that area. Therefore, we spent the whole day shoveling sticky, smelly, nasty mud out from the footing so we could start the priming. It took forever and we had a good amount of people helping. It was annoying that there were a bunch of people sitting outside the Clubho[us]e with "nothing to do" when we were struggling with the gross mud. I don't know how I always get stuck shoveling. Anyway, we finally finished that job today so no more worries about waterproofing!!
We got to see some of our groups pictures today too.

Wednesday April 29 2009

Wednesday April 29 2009
Most of the soffett is done. There is still a section on the North side that needs to be done but the handrails on the roof are in the way and the trees make it difficult to move around back there. This area is close to the neighbors property and there is a bid ditch that we dug for the drainage pipe as well. Adrian dug the ditch with the excavator and then other people laid the pipe. Once that was finished, Sarah and I got dirt ready to fill back in the area with the shark wheelbarrow thing. This took forever because there is not much room back there so we could only do one load at a time and then safely back the shark up hopefully wihtout getting stuck. Luckily we finished the job today. Adrian said we will have to dig out the area right next to the footing so that we can prime and finished the waterproofing membrance on this side.

Tuesday April 28, 2009

Another gorgeous day although it was really hot again. Today people cut the shapes for the soffett on the North sister's suite and Sarah and I nailed them in. Before we could do this Sarah and I had to remove the handrails from the sloped roof. I did not volunteer to climb up there since I am scared of heights but I held the ladder! This took up most of the day and it was not easy. The trusses from the roof system were not all straight so the soffetts had to be cut and cut again just to wedge them in. Also it was difficult to nail them in at such an awkward angle because we could not seem to get our hammers enough space to hit the nails in under the trusses. I also helped doing some of the cutting with the jigsaw and chiseling for the soffett.

Monday April 27, 2009

Just when I thought we were done with the gravel! Apparently the curtain wall with the mud ramp was not dug out enough. The soil underneath was still really soft and it would not be good to pour concrete over top since it would most likely crack. Adrian dug it out with the big crane thing and then added more gravel... way more gravel than what was needed. So we had to dig out the surplus gravel and then level it out again. Also the other west room, great room, needed more gravel so we added more and then leveled it out again. I think it may be safe to say we are finished with the gravel now. After the gravel Renee and I moved large bundles of wood from the street that were delivered so they would less likely be stolen.

Saturday April 25, 2009

We finished the gravel!!! I never thought it would happen. The hardest room to finish was on the west side in front of the curtain wall. This is where we had to build up dirt so we could create a ramp for several different machines that needed to come in the building. Therefore, we had to dig out the ramp, which was really muddy, and add in more gravel. Everyone took a lunch break but I was not hungry so I finished this room by myself. Today was the hottest day of the year so far in Urban Studio so I was drenched to say the least. Once this was done Megan helped me pump more water out of the ditch on the exterior of the North wall. After this, I went home around 3 and finally had lunch.